Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth
by Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien

Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth
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Book Summary Information

Author: Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-09-19
ISBN: 0618154043
Number of pages: 472
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Book Reviews of Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

Book Review: Tragically Unfinished
Summary: 5 Stars

Anyone who knows and loves the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, knows that he died leaving most of his work unfinished and unpublished. He was constantly rewriting and rethinking different parts of Middle-earth's history, and has left us with many different questions that will never be answered.

After reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, many readers are amazed and stop here announcing that Tolkien is a true genius (if they even reach this point), but there are some of us who have grown to love Tolkien's work, and embrace every aspect of it with such a lust for knowledge, that we delve deeper into the works of this intricate man. His son, Christopher Tolkien, has made this possible by piecing together and editing his father's massive amounts of work and sorting it out and explaining it all to us, the readers.

Before diving into the twelve book series "The History of Middle-earth," which Christopher has so delicately and perfectly presented, I highly suggest reading this piece of literature, which explains more in depth, smaller aspects of the published writings of Tolkien.

Read Tolkien's last effort at the story of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin, a story which tragically was not finished, and can only be glimpsed at in its rough stages in Volume II of The History of Middle-earth (The Book of Lost Tales 2), and then diverge into the complete "Narn I Hín Húrin," the story of the children of Húrin: Túrin Turambar and Nienor Niniel, two of the most tragic characters in existence in the first section of Unfinished Tales which deals with the first age of the sun of Middle-earth.

The second section of Unfinished Tales is very important for it contains many accounts of events that occured in the second age of the sun, a time that is hardly written about, that is filled with much history and tragedy. Read about the Isle of Gift: Númenor, which the ancestors of Elendil were given and which they lost towards the end of the Second Age, and about it's sixth king: Tar-Aldarion, and his strong wife, Erendis, who wages a battle with the Lady of the Sea for her husband's love in one of the most awesome love stories ever written. Read also about the fate of the Elves who remained in Middle-earth and defied the might of the Dark Lord Sauron until the Last Alliance, in which a tangled history of Celeborn and Galadriel is woven with the story of Amroth and Nimrodel, and the Sindarin princes who ruled the Silvan Elves of the forests of Middle-earth after Beleriand's fall.

In section three read about aspects of the Third Age yet to be covered, like the fate of Isildur who cut the One Ring, to the history of the Riders of Rohan who befriended the failing kingdom of Gondor in their need to the meeting of Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield in an inn within the walls of Bree, a chance meeting which would be vital in the destruction of a dragon which could have ended The Lord of the Rings very differently, while reading about the fate of Theodred, son of Theoden King of Rohan.

Finally, read rare appendices on the stunted Drúedain, the only technical and historical writings on the Palantiri (the seven seeing stones from the West), and one of the most talked about features of Tolkien's writings: the Istari, a race of the Maiar who were sent as emmisaries into Middle-earth (who also became known as "wizards") to drive Men and Elves to good deeds during the Third Age of Middle-earth.

This book is a necessary part of any Tolkien Reader's library and will most likely be read and studied again and again by readers young and old of any profession.

Summary of Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth

A New York Times bestseller for twenty-one weeks upon publication, UNFINISHED TALES is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and further relates events as told in THE SILMARILLION and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
The book concentrates on the lands of Middle-earth and comprises Gandalf's lively account of how he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the story of the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan and the journey of the Black Riders during the hunt for the Ring.
UNFINISHED TALES also contains the only surviving story about the long ages of Númenor before its downfall, and all that is known about the Five Wizards sent to Middle-earth as emissaries of the Valar, about the Seeing Stones known as the Palantiri, and about the legend of Amroth.
Writing of the Appendices to THE LORD OF THE RINGS, J.R.R. Tolkien said in 1955, "Those who enjoy the book as a 'heroic romance' only, and find 'unexplained vistas' part of the literary effect, will neglect the Appendices, very properly." UNFINISHED TALES is avowedly for those who, to the contrary, have not yet sufficiently explored Middle-earth, its languages, its legends, it politics, and its kings.

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