1980 collection of unfinished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
Cover of the first edition. It features Tolkien's drawing of a Númenórean helmet.
Editor
Christopher Tolkien
Author
J. R. R. Tolkien
Illustrator
Christopher Tolkien (maps)
Cover artist
J. R. R. Tolkien
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Subject
Tolkien's legendarium
Genre
Fantasy
Publisher
George Allen & Unwin
Publication date
1980
Media type
Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
ISBN
9780048231796
Preceded by
The Silmarillion
Followed by
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.
The collection received a cautious welcome from scholars and critics. They noted Christopher Tolkien's warning that a good knowledge of the background was needed to gain much from the stories. Others noted that the stories were among the best of Tolkien's writing; Warren Dunn expressed a wish for the whole of the history in such a format. The book, with its commentary, was commercially successful, indicating a market for more of Tolkien's work and leading to the 12-volume The History of Middle-earth.
On "The Quest of Erebor" in Part Three, Christine Barkley comments that the perspective is the knowledgeable Gandalf's, contrasting sharply with the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins's narrower point of view in The Hobbit. Peter Jackson made use of the story to enrich the narrative for his 2013 film The Desolation of Smaug.
UnfinishedTales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but...
Appendix A of Tolkien's 1955 novel The Return of the King, and in UnfinishedTales. Commentators have noted that Thorin is Old Norse both in name and...
). UnfinishedTales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1984). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales. Vol...
history is summarised in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and UnfinishedTales. Saruman is one of several characters in the book illustrating the...
briefly in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and UnfinishedTales. His role in Tolkien's writings is so slight that it has been described...
legendarium. He is mentioned in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and UnfinishedTales. He was the father of Isildur and Anárion, last lord of Andúnië on...
posthumously in The Silmarillion, The History of Middle-earth, and UnfinishedTales. Scholars have noted that the Valar resemble angels in Christianity...
Thomas Love Peacock (18 October 1785 – 23 January 1866) was an English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company. He was a close friend of...
Silmarillion, UnfinishedTales, and the twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth which included The Book of Lost Tales. Prologue The Original Tale The Earliest...
The Lord of the Rings, and appears briefly in The Silmarillion and UnfinishedTales. The character has appeared in adaptations of The Hobbit in other media...
writings. She appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and UnfinishedTales. She was a royal Elf of both the Noldor and the Teleri, being a grandchild...
all his foes had been overthrown, and orcs attacked him there. In UnfinishedTales Tolkien gives a fuller account, writing that Isildur was ambushed on...
the idea. Tolkien's posthumous works, including The Silmarillion, UnfinishedTales and The History of Middle-earth offer further glimpses of the creation...
of the battles with the Wainriders and the Balchoth (published in UnfinishedTales). Tolkien describes an early population of elves in the Dol Amroth...
). UnfinishedTales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1984b). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales. Vol...
mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and UnfinishedTales. Frodo is repeatedly wounded during the quest, and becomes increasingly...
OCLC 519647821. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). UnfinishedTales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. Wikimedia Commons...
another posthumous collection of his father's unfinished work, appropriately entitled UnfinishedTales. Between 1982 and 1996, he published twelve volumes...
Gladden Fields where Isildur had been killed. "The Quest of Erebor" in UnfinishedTales elaborates upon the story behind The Hobbit. It tells of a chance meeting...
father's The Lord of the Rings. Outside his father's unfinished works, Christopher Tolkien edited three tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (with Nevill Coghill) and his...
Global Information