Unfinished Tales

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
File:Unfinished Tales.jpg
Author	J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
Publisher	George Allen and Unwin (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released	2 October 1980 (UK) 18 November 1980 (US)
Format	Hardback
Pages	472
ISBN	0618154051

"They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited 'first chapters'. I have indeed written many."

― J.R.R. Tolkien on writing A Long-expected Party, and his tendency to abandon and revisit his writings.

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (often referred to, and sometimes published, as just Unfinished Tales) is a collection of stories by J.R.R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980.

Unlike The Silmarillion, for which the narrative fragments were modified to connect into a consistent and coherent work, the Unfinished Tales are presented as Tolkien left them, with little more than names changed (the author having had a confusing habit of trying out different names for a character while writing a draft). Thus some of these are incomplete stories, while others are collections of "factual" information about Middle-earth. Each tale is followed by a long series of notes explaining inconsistencies and obscure points.

As with The Silmarillion, Christopher Tolkien edited and published Unfinished Tales before he had finished his study of the materials in his father's archive. Despite its shortcomings in editorial consistency, Unfinished Tales does provide more detailed information about characters, events and places mentioned only briefly in The Lord of the Rings. Versions of such tales including the origins of Gandalf and the Istari (Wizards), the death of Isildur and the loss of the One Ring in the Gladden Fields, and the founding of the kingdom of Rohan help expand knowledge about Middle-earth.

Of particular note is the tale of Aldarion and Erendis, the only known story of Númenor before its fall. A map of Númenor is also included in the book.

The commercial success of Unfinished Tales demonstrated that the demand for Tolkien's stories several years after his death was not only still present, but growing. Encouraged by the result, Christopher Tolkien began to embark upon the more ambitious twelve-volume work entitled The History of Middle-earth which encompasses nearly the entire corpus of Tolkien's writings about Middle-earth.

Contents

Part One: The First Age:

• "Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin"
• "Narn i Hîn Húrin (The Tale of the Children of Húrin)"

Part Two: The Second Age:

• "A Description of the Island of Númenor"
• "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife"
• "The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor"
• "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"

Part Three: The Third Age:

• "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields"
• "Cirion and Eorl and the Friendship of Gondor and Rohan"
• "The Quest of Erebor"
• "The Hunt for the Ring"
• "The Battles of the Fords of Isen"

Part Four

• "The Drúedain"
• "The Istari"
• "The Palantíri"

Editions

• George Allen & Unwin, 1st edition, 1980. ISBN 0048231797
• Green cloth hardcover,1981. ISBN 0395299179
• Unicorn/Unwin 1st Paperback edition, 1981. ISBN 0048232084
• Unwin Hyman, Hardback in dustwrapper, 1st edition 8th impression,ISBN 0048231797
• Unwin Paperbacks, 1987. ISBN 0048232084. Paperback. Cover illustration by Roger Garland.
• Grafton, 1991. ISBN 0261102168. Paperback. Cover illustration by Roger Garland.
• HarperCollins, 1992. ISBN 026110215X. Hardback in dustwrapper.
• HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0261102168. Paperback. Cover illustration by John Howe.
• HarperCollins, 1998. ISBN 0261103628 Paperback.
• HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN 026110215X. Hardback in dustwrapper. Cover illustration by J.R.R.
• HarperCollins for Book Club Associates, 2000. Paperback. Cover illustration by J.R.R. Tolkien.
• HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 026110215X Hardback in dustwrapper. Cover illustration by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Title page

The title page contains an inscription in Tengwar:

In this book of unfinished tales by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien which was brought together by Christopher Reuel Tolkien his son are told many things of men and elves in Numenor and in Middle-Earth, from the Elder Days in Beleriand to the War of the Ring and an account is given of the Druedain, the Istari, and the Palantiri.