# Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien



## Werthead (Dec 20, 2011)

Upon  his death in 1973, J.R.R. Tolkien left behind a vast collection  of writings about Middle-earth. His third son and literary executor,  Christopher, assembled some of these into _The Silmarillion_,  published in 1977, but the question about what to do with the other  reams of material was unclear. Aware that fans of Middle-earth would be  eager for more material, even unfinished or existing only in rough  drafts, he assembled _Unfinished Tales_ and published it in 1980. Its success inspired him to proceed with the far more ambitious, twelve-volume *History of Middle-earth* project.

_Unfinished Tales_ occupies an awkward place in the Tolkien canon. Unlike the *History*  series, which consists of almost exclusively non-canon material (early  drafts and rough notes of material that was eventually finalised and  published), the material in _Unfinished Tales_  was specifically written by Tolkien to flesh out other parts of his  mythos that were not explored in the books themselves. In particular,  the writings include a series of essays which were designed to answer a  wide number of issues brought up by readers of _The Lord of the Rings_ and _The Hobbit_  in correspondence. Some of these essays were written very late in  Tolkien's life and represent his last - and often only - word on  subjects such as the origins of Gandalf and his fellow wizards, the  backstory of Galadriel and the history of Numenor during the Second Age.  As a result some fans hold _Unfinished Tales_ to be the fourth Middle-earth book, only marginally less important than _The Hobbit_, _The Lord of the Rings_ and _The Silmarillion_.  Others choose to disregard it as anything more than a curiosity, since  as Christopher Tolkien himself notes it's unlikely J.R.R. would have  permitted even the completed writings in the book to be published  without more polish.

Unlike _The Silmarillion_, which was presented as a single narrative, _Unfinished Tales_  is a collection of stories and fragments intermingled with Christopher  Tolkien's editorial notes. These are kept to a minimum in some of the  stories and essays, but in others are much more prevalent (something he  apologises for, but regards as necessary in the case of works where his  father was working on several drafts simultaneously, risking confusion  to the reader). Christopher's notes are fascinating, well-written with a  clear eye for detail and minimising confusion. He assumes the reader is  already familiar with the Middle-earth mythos (since they're unlikely  to be reading this book otherwise) and is able to delve into various  topics in depth. Whilst he clearly loves and respects his father  immensely, it is also amusing to detect the vague frustrations that  creep into his notes, most notably when trying to fathom why Tolkien  abandoned particular narratives at key points (feelings the reader may  share as the book unfolds).

The first story is 'Of Tuor and His  Coming to Gondolin'. The story of Tuor's arrival in Gondolin and the  events leading to the fall of that city in the War of the Jewels was the  first story Tolkien ever wrote set in Middle-earth, and is still one of  his most memorable narratives. However, the version in _Unfinished Tales_ was written much later, in 1951 (the much more complete original can be found in *The History*  series), featuring a more conventional prose style than the archaic  original. It's stirring, epic stuff, featuring some great imagery as  Tuor is confronted by the Vala Ulmo, Lord of Waters, and has a great  destiny laid before him. The story proceeds with power and momentum  until it abruptly halts just as Tuor reaches Gondolin itself. Even with  the earlier version available and a much more compressed account of  events readable in _The Silmarillion_, this is still a frustrating moment.

The  second story is 'The Tale of the Children of Hurin', a much longer  story (almost a hundred pages, taking up a quarter of the book)  featuring the adventures of the doomed, tragic Turin. Unlike the story  of Tuor, this tale is more or less complete, though somewhat complex due  to competing drafts and different versions existing. Many years later  Christopher used this material (along with some other, later unearthed  manuscripts) to form the basis of _The Children of Hurin_,  so if you already have that book be aware that you will find much of  this material familiar. But still, it's a powerful story, the darkest  thing Tolkien wrote set in Middle-earth, featuring lust, incest (though  unwitting), war and the 'hero' bringing death and ruin to all those  around him.

The next section of the book moves into the Second  Age of Middle-earth, which Tolkien left somewhat vague and  under-developed compared to the First Age (covered in _The Silmarillion_) and the Third (the setting for _The Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_).  We start off with 'A Description of the Island of Numenor'. For fans of  worldbuilding, Tolkien's description of the island empire and the  accompanying map will be fascinating. However, it's the following story,  'Aldarion and Erendis', which is more intriguing. It depicts the  marriage of the noble lady Erendis to Aldarion, later King of Numenor,  and touches on larger aspects (such as Aldarion's re-opening of  relations between Numenor and the elves of Middle-earth), but for the  most part it's a strong character piece. For those who claim Tolkien is  overly-romantic, this account of a failing relationship due to outside  pressures (Aldarion's lengthy absences from home) is surprisingly  realistic. The story breaks off towards the end, although this is more  of a relationship study than a tense narrative, so is less grievous a  loss than some of the other texts in the book.

Tolkien follows  this up with an account of the Kings of Numenor and the major events of  their reigns. This is again primarily of interest to worldbuilders, but  Tolkien manages to put in some great details and elements that could  have been mined to produce further stories, but sadly it was not to be.  This is then succeeded by an account of the history of Galadriel and  Celeborn, something that _Lord of the Rings_  fans will be more interested in, but frustratingly is also the most  'unfinished' of all the works in the book. Tolkien conceived of several  competing, but radically different possibilities for the couple's  backstory and reached no firm conclusions before his death, leaving  several versions which are mutually contradictory. Christopher Tolkien  suggests appreciating these contradictions as part of the literary  effect of having a fictional history and mythology, which may be the  best approach. Even in their differences, these versions reveal more  fascinating information on Sauron's activities in the Second Age and  characters briefly mentioned in _Lord of the Rings_, such as Celebrimbor, Nimrodel and Amroth.

The  final sections of the book deals with the Third Age and consists mainly  of finished essays and narratives, though in some cases with competing  drafts which the editor takes pains to clarify. This section begins with  an account of the Battle of the Gladden Fields (the engagement where  Isildur lost the Ring), here revealed to be a much larger conflict than  the brief skirmish suggested by _Lord of the Rings_ and depicted as such in the films (by necessity, since Peter Jackson did not have the film rights to _Unfinished Tales_  he could not use the account of the conflict here). He follows this up  with the history of the Rohirrim, the development of the relationship  between the Rohirrim and people of Gondor, and the founding of Rohan  itself, again depicting worldbuilding information through a story (here  the friendship of King Cirion of Gondor and Eorl, founder of Rohan).

This is followed by sections fleshing out _The Lord of the Rings_.  'The Quest of Erebor' explains how Gandalf came to join forces with  Thorin and the dwarves and how he convinced them to recruit Bilbo  Baggins to join their quest. This was actually a chapter from _The Lord of the Rings_, written as part of Tolkien's attempts to better-connect _The Hobbit_  and the later work, but was wisely exorcised for killing the pace of  the novel (it was supposed to be a discussion between Gandalf and Frodo  between the victory over Sauron and the Scouring of the Shire, where it  would have been ill-suited). However, as a stand-alone narrative it's a  valuable - and enjoyable - asset in clarifying the relationship between  the two books. This is followed up by 'The Hunt for the Ring', a  detailed account of how the Ringwraiths set out in search of the Ring  after losing track of Gollum (who had been captured by Aragorn). Though  rather brief, this short piece does feature a memorable confrontation  between Saruman and the Witch-King of Angmar. Rounding off this section  is 'The Battles of the Fords of Isen', revealing in detail the battles  fought by Rohan against Isengard on the Isen (alluded to but unseen in _The Lord of the Rings_). Again, it's not essential but does help flesh out a side-element of _The Lord of the Rings_.

Rounding  off the book are three complete essays on three separate topics. The  first expands on the Druedain or Woses, the wood-men who help the  Rohirrim bypass Sauron's armies to reach the Pelennor Fields. Tolkien  reveals in this essay that he was considering giving the Druedain a much  bigger role in the backstory of Middle-earth, and even have them  playing a role in _The Silmarillion_,  but passed away before this idea could be fully fleshed-out. The second  discusses the Istari, or the order of wizards that Gandalf, Radagast  and Saruman belong to. We learn the names of the other two wizards who  vanished into the east (Alatar and Pallando) and some interesting  backstory emerges here. The third and final essay delves into the  Palantiri, the magical seeing-stones which play a major role in _The Lord of the Rings_.  This is atypical Tolkien, since normally he preferred to leave the  magical elements of his world vague and mysterious, but here he delves  into the capabilities of each palantir with the kind of magic  system-building enthusiasm we now see with writers such as Brandon  Sanderson.

_Unfinished Tales_ (*****)  is a fascinating book, representing a collection of writings by the  most influential fantasist of all time extending over thirty years. Many  of the individual stories and essays are excellent, certainly all are  interesting and the only complaint that can be made is that several  break off with no resolution. But then the book does tell you that on  the cover, so it's hard to hold that against it. _Unfinished Tales_ is available now, in numerous editions, in the UK and USA.


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## Stephen Palmer (Dec 21, 2011)

That's a great review! Nice 1.

I bought _Unfinished Tales_ when it came out, and really enjoyed it. JRR was and always will be the first and the best...


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## Werthead (Jan 2, 2012)

Cheers. Not sure what's going on with the ebay links in the review, as they weren't there when I first posted this. Hmm.


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## svalbard (Apr 3, 2012)

Great review, Werthead. Not too sure why, but this was always my favorite Tolkien book(next to The Hobbit and The Fellowship). 

If memory serves me right there is an extended version of the Battle of the Fords of Isen, where Theodred(sp) met his end. In the Director's Cut version of The Two Towers Jackson shows the result of the battle, where Eomer recovers the body of Theodred from the river, but as for reasons mentioned above not the battle itself.

Maybe it is my reading of the Lost Tales, but I have always thought that Theodred was a lost hero in the making of Eorl or Helm.

Anyway great review.


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## Boaz (Nov 6, 2014)

Werthead said:


> _Unfinished Tales_ (*****)  is a fascinating book, representing a collection of writings by the  most influential fantasist of all time extending over thirty years. Many  of the individual stories and essays are excellent, certainly all are  interesting and the only complaint that can be made is that several  break off with no resolution. But then the book does tell you that on  the cover, so it's hard to hold that against it.


Absolutely.  Comparing the narratives, espeically the versions of Turin, to _The Silmarillion_ gave me great enjoyment back in the eighties.  The information on Rohan was also particularly interesting.


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## BAYLOR (Dec 1, 2014)

Boaz said:


> Absolutely.  Comparing the narratives, espeically the versions of Turin, to _The Silmarillion_ gave me great enjoyment back in the eighties.  The information on Rohan was also particularly interesting.



I read  Silmarillion 25 years ago. Magnificent book.


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## Anne Spackman (Mar 31, 2015)

I used to read through this book as a child.  I liked to pick and choose some of the stories.  Tolkien's world was vividly described and detailed.  I really enjoyed the language and style.


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