Unfinished Tales

Rating: Rings

November 09, 2003

By JRR Tolkien; Edited by Christopher Tolkien

List Price: $7.50

Ballantine Books

Review by Kara Mueller

I found Unfinished Tales to be a pretty good book. It is more piecemeal than the completed novels, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, which was in progress when J.R.R. Tolkien died. The Silmarillion was pulled together and edited by his son Christopher.

The book is separated into four sections. The first section is the First Age and contains stories on the coming of Tuor to Gondolin and the tale of Hurin’s Children. The Tale of Hurin’s children in touched on in the Silmarillion but this story is much more in-depth and while fans of the Tolkien mythologies know is a tragic tale this version is most complete.

The second section of the book is the Second Age and focuses much on the Numenor. There is a description of the island of Numenor. This section contains the tale of the Mariner’s Wife, which is another great and tragic story among the tales of Middle-Earth. There is a section on various kings of Numenor and a History of Galadriel and Celeborn. I found the history of Galadriel very interesting, and full of information that made events in later tales more meaningful

The third section of Unfinished Tales is the Third Age. This portion of the book contains: The Disaster on the Gladden Fields, a history on the relationship between Gondor and Rohan, The Quest for Erebor, a portion on the hunt for the One Ring, And the Battles of the Rods of Isen, which ultimately lead to the death of Theodred, the son of King Thoden. This section of the book had lots of additional information for fans of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbits to consume and make their enjoyment of the stories that much fuller.

The fourth and final section of the book contains sections on the Druedain (or Wild Men), the Istari (or Wizards) and the palantiri (or seeing stones). This section was also very valuable in adding information to the Lord of the Rings. I was very fond of the story The Faithful Stone and found the history of the Wild Men more colorful than expected. My suspicions about the origin of the Istari were validated in this section of the book as well. And my understanding of the palantiri went up substantially from near zero.

Overall I would suggest this book to any Tolkien fan after reading at least the Lord of the Rings but better to have read the Hobbit and Silmarillion to get the most out of the tales and told in Unfinished Tales. Unfortunately, the stories are unfinished and in a few cases I found myself really wanting more but that’s just the way it goes.

Comments:

it looks like it would be a great thing to read so where did you get it? where can i find it? please let me know

Posted by: roxanne martinez at November 9, 2003 07:43 PM

I've seen it available at many books stores such as Barnes and Noble or Walden Books. You may also click the link at the top of this page which will allow you to order it from Amazon.com (and a percentage of the profit will go to War of the Ring).

Also, you may not find the book published with this same cover, since there are several different editions.

Posted by: Timothy Hopper at November 9, 2003 07:46 PM

That's a great review, Kara. It makes me want to re-read Unfinished Tales. I bought my copy at Walden books for $30.00, it has 20 full color art prints in it, so if you're into art you should purchase that copy of Ufinished Tales.

Posted by: Aravorn Blacksword at November 9, 2003 11:55 PM

I think Unfinished Tales is the best book Christopher Tolkien has edited and J.R.R.Tolkien has written.
It explains everything in much more depth than in the Sillmarillion.
Personally i think my favourite part in the book is 'NARN I HIN HURIN' which means grace to the kin of hurin this is because it has everything in it from pain and sorrow to love and joy.My favourite character in the book is Neinor daughter of Morwen and Hurin sister of Hurin.

I would advice anyone who is into adventure ro read it.

Posted by: Jasmine at December 6, 2003 07:52 PM

This book is just fantastic. It also proves very use full when i was writing a character application for an Rpg for Galadriel.

The history of Galadriel and Celeborn is just wonderful and the rest is fantastic too

Posted by: Gladriel at February 2, 2004 02:15 PM

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