Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth

by Tolkien, J. R. R.

• ISBN13: 9780618154043
• ISBN10: 0618154043
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-19
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

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 Numenor 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.

Author Biography

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but even as he studied these classics he was creating a set of his own.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(16)
PART ONE : THE FIRST AGE
Of Tuor And His Coming To Gondolin	17	(40)
Notes	51	(6)
Narn I Hin Hurin	57	(108)
The Childhood of Turin	57	(8)
The Words of Hurin and Morgoth	65	(3)
The Departure of Turin	68	(8)
Turin in Doriath	76	(9)
Turin among the Outlaws	85	(11)
Of Mim the Dwarf	96	(8)
The Return of Turin to Dorlomin	104	(5)
The Coming of Turin into Brethil	109	(3)
The Journey of Morwen and Nienor to Nargothrond	112	(9)
Nienor to Brethil	121	(4)
The Coming of Glaurung	125	(7)
The Death of Glaurung	132	(8)
The Death of Turin	140	(6)
Notes	146	(4)
Appendix	150	(15)
PART TWO : THE SECOND AGE
A Description of the Island of Numenor	165	(8)
Notes	171	(2)
Aldarion And Erendis: The Mariner's Wife	173	(45)
Notes	212	(6)
The Line of Elros: Kings Of Numenor	218	(10)
Notes	224	(4)
The History of Galadriel And Celeborn and of Amroth King of Lorien	228	(43)
Notes	252	(4)
Appendices (Appendix A, The Silvan Elves and their Speech	256	(1)
Appendix B, The Sindarin Princes of the Silven Elves	257	(3)
Appendix C, The Boundaries of Lorien	260	(1)
Appendix D, The Port of Lond Daer	261	(5)
Appendix E, The Names of Celeborn and Galadriel	266	(5)
PART THREE: THE THIRD AGE
The Disaster of The Gladden Fields	271	(17)
Notes	278	(7)
Appendix (Numenorean Linear Measures)	285	(3)
Cirion And Eorl And The Friendship of Gondor and Rohan	288	(33)
The Northmen and the Wainriders	288	(7)
The Ride of Eorl	295	(5)
Cirion and Eorl	300	(8)
The Tradition of Isildur	308	(2)
Notes	310	(11)
The Quest of Erebor	321	(16)
Notes	326	(1)
Appendix (Notes on the texts, and extracts from the earlier version)	327	(10)
The Hunt for The Ring	337	(18)
Of the Journey of the Black Riders according to the account that Gandalf gave to Frodo	337	(4)
Other Versions of the Story	341	(7)
Concerning Gandalf, Saruman and the Shire	348	(4)
Notes	352	(3)
The Battles Of The Fords of Isen	355	(22)
Notes	364	(2)
Appendix	366	(11)
PART FOUR
The Druedain	377	(11)
Notes	384	(4)
The Istari	388	(15)
Notes	400	(3)
The Palantiri	403	(13)
Notes	411	(5)
Index	416