Rating: 4 stars

This was good, but I absolutely do not recommend the audiobook. In fact, I'd advise against it. Not because the audiobook was bad in anyway, but because of the sheer amount of footnotes that are included. It really grates on you hearing "note number X: blah blah blah end of note" every five seconds in the middle of a sentence. I tried not to let this affect my rating, but I will still have to reread it physically to really confirm.

This is a hard book to rate, because it's sort of like rating a compilation album of Led Zeppelin studio out-takes. If you love Led Zeppelin, you would undoubtedly want to listen to pretty much anything they did. On the other hand, objectively speaking, it's probably not their best work, and if you trust them as artists, you know why they left that material on the cutting room floor. And, indeed, this book is a collection of scrapings, random essays and bits of narrative illuminating obscure corners of Middle Earth.

I will say, though, that Christopher Tolkien deserves some credit for being a very conscientious offspring. Most children either end up hating their parents or thinking of them as basically foolish. JRR Tolkien's son, though is extraordinarily careful to give the exact providence and goes into excruciating detail as to the provenance of every piece of writing in Unfinished Tales. Never does he indulge himself in the slightest bit of irony at the expense of his father, or even hint at any frustration that, just maybe, he could have made his marginal annotations in more legible handwriting. The subtext of the father-son relationship, or lack thereof, might make this an interesting read... unless it actually doesn't. Really, for LotR/Middle Earth obsessives only.

This is a wonderful collection of stories depicting Tolkien’s ability to imagine every single aspect of Middle-earth and everything it could be.
The editing and notes once again show that Christopher Tolkien truly is the leading expert in his father’s work.

A must read for Tolkien fans

Neki dijelovi su bili jako dobri, neki iscrpljujući i dosadni. Nisam prije znala što očekivati od ovoga, ali neke stvari sam čitala po treći put, a neke su samo bile razglabanje o već poznatim stvarima. U redu, ali priznat ću da sam više očekivala.

Unfinished Tales is a collection of essays and short stories from Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It was meticulously compiled by Tolkien's son, Christopher. The book follows a chronological order making its way through three of the ages and containing a fourth section of lore which has no time frame. It is incredible the amount of detail that is in this book and the amazing things from the realm it holds. Each collective topic has an extensive notes and appendix section interlinking and explaining every aspect of the tales.


Each of the sections I thoroughly enjoyed but I will go through some of my favourites:

A description of the Island of Numenor - A thorough description of Numenor including the native flora and fauna that preside there. At the beginning of the passage there is a beautiful map of the island. Tolkien's narration of Numenor is mesmerizing, basically I want to live there.

Aldarion and Erendis - A tragic love story set within Numenor. Aldarion is a future king of Numenor and is torn between his two loves: Erendis and the sea.

The Quest of Erebor - An account of the coincidences that lead to Gandalf becoming involved in this said quest. How did he possess the key and map? How did Gandalf persuade Thorin to take a Hobbit with him on this adventure?

The Istari - An amazing collection of writings by Tolkien detailing the 'Order of Wizards' that Gandalf is a part of.

The Palantiri - A short essay which provides more detail on what the Palantiri were and how they came into the possession of the likes of Saruman.


This is an incredible book and shows how much Tolkien wrote about Middle-Earth and how obsessive he was about details. However, it also shows how this obsessive nature was also a curse as Christopher continually has to apologise for errors and contradictions. He provides dates for information to try and deduce which section should be trusted more. It is unimaginable to think what more Tolkien had in store for Middle-Earth. But sadly, that is something we will never know.

Unfinished Tales is an incredibly heavy and long read but is definitely well worth it for those who desire more from the Middle-Earth universe.

I'm ashamed of how long it took me to finish this...lol...

To be absolutely honest I have only read the second age part about Galadriel cause I am just eager to learn more about her rights and wrongs, I will definitely come back to the book to finish the other parts as well at some point. Amazing 12/10 it has a vibe of a scientific paper and summary of Prof jirt’s essays and notes and i absolutely love the contradictions he’s left in the many of them. He really just said if you have a pure heart and a dream you too can take part in the middle earth lore creation. Absolutely love the fact that Galadriel hated Fëanor with burning passion, love the vague Sauron Galadriel meet up insinuations, and I am so confused about the Celebrimbor love confession but I guess it do be like that sometimes (everyone being obsessed with Galadriel)

I can't believe I've never read this before! I would recommend this to anyone who's read the Silmarillion and is interested in more history of Middle-Earth. I say the Silmarillion because there's a lot of assumptions that the reader is familiar with the Valar, the Blessed Realm, and the general events of the First Age. You don't need to remember the details, but at least the basic narrative. Alternatively, if you just want more info on events of the Third Age, which is when the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit take place, you could skip the first two sections and just read the third and I don't think you'd feel lost.

This book is divided into three sections. Each one covers an age in Middle-Earth. The First Age only has two stories, the first of which is definitely "unfinished." It's about Tuor, an Elf-friend (and grandfather to Elrond, FYI) and the fall of Gondolin, the hidden Elvish kingdom. It's a great story that is told in brief in the Silmarillion. Here, it goes into much greater detail... but also stops before Tuor ever made it to Gondolin! Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien's son and editor of this book, only supplies what his father wrote. He adds footnotes and fragments that he can find, but it's definitely unfinished. As it was the first story in this book, I got worried that all of them would be like that: a structured narrative working to an exciting climax only to abruptly end. Luckily, that was only the case a few times.

The only other story from the First Age is the tale of the children of Hurin, also told more briefly in the Silmarillion, but also recently it received its own standalone book treatment, so it hardly belongs in here. However, Christopher Tolkien offers lots of versions of different parts of the text, so you really learn a lot about the evolution of the story, which is focused on Turin (Tuor's cousin!) and his doom. It's a sad story.

The second section is about the Second Age and focuses on Numenor, the island where come the Kings of Gondor and the Dunedain. The main story also ends somewhat abruptly and is sad in nature, but again, Christopher Tolkien outlines how it may have ended.

There's also a lot of contradictory writings about Galadriel and Celeborn, and it seems Tolkien never made up his mind on what their history definitively was.

The Third Age has a lot of interesting stories, including the history or Rohan and their friendship with Gondor, details of battles only briefly mentioned in the Lord of the Rings, the powers of the Nazgul, the five wizards and their origins, details about the palantirs, and more. These felt more complete, maybe because they weren't plot driven, but just interesting info.

Loved it and will reread it.

Wow, that was a long one. It’s Tolkien though, so I was expecting that.

A fascinating look at many of the stories that did not make it into Professor Tolkien's primary works. This is probably one of my favorite books of this well-known mythology.

I think my favorite part of this book is the chapter concerning the history of Galadriel and Celeborn. Tolkien clearly had many different ideas for their origins, and it's utterly fascinating to see those ideas laid out. It also makes a person wonder what he ultimately would have laid down for them. The Silmarillion gives us one version, but it seems that it was by no means meant to be the final word.

Additionally, I greatly enjoyed the chapters that focused on Numenor and its inhabitants. The story of Aldarion and Erendis is so tragic, and the descriptions of their daughter Ancalimë remind me a great deal of Elizabeth I. Given how well-versed Tolkien was in history, I doubt that resemblance was coincidental.

Definitely worth the time of any fan of Lord of the Rings and its world.

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien is a collection of stories that further relate to the events in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings and tells more about the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring.

I loved reading Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth as I hadn't read this book before. It added to the stories that I am already familiar with. This is a great addition for collector's of Tolkien's work.

3,5/5 stars

This collection suffers a bit of the fact that the quality is a bit uneven and that the stories are well unfinished ( some stories were never finished, others have different versions,...). It contains narratives about a lot of different subject and some are more interesting than others. In general for me were the longer parts, in most cases real stories the best parts. Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin, Narn i hin Hurin ( though inferior to the better version in The Children of Hurin), The Mariner's Tale and the history of Galadriel and Celeborn were good to great reads and have a lot of value. The other parts were shorter and wree tbh more Encyclopedia entries. Not uninteresting but hardly rivetting literature. This book is kinda between the Silmarillion and the Appendices of LotR and I would mostly recommend it to people who are interested in Middle Earth and it's worldbuilding or don't mind unfinished stories .