Unfinished Tales?

[juicytomatoes]

I currently own a copy of the LOTR books and the Silmarillion. I'm contemplating getting the Unfinished Tales... is it worth the buy?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I'd say if you enjoyed The Silmarillion then yes, it's worthwhile. It's (as the name would imply...) a collection of unfinished versions of some self-contained episodes from Numenor and Middle-Earth. I don't remember exactly which stories can be found in it, and which are from The Book of Lost Tales, the Lays of Beleriand, etc., but if I recall correctly Unfinished Tales is mostly 2nd Age and early 3rd Age stuff (pre-fall Numenor, founding of Rohan, Death of Isildur, that kind of stuff).

The nice thing about it is that you can pick and choose what you want to read from it, and in what order.

[brightblade]

I would heartily recommend it. Lots of really beautiful pieces of writing in it that we would otherwise never have seen. Great to dip in and out of and the notes are interesting too!

[canucklhead]

absolutely. I found that it nicely fleshed out many of the things found in the silmarillion, and was written in a less biblical style.

It is, however, only a good buy if you are really into that sort of thing. If your experience of tolkien is the movies and reading the Hovbbit, then it will be lost on you.

[enyoss]

It might seem obvious, but it's probably worth pointing out that many of the tales really are unfinished or fragmentary.

Several of them go into detail of events in the Silmarillion, without retelling the story as a whole, so either tell only a small part of the tale or finish abruptly as the story was never completed.

If you enjoyed the Silmarillion though I would say it's a worthwhile read.

[juicytomatoes]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. I did enjoy the Silmarillion, so I guess I'll be getting a copy of this