UNFINISHED TALES 'Illustrated by the Author' [SPECULATION]

The above image was created by Astral_Taurus on reddit on the tolkienbooks reddit, so first: many thanks for your work, and posting that. As such it is fanmade and not real. This post is 'for fun and games' only. 

So: the 'illustrated by the author' edition arriving in 2024.

This format began in 2021 with The Lord of the Rings, continued in 2022 with The Silmarillion and will see another release this year with The Hobbit. But ,what about next year? Will The Lord of the Rings get divided into 3 and get a refreshed 70th Anniversary Edition boxed set? (2024 will be the 70th anniversary). Or, would that instead be saved for 2025? Another approach, could be that the next title (if there were to be a 'next title') would Unfinished Tales, arriving in standard hardback and as a slipcased edition.

Many may (rightfully so) decry that there isn't enough artwork for Unfinished Tales to exist in this format. Perhaps, though what may happen is that Unfinished Tales could be a 'collection' of existing artwork that has already appeared in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion; where relevant to that section in Unfinished Tales. The issue, content-to-artwork matching could be for Part 2: The Second Age. There may be enough Tolkien artwork for Part 1: The First Age, and Part 3: The Third Age, but Part 2 may be a bit more tricky to insert artwork into.

Now, it wouldn't be all the artwork from those three titles, but some. For instance, one of the images included in The Silmarillion is of Tolkien's Barad-dur, which also appeared in The Lord of the Rings. It would be neat to see this title come to that format....but could/should it??

So, we'll see that they come up with next - if this format even has a 'next.'



For the sake of fun, here's how I can see a deluxe edition of Unfinished Tales appearing, and some of its features. All hypothetical of course, but fun to think about: 

- The art print would be 'Glorund Sets Forth to Seek Turin'.
- the maps (posters) would be of Middle-earth and Beleriand
- edged in copper or silver
- book and slipcase 'logo' would be Idril's Device/Numenorean tile.
- the ribbon marker would match the 'colour theme' of the book
- the colour theme could be a bronze or copper. Mayve not quite the same shade as used for the first edition's dutjacket but one that's close to it, and would work for a slipcased edition (going well with the book being black, foil stamping, etc).



The standard edition would feature similarly design cover art (using the Idril's Device symbol for the cover) and having the same maps. Not sure what the writing on the edge of the pages could say (if anything) but should be sprayed. The book's dustjacket colour could be brown, similar to the first edition. 

So that's how a matching edition of Unfinished Tales could turn out. It's unlikely that one would exist in this format, though HarperCollins has surprised us a few times in the past (see some of my posts in the past: for when they were written and what they were about) and it would be neat to see an edition match the others. Though it's great that we have the 'main three' in the format.