The Fireside

  40 years ago today marks the publication of Unfinished Tales (sometimes titled as Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth ) . It's written by Tolkien, and edited by Christopher Tolkien. It is the last of my 'Middle-earth essentials' (the other being The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion ). The book expands upon aspects of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion that go well with those stories. With the way that Unfinished Tales is presented, it can sort of seen as 'an extended appendix.' Note, that doesn't mean that this book REPLACES the Appendices in The Lord of the Rings . I've always wondered where each chapter of what is known as Unfinished Tales today WOULD have fit in, had they been included in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion . The chapter The Quest For Erebor, for instance, would most likely have been in The Lord of the Rings , as part of one of the Appendices. The work was also the very beginning of the ...

At long last, HarperCollins has revealed the cover art for the upcoming 40th anniversary illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales . As you can see from the above image, it'll 'match', design and measurement-wise with The Great Tales books ( The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin ) and the forthcoming new editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (as 3 books). There will be a slipcased collector's edition as well, though no image for that one yet. I was hoping that the above image ("The Blue Wizards Journeying East" from Ted Nasmith) would be used for the cover, going by the fact that it will be used for the 2021 Calendar. I still like the Alan Lee cover art, though I guess I got my hopes too high. Expect this edition to come out October of this year. US fans, yes, you'll be getting it as well, though from Houghton Mifflin. Here's the info for the standard edition. I'll provide it again on publication day, as the ...