Unfinished Tales

By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien - editor

Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West

JRR Tolkien’s legacy of short stories which inhabit the realm of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, on audio for the first time.

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 provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century’s most acclaimed popular author.

The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth and comprises such elements as Gandalf’s lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, 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.

Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall, and all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards, the Palantiri and the legend of Amroth. The tales were collated and edited by JRR Tolkien’s son and literary heir, Christopher Tolkien, who provides a short commentary on each story, helping the reader to fill in the gaps and put each story into the context of the rest of his father’s writings.

©1980 The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien (P)1980 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Another monument to the incredible imagination of Tolkien." (Sunday Telegraph)

"Moments of mythic grandeur." (Sunday Times)

Editorial roadblocks

All the information one who loves to live in Middle Earth desires to fill in many gaps however, in The History of Galadriel and Celeborn, I wish C.Tolkien would have simply placed all the editorial comments and embellishments at the end as they are hard to mentally smooth into the story as one listens because they just seem to be interruptions like a car horn or siren when one is trying to nap. The puzzling thing is that there are extensive appendices to this segment already!! One does soldier on however when one loves something so.

Great for Tolkien Nerds

I really enjoyed this, it’s far more palatable than the Lost Tales, and answers lots of questions you might have about little details of the history of Middle Earth. The reading was excellent, and really helpful for understanding pronunciations.

A strong familiarity with both LotR and The Silmarillion is required to understand anything in this book; I highly recommend rereading both of them before and after listening to this. Enjoy!

For lovers of Tolkien’s universe.

If you love Tolkien’s universe, this is a must read.
If you haven’t read hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion, read those first.

Great voices, wonderful organization

It’s no easy thing to convert a book with footnotes into an audio, but the team at work here did a wonderful job. Also the readers’ voices are among the best I’ve ever heard.

Untangling Tolkien's web.

The 2 narrators' voices give an unimagined depth and clarity to a work that I struggled to read, in my singular voice. Highly recommended for Tolkien scholar fans on a deep dive.