J.R.R. Tolkien: Unfinished Tales of Númenor review

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (the entire name didn't fit to the space it was intended to) is a collection of literally unfinished stories that Tolkien wrote. His son Christopher has put these stories together as a book.

Because of the numerous little stories and hints of information this book is quite incoherent at times and there are lots of appendices, references, footnotes and whatsoever that you stop reading after the first few stories.

Some of the tales are really tales, like Narn i Hîn Húrin, which tells the same story than Silmarillion but in a larger scale. But some of the texts are quite like essays describing the kings of Númenor or what exactly were the Palantíri.

From my point of view, the most interesting parts where the chapters of the Istari and Palantíri. The other ones were mostly unfinished and concentrated too much on battles, who was which king in where, or the geographic stuff.

It was nice to learn more of the Middle-earth, but for this book to be interesting, you really should be a true fan of Tolkien and his works.
/ [Caterin S.]

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