03 January, 2010


Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien

How appropriate, upon doing some research on the author for this review, I discovered that today, January 3, is his eleventy-eighth birthday! Sooner or later, a biography of the sage of Middle-Earth must be added to the ever-growing reading list.

Known by and large for the legendary (in every sense) Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien created and sustained a full universe inhabited by an illustrious, plenary and vibrant mythology. Having read the "core" Tolkien works, which comprise of the previously mentioned two, as well as the posthumously published Silmarillion, one understands with the wealth of tales in Middle-earth, that when the author passed away at the age of 81, he left myriad stories of this world left untold and uncompleted.

While LotR (1954-5) told of the great War of the Ring and its lead-up/impacts in the Third Age of Middle-earth, The Silmarillion (complied throughout a lifetime, and published by his son Christopher in 1977) sets the stage of creation for Middle-earth telling the stories the Valar (gods), the first Eldar (elves) and Atani (men), and their epic struggles of the First and Second Ages. Between these epics of high fantasy, Tolkien establishes a deep mythology and society within his work, beautifully self-consistent and interconnected to a tapestry of pure legend.

This is where Unfinished Tales begins. Not to be taken lightly, I strongly advise approaching LotR and The Silmarillion as prerequisite reading for Tolkien's in-depth work. Compiled in the years following his father's death, Christopher Tolkien has done a marvelous job of stitching together his father's fragmented, scattered, and often illegible notes about the history of Middle-earth. It had been a habit of the late Mr. Tolkien to half-write many stories, often heavily annotated with present and future edits, as he fastidiously combed-over them to discern their final form and their proper place in his legendarium. Scraps of paper, the back of maps, and scattered notebooks left in J.R.R. Tolkien's collection stretching from 1911 to his death in 1973 have been brought together with his son's dedicated work as a marvelous gestalt
which thoroughly textures the vibrant world of Arda.

Absolutely written for a pure Tolkien fan, this book almost demands prior knowledge of the Rings, Númenor, Beleriand, the Valar, and the people therein. I would not fault someone for being put-off by such a request for a reading, but this book may easily pull the reader deeper into the illustrious world and mythology of Middle-earth.

Moreover, for the detail-oriented geek in all of us, the text brings the "origin stories" (or at least the scattered ideas thereof) of several characters known to the Lord of the Rings trilogy such as Galadriel, Gandalf, and even the realms of Gondor and Rohan. For the sake of adding incredible depth to an already-existent world-structure, Unfinished Tales leaves the reader with a sense of having lived throughout the Ages of the world, watching events unfold with the sight of of a palantír and eternity and wisdom of Eru Ilúvatar.

As the title would indicate, however, these are in fact, unfinished. Annotated linguistically, historically, and literately by Christopher Tolkien, far too many of the tales are half-written accounts (despite the editor's best intentions of knowing the mind of his father), leaving the reader eager for a greater account of the legends. If nothing else, the reader finds lament and frustration that the author was unable to fully illustrate his ideas and stories.

One can deeply respect Tolkien for having the courage and talent to demand that readers travel deep into his world, and few authors, are capable of this. Take Tolkien warily, and he will take you on journeys. Despite the frustration of partial (and occasionally contradictory) stories, as well as history and geography demanded on my part, the absolute tolkienist in me looks forward to the twelve-volume Book of Lost Tales. See you then.

Namárië

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