RUMOUR: The first 1-2 seasons of LORD OF THE RINGS: THE SECOND AGE have cost almost half a billion dollars

The Hollywood Reporter has indicated that the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel TV series, The Second Age*, has cost almost half a billion dollars so far. In fact, they put the figure at $465 million.

The Reporter is pretty reliable in these matters, but I've filed this under "rumour" because the source is the New Zealand government and they did not precisely break down the costs involved.

We know there are eight episodes in each of the first two seasons of the show, and the first two seasons have been commissioned together and completely written. There were also reports a while back that the LotR team were shooting up to 20 episodes in the first extended filming bloc (which began in February 2020 and is expected to continue for several months to come, although there was an extended break last year for writing), which some took to mean they were filming the first two seasons - 16 episodes - back-to-back, which makes sense. As a result, the cost may be spread across two seasons rather than one. This is backed up by a Reuters report where they learned that Amazon was earmarking $500 million for the first two seasons in combined production and marketing costs.

Back in 2017, it was widely reported that Amazon had paid $250 million to the Tolkien Estate for enhanced rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's books not previously covered by any prior deal, now believed to consist of all Numenor and Second Age-related material in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Amazon had also tapped Warner Brothers and their subsidiary New Line to cooperate on the project, giving them access to the Lord of the Rings rights (used previously to make Peter Jackson's 2001-03 movie trilogy). It was reported that Amazon would be spending up to $150 million per season on five seasons of the series, for a total expenditure of $1 billion.

This new report indicates that that ceiling will be hit considerably sooner than expected. Assuming the costs are indeed divided between two seasons, that would make the cost of each season around $232.5 million, or $29 million per episode. The previous most expensive TV show of all time was either HBO's The Pacific, which cost over $20 million per episode, or Disney+'s currently-airing Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with a reported budget of $25 million per episode, although these are both classified as mini-series. The most expensive ongoing TV show of all time is HBO's Game of Thrones, where the budget reached $16 million per episode in the final season.

This would easily make Lord of the Rings: The Second Age the most expensive TV show of all time, if not quite by as much as some people are saying. However, if the original quote was correct and those costs are just for the first season, the first eight episodes by themselves, then obviously they would rocket up to insanity: $465 million for the season, or $58,125,000 per hour. Each of the three Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies had a budget of around $90 million for three hours, for comparison.

Lord of the Rings Colon Undisclosed Subtitle is currently shooting in New Zealand and expected to air on Amazon Prime Video, probably in early 2022.

* My placeholder title to stop people constantly asking why they're remaking the movies, which they're not; not the likely final title of the series.

Amazon LORD OF THE RINGS maps hint at a new setting and a possible UNFINISHED TALES licence

Amazon has been drip-feeding a series of maps and tweets related to their upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel TV series, suggesting that they may have decided to take the show in a radically new direction and may have acquired the rights to Unfinished Tales along the way.

Most previous reports had suggested that Amazon's project would be set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and would focus on the adventures of a young Aragorn. However, Amazon's maps suggest that the story could be set considerably earlier.

The first clue was on the second map released (after the first, blank one), which named the major regions of Middle-earth but left the Shire, Gondor, Arnor and Rohan off the map. Most tellingly, the map features "Calenardhon," the ancient name for the lands south and east of Fangorn that later became the kingdom of Rohan. The presence of "Calenardhon" immediately suggests a setting prior to the founding of Rohan in the year 2509 of the Third Age (518 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings proper begin). Although Calenardhon was the name of the north-westernmost province of Gondor before it was ceded to Rohan, the name was also a regional one; it's earliest chronological use in the canon is in the story "Aldarion and Erendis" in Unfinished Tales, which it is used as a regional name as early as the 8th century of the Second Age, long before the founding of Gondor.

The third map adds more names and further suggests a time period. In particular, the addition of the name Laurelindórenan is very interesting. This was the Sindarin name given to the elven kingdom later known as Lothlórien. The mode Laurelindórenan seems to have been the standard name used until around the time of the War of Sauron and the Elves, following the forging of the Rings of Power, when Galadriel and Celeborn took up leadership in Laurelindórenan and the name of the realm was changed, as a result of Galadriel's magical ring enhancing the natural beauty of the kingdom.

The other interesting addition is that of Ras Morthil. Ras Morthil is the southern-most major mountain on the cape of Andrast, a south-westerly offshoot of the White Mountains (the great mountain range dividing Rohan from Gondor). Ras Morthil and the mountains of Andrast were the original home of the Druédain or "Woses", a diminutive race of men who play a brief but key role in the events of The Lord of the Rings when they provide intelligent to the Rohirrim on how to bypass a flanking force Sauron had sent to delay them whilst his armies attacked Minas Tirith (the woses were cut from the film for time reasons). By the time of The Lord of the Rings the region has become known as Drúwaith Iaur, referring to the Druédain as extinct (erroneously), a name adopted in the Third Age but not present on this map.

These clues seem to suggest that the map was not created any later than the second millennium of the Second Age, by the end of which Laurelindórenan had become Lothlórien and the other names would all be extant. Earlier in the Second Age could also be possible, but the region of Enedwaith was heavily forested up until around the 8th and 9th century, when Númenórean logging started to destroy the forests. The forests were mostly gone by the time of the War of Sauron and the Elves (1693-1701 SA). The absence of the forests on the map suggest that either Amazon's mapmakers missed that detail of the map dates from late in this period.

A mural depicting Ost-in-Edhil, capital city of Eregion, by artist Alan Lee. This artwork was created for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and appears on a wall in Rivendell.

The logical conclusion, then, is that the "Young Aragorn" story has been dropped and the story will instead focus on one of the most interesting periods in the history of Middle-earth: the forging of the Rings of Power themselves.

This is good, given that the story of how the Rings were forged is itself epic and worthy. Sauron, in the guise of Annatar, an elven prince and master craftsmen, visits the great elven smiths of Eregion and corrupts them into forging the Rings of Power. Using their knowledge, Sauron then creates the One Ruling Ring. This perversion of the elves' craft triggers a great war which Sauron nearly wins, overrunning most of the elven kingdoms and driving them back to the sea, before Númenor enters the war on the elves' side. The story involves familiar Lord of the Rings characters such as Elrond, Galadriel, Celeborn, Gil-galad and Círdan, but also a lot of new characters. Of course, there are few better subjects for a Lord of the Rings prequel series than the Rings of Power themselves.

There are other possibilities, such as "Young Aragorn" still being the setting and the story will revolve around this map and backstory in some fashion. There's also the delicious possibility that the series will be an anthology one, with different settings and focuses each season, moving back and forth through Middle-earth's history.

Most intriguingly from all of this is one of rights. The Tolkien Estate is working closely with Amazon but, until now, had not confirmed or indicated if it had licensed the rights to any other Tolkien material, as Amazon's deal with New Line/Warner Brothers (itself licensed from Tolkien Enterprises twenty-four years ago) covers only The Lord of the Rings alone. Not even The Hobbit is included, as those rights are tied up with MGM and, after the fiasco of the Hobbit movie trilogy, it was decided not to involve MGM in this new project. However, the detailed account of the War of Sauron and the Elves and names Andrast and Ras Morthil are given only in Unfinished Tales, not The Lord of the Rings. To use those names, at all, Amazon must have reached a new licensing deal with the Tolkien Estate on pain of lawsuits. The previous Middle-earth movies had to go to some lengths not to use any material from Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion, so the use of such names here is highly telling.

The truth of the matter should become clearer as Amazon continues to reveal more information.

Happy 125th Birthday to J.R.R. Tolkien and a Happy 100th Anniversary to Middle-earth

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien - "Ronald" to his friends and "Tollers" to a very few select friends - was born 125 years ago today, on 3 January 1892.

J.R.R. Tolkien in 1916, shortly before beginning what became The Silmarillion.

He was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to English parents (of German descent). Tolkien's father Arthur died when he was three, whilst Tolkien, his younger brother Hilary and his mother Mabel were on an extended family trip in  the UK. Left without an income, Mabel raised her sons in dire financial straits in and around Birmingham. She converted to Catholicism in 1900, to the horror of her strict Baptist family, and was given assistance by her local church. Mabel gave the young Tolkien a love of language, starting by teaching him Latin, as well as her renewed faith. Mabel suffered from diabetes and died from the disease in 1904, when Tolkien was twelve years old (insulin, which would have saved her life, was not discovered until the 1930s).

Tolkien and his brother were raised by their mother's friend, Father Morgan. Tolkien credited Morgan with instilling in him strong values of charity, compassion and respect. In 1908, at the age of sixteen, Tolkien met Edith Bratt, three years his senior. Both were orphans and both were intelligent, but with a playful side (one of their favoured pastimes was throwing sugar cubes into the hats of passersby without them noticing). Bratt was both older and also a Protestant, to Father Morgan's dismay. After several months of courtship, Morgan insisted that Tolkien did not contact Edith again until he was 21. Tolkien reluctantly obeyed.

Tolkien's first brush with history came when he was one of the young men chosen to line the route for King George V's coronation in 1910. In 1911 Tolkien formed the "T.C.B.S." ("Tea Club and Barrovian Society") with several friends: Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman. This informal group discussed literature and books, and Tolkien gained a newfound appreciation for poetry from their influence. The same year, Tolkien visited Switzerland and went hiking in the Alps, which he later said was a profound experience that he credited for inspiring his later work. At the end of the year Tolkien began attending Exeter College, Oxford.

In January 1913 Tolkien resumed his communications with Edith and was dismayed to discover that she had become engaged to someone else. However, she admitted this was due to feeling neglected. She broke off the engagement and she and Tolkien resumed their romance; they became engaged themselves very quickly thereafter and married in March 1916, Edith converting to Catholicism in the process.

Tolkien avoided the start of WWI, choosing to finish his studies under a government programme rather than immediately join the fight on the Western Front. This attracted some censure from members of his family, but as the initial optimism of 1914 turned into the attritional horrors of trench warfare in 1915 and early 1916, Tolkien felt his decision was justified. However, as a patriot he decided to join the fighting as soon as possible after graduation. In June 1916 he was deployed to France as a signals officer to the 11th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, which saw action during the Battle of the Somme (during which Tolkien's fellow T.C.B.S. members Rob Gilson and Geoffrey Smith were killed). However, in November that same year Tolkien came down with trench fever and was invalided back to England. Although he recovered, he was not judged fit for combat and spent the remainder of the war serving in training and administrative roles at home, doing well enough to be retained in the ranks after the war ended.

In 1920 Tolkien was finally demobilised and sent back to civilian life. He worked on the Oxford English Dictionary and then became a Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds. In 1925 he returned to Oxford University as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, a position he retained for twenty years before becoming Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. He remained in that post until his retirement in 1959.

J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith had four children: John (born 1917, died 2003), Michael (b. 1920, d. 1984), Christopher (b. 1924) and Priscilla (b. 1929). Edith died in 1971 at the age of 81, and Tolkien himself passed away in December 1973, also at the age of 81. Shortly before his death Tolkien was named a Commander of the British Empire, an honour he received from Queen Elizabeth directly, to his pride.

And, in the middle of that, Tolkien also wrote what was arguably the single most transformative-ever work of genre literature.

J.R.R. Tolkien towards the end of his life.

Tolkien's interest in language began with his mother, who taught him Latin, and continued through adolescence, when he would make up languages for fun with family members. The T.C.B.S. furthered his love of poetry, and he already had a keen interest in history. A deeply romantic man, as his epic courtship of Edith showed, Tolkien loved tales of daring and adventure, but he was also uninterested in the empty lionisation of heroes. He also believed in tragedy, and that victory could not come without a cost.

He started writing stories for fun at a young age, but it is harder to say when he "invented" his most famous creation. In 1916, whilst waiting for deployment, he wrote a poem called "The Lonely Isle", and earlier he had drawn a painting of two great blazing trees of light, but it seems unlikely that he connected these elements at this stage. Still, he was certainly thinking of mythology and history, and had a long-standing complaint (formed whilst quite young) that the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 had robbed the country of its own native mythology. Much of what was supposed to be English mythology and folklore was actually introduced or "corrupted" by the French (most notably the story of King Arthur, the original core of which transformed by French additions such as Lancelot), to Tolkien's dismay. Tolkien's encounter with the great Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, convinced him that England deserved something of its own of a grand and epic scale.

He discussed these ideas at length with the T.C.B.S. and they were encouraging. The final motivation came when Tolkien received distressing news of Geoffrey Smith's death in December 1916. In his final letter to Tolkien Smith had said, "May you say the things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them," which stayed with Tolkien. The only other surviving member of the group, Christopher Wiseman, serving in the British Navy, was likewise affected and wrote to Tolkien telling him that he "should start the epic."

And Tolkien did. Very early in 1917, on the front of a cheap notebook, he wrote in blue pencil a name: The Book of Lost Tales. He started writing a story about a young warrior seeking succour in a great city, only to see it laid waste in a devastating war. The story gained its own title, The Fall of Gondolin, and Tolkien saw it as but one of a large number of tales that would together tell the story of an epic war in a mythologised land that would eventually be revealed to be a prehistoric Europe, before great floods changed the shape of the lands. It was a tale of tragedy, horror and heroism, but also of hope. A minor character gained the name Earendel, linking the story to the earlier poem about the Lonely Isle.

Tolkien completed that story and moved onto a second, a romance inspired by seeing Edith dancing in a forest on a romantic picnic. This was the story of Beren and Luthien, two lovers from differing backgrounds who had to overcome trying obstacles - including death itself - before being able to finally marry and have children. The biographical parallels were clear, although Tolkien and Edith sadly never owned a talking giant wolfhound.

Tolkien continued working on the stories right through the 1920s, amassing a large amount of material including timelines, maps and related poems. By the end of the decade the epic history was completed in its conception and overview, but not in the detailed account. Tolkien, whose writing improved remarkably over this period, was also eventually unhappy with many of his original ideas (such as the "Lonely Isle" framing device) and his younger, more inexperienced writing style. By 1930 he had started rewriting many of the stories in a new, updated and more accessible style and even given the book a new title, the one by which it would remain known until publication: The Silmarillion. Also by 1930 Tolkien had settled on a name for the continent on which the great story takes place: Middle-earth.

But, in or around that year, Tolkien also started writing a new and apparently unconnected story. Whilst marking exam papers he found a blank piece of paper. In a moment of inspiration he wrote down, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." He took the piece of paper home with him, studied it, and decided to find out what "hobbits" were. He constructed a story about the diminutive but cunning and brave Bilbo Baggins, who is dragged away from his comfortable home life by a gang of dwarves who are seeking treasure and the return of their homeland from a greedy dragon. Tolkien read the story to his children even as he wrote it, but eventually the typescript stopped short of the ending, which Tolkien narrated to his children out loud. Tolkien had originally intended the book to be completely independent, but elements from The Silmarillion crept in: the legend of Beren and Luthien is referenced, as is the fall of Gondolin. The elf lord Elrond indicates he was born during the great War of the Jewels that frames The Silmarillion. Tolkien realised that Middle-earth was "the land into which Mr. Baggins had strayed."

It's entirely possible that this would have been the end of the matter, had not one of Tolkien's students-turned-family-friends, Elaine Griffiths, heard about the manuscript and read it. She casually mentioned the existence of the story to her colleague Susan Dagnall, who worked at the publishers Unwin & Allen. Dagnall read the manuscript, enjoyed it, and asked Tolkien to finish it, which he did in October 1936. Tolkien had considered two titles for the children's book, The Hobbit and There and Back Again. Unable to decide, he simply decided to call it The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, the title by which it was published (although for reasons of space, most publishers only used The Hobbit on the cover and spine) in September 1937. Stanley Unwin himself had taken an interest in the book and realised he was onto something when his ten-year-old son Rayner reported that it was a terrific and exciting story.

The first edition of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, published in September 1937 by Unwin & Allen.

 
The Hobbit was highly successful when first published, winning plaudits and strong reviews in both the UK and USA, where the book also did well, winning the New York Herald Tribune prize for the best children's book of the year. Unwin realised he had a bestseller on his hands and wrote to Tolkien to request a sequel.

Tolkien was unprepared for the success of the book and the request for a follow-up, which he had not planned. However, Tolkien (by his own admission) was susceptible to flattery and professional compliments, and was certainly not immune to the benefits of the "grosser forms of literary success". Sitting down to re-assess The Hobbit, he noted that he had said that Bilbo "lived happily for the rest of his days", which he did not want to contradict. However, he also noted that he had established several elements that had not been developed further: the villainous Necromancer, a resolutely off-page villain that Gandalf leaves the main party to deal with at a key point in the adventure; and the magic ring that Bilbo (rather conveniently) finds on his journey. There was also the matter of the ring's former owner, Gollum, who was unhappy at it being taken from him. Tolkien saw the possibility here for further development of the mythology.

Tolkien began writing "the new Hobbit" on 19 December 1937 with a sequence which mirrors the start of The Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins has a big party and leaves the Shire on an adventure. However, this time the party is long-expected and Bilbo's departure is pre-planned. As the story unfolds, Bilbo's nephew Bingo takes centre-stage. Mysterious black riders arrive in the Shire looking for him and the ring, which he has inherited from Bilbo. Tolkien sketched out several chapters and was pleased with the idea of a band of hobbits rather than a solitary hero and also the arrival of the black riders in the quiet and bucolic Shire, which immediately differentiated the book from its predecessor. However, Tolkien was also completely making this up as he went along. Every time the story took an unexpected turn he had to roll back and rewrite the previous chapters to accommodate and better set-up the changes. Most of 1938 was spent both inventing and developing the story but also getting to the bottom of what the story was actually about, both literally and thematically.

By the summer of 1938 Tolkien had advanced the story to the village of Bree, where the hobbits met a mysterious hobbit named Trotter. By this point Tolkien had decided to make the Necromancer the villain and it would be revealed that he had created the ring (and several others). The black riders would be wraiths, men who had lost themselves to the magic rings. After struggling with character motivations, Tolkien suddenly realised that Bilbo's ring would be the One Ruling Ring, the most powerful and dangerous of them all, and that the heroes would fight the corrupting influence of the Ring as an internal force as well as the external threat of the Necromancer's minions. Tolkien also decided that the Necromancer would be Sauron, a minor villain in The Silmarillion (although the primary antagonist of the story of Beren and Luthien) whose fate had not been revealed in that narrative. This was a logical move, as Tolkien himself had already referenced Sauron off-hand (despite no-one else knowing who that was) in his correspondence with Stanley Unwin.

These decisions moved "the Hobbit sequel" onto a more epic and mythological level. Tolkien decided to dispose of the name Bingo, which he now considered far too frivolous, and renamed his main, tragic hero Frodo Baggins, the younger cousin of Bilbo. The mysterious hobbit Trotter was transformed into a heroic man, a mighty warrior named Aragorn who adopted the alias "Strider" when working behind the scenes. And Sauron's quest to reunite the Rings of Power gave Tolkien the title for the novel: in late September 1938 he wrote to the publishers and declared that the book would now be called The Lord of the Rings.

The writing of the novel proceeded in fits and starts, with Tolkien distracted by the outbreak of World War II and the signing-up of his sons Michael and Christopher to fight (his eldest son, John, had joined the priesthood and was exempted from fighting). The war was a distraction, but the near-suspension of college activities for the duration of hostilities gave Tolkien a lot more time to write the book. He was also considered for service as a cryptographer during the war, but ultimately passed over. Despite this free time, Tolkien several times hit writer's block, suspending the writing for months and, at one stage, a year, due to complexities in the narrative process. Particularly problematic for Tolkien was the splintering of the narrative with the Breaking of the Fellowship and the need to now pursue simultaneous narrative paths for multiple groups of characters. He overcame this by tackling Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor as an adventure serial, sending chapters to his son Christopher in South Africa (where he was training with the RAF) as they were completed.

The Lord of the Rings was completed in 1947. Tolkien then had to type up the enormous story, revising as he went, which was not completed until 1949. Tolkien submitted the book for publication in 1950, but Unwin & Allen struggled with the immense size of the manuscript given that paper was still being severely rationed. For a time Tolkien flirted with defecting to Collins, who had a much larger paper allowance, but Tolkien then sabotaged his own success by demanding that The Silmarillion be published alongside The Lord of the Rings. This was problematic because it simply wasn't finished. Tolkien also envisaged the finished Silmarillion rivalling the Lord of the Rings in size, which dismayed Collins. After a chastising exchange of letters and a final demand from Collins to cut the size of the books, a somewhat conciliatory Tolkien decamped back to Unwin & Allen in 1952.

The first edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, published in July 1954 by Unwin & Allen.

 
The Lord of the Rings, at almost half a million words, was still too big to publish in one volume, despite the easing of the rationing, so Rayner and Stanley Unwin (Rayner now working for his father's company) suggested splitting the book in three. As Tolkien had already divided the novel into six smaller "books" during the writing process, this was straightforwardly done. The Fellowship of the Ring, being the first part of The Lord of the Rings was published on 29 July 1954 and was followed by the second part, The Two Towers, on 11 November. The Return of the King was not published until 20 October 1955, as Tolkien delayed the book whilst he was working on the appendices and some new maps.

The Lord of the Rings received an initially critically mixed reception, but eventually the strong notices by C.S. Lewis and W.H. Auden won out and the book began selling in larger and larger numbers. Tolkien soon found himself enjoying the fruits of his success, such as the money and fans writing letters to him in his own invented elven languages. But he was still at the "cult author" level. The book only achieved massive success in 1965, when an American publisher, Ace, took advantage of a copyright loophole to publish an unauthorised paperback edition. Tolkien was furious and publicly reprimanded them, something which was picked up in the American press. Quickly the Science Fiction Writers of America, an influential union with many ties to Ace Books, also joined the fray and Ace backed down, paying Tolkien royalties and withdrawing the book from sale.

The publicity and resulting reviews both the unauthorised and authorised paperback editions triggered an explosion of interest in the novel: sales in both the UK and USA sky-rocketed over the next few years and Tolkien found himself at the centre of attention. Some of this he welcomed, such as increased respect from fellow scholars and language experts across the world. Some he was less keen on, such as autograph hunters trying to track down where he lived and the young people seeing his stories as examples of "hippy" culture. When the Beatles tried to buy the film rights to make a trippy movie directed by Stanley Kubrick (Kubrick seemed less keen) he put his foot down and refused to sell. He did, however, sell the film rights a few years later to secure the financial future of his children and grandchildren.

Tolkien died in 1973 but Middle-earth lived on. His third son Christopher, who was closest to his father in his literary and academic interests, had been groomed for the role of literary executor for several years and Tolkien had begun a renewed burst of essay and story writing, both for The Silmarillion and for a possible follow-up book expanding on the mythology. Tolkien had also decided to re-order The Silmarillion into a much more accessible and streamlined version for publication, but this process was incomplete when he died. Christopher completed this project, aided by a young student (and later excellent fantasy author in his own right, Guy Gavriel Kay), and The Silmarillion was released in 1977. Christopher also assembled his father's essays and notes about the "worldbuilding" of Middle-earth as Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, which was published in 1980. And after that he went further by releasing almost all of his father's writings, including early drafts of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, as The History of Middle-earth, a twelve-volume series published between 1983 and 1996.

By using material from the history series and Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien was also able to release two further books focusing on narrative episodes from The Silmarillion: The Children of Hurin (2007) and Beren and Luthien (2017).

J.R.R. Tolkien did not create epic fantasy or the secondary world fantasy genre, but he popularised it like no-one else before or since. His books have sold close to 400 million copies and nine movies based on his books have been released, grossing $5.8 billion. Hundreds of authors have followed in his train (some much more closely, and derivatively, than others), resulting in the genre as we know and appreciate it today. A doff of the cap and a raising of a glass to Professor Tolkien's memory is in order today for everyone who enjoys the genre of the fantastic.

Wertzone Classics: Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien

Upon his death in 1973, J.R.R. Tolkien left behind a vast collection of writings about Middle-earth. His third son and literary executor, Christopher, assembled some of these into The Silmarillion, published in 1977, but the question about what to do with the other reams of material was unclear. Aware that fans of Middle-earth would be eager for more material, even unfinished or existing only in rough drafts, he assembled Unfinished Tales and published it in 1980. Its success inspired him to proceed with the far more ambitious, twelve-volume History of Middle-earth project.


Unfinished Tales occupies an awkward place in the Tolkien canon. Unlike the History series, which consists of almost exclusively non-canon material (early drafts and rough notes of material that was eventually finalised and published), the material in Unfinished Tales was specifically written by Tolkien to flesh out other parts of his mythos that were not explored in the books themselves. In particular, the writings include a series of essays which were designed to answer a wide number of issues brought up by readers of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in correspondence. Some of these essays were written very late in Tolkien's life and represent his last - and often only - word on subjects such as the origins of Gandalf and his fellow wizards, the backstory of Galadriel and the history of Numenor during the Second Age. As a result some fans hold Unfinished Tales to be the fourth Middle-earth book, only marginally less important than The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Others choose to disregard it as anything more than a curiosity, since as Christopher Tolkien himself notes it's unlikely J.R.R. would have permitted even the completed writings in the book to be published without more polish.

Unlike The Silmarillion, which was presented as a single narrative, Unfinished Tales is a collection of stories and fragments intermingled with Christopher Tolkien's editorial notes. These are kept to a minimum in some of the stories and essays, but in others are much more prevalent (something he apologises for, but regards as necessary in the case of works where his father was working on several drafts simultaneously, risking confusion to the reader). Christopher's notes are fascinating, well-written with a clear eye for detail and minimising confusion. He assumes the reader is already familiar with the Middle-earth mythos (since they're unlikely to be reading this book otherwise) and is able to delve into various topics in depth. Whilst he clearly loves and respects his father immensely, it is also amusing to detect the vague frustrations that creep into his notes, most notably when trying to fathom why Tolkien abandoned particular narratives at key points (feelings the reader may share as the book unfolds).

The first story is 'Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin'. The story of Tuor's arrival in Gondolin and the events leading to the fall of that city in the War of the Jewels was the first story Tolkien ever wrote set in Middle-earth, and is still one of his most memorable narratives. However, the version in Unfinished Tales was written much later, in 1951 (the much more complete original can be found in The History series), featuring a more conventional prose style than the archaic original. It's stirring, epic stuff, featuring some great imagery as Tuor is confronted by the Vala Ulmo, Lord of Waters, and has a great destiny laid before him. The story proceeds with power and momentum until it abruptly halts just as Tuor reaches Gondolin itself. Even with the earlier version available and a much more compressed account of events readable in The Silmarillion, this is still a frustrating moment.

The second story is 'The Tale of the Children of Hurin', a much longer story (almost a hundred pages, taking up a quarter of the book) featuring the adventures of the doomed, tragic Turin. Unlike the story of Tuor, this tale is more or less complete, though somewhat complex due to competing drafts and different versions existing. Many years later Christopher used this material (along with some other, later unearthed manuscripts) to form the basis of The Children of Hurin, so if you already have that book be aware that you will find much of this material familiar. But still, it's a powerful story, the darkest thing Tolkien wrote set in Middle-earth, featuring lust, incest (though unwitting), war and the 'hero' bringing death and ruin to all those around him.

The next section of the book moves into the Second Age of Middle-earth, which Tolkien left somewhat vague and under-developed compared to the First Age (covered in The Silmarillion) and the Third (the setting for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings). We start off with 'A Description of the Island of Numenor'. For fans of worldbuilding, Tolkien's description of the island empire and the accompanying map will be fascinating. However, it's the following story, 'Aldarion and Erendis', which is more intriguing. It depicts the marriage of the noble lady Erendis to Aldarion, later King of Numenor, and touches on larger aspects (such as Aldarion's re-opening of relations between Numenor and the elves of Middle-earth), but for the most part it's a strong character piece. For those who claim Tolkien is overly-romantic, this account of a failing relationship due to outside pressures (Aldarion's lengthy absences from home) is surprisingly realistic. The story breaks off towards the end, although this is more of a relationship study than a tense narrative, so is less grievous a loss than some of the other texts in the book.

Tolkien follows this up with an account of the Kings of Numenor and the major events of their reigns. This is again primarily of interest to worldbuilders, but Tolkien manages to put in some great details and elements that could have been mined to produce further stories, but sadly it was not to be. This is then succeeded by an account of the history of Galadriel and Celeborn, something that Lord of the Rings fans will be more interested in, but frustratingly is also the most 'unfinished' of all the works in the book. Tolkien conceived of several competing, but radically different possibilities for the couple's backstory and reached no firm conclusions before his death, leaving several versions which are mutually contradictory. Christopher Tolkien suggests appreciating these contradictions as part of the literary effect of having a fictional history and mythology, which may be the best approach. Even in their differences, these versions reveal more fascinating information on Sauron's activities in the Second Age and characters briefly mentioned in Lord of the Rings, such as Celebrimbor, Nimrodel and Amroth.

The final sections of the book deals with the Third Age and consists mainly of finished essays and narratives, though in some cases with competing drafts which the editor takes pains to clarify. This section begins with an account of the Battle of the Gladden Fields (the engagement where Isildur lost the Ring), here revealed to be a much larger conflict than the brief skirmish suggested by Lord of the Rings and depicted as such in the films (by necessity, since Peter Jackson did not have the film rights to Unfinished Tales he could not use the account of the conflict here). He follows this up with the history of the Rohirrim, the development of the relationship between the Rohirrim and people of Gondor, and the founding of Rohan itself, again depicting worldbuilding information through a story (here the friendship of Steward Cirion of Gondor and Eorl, founder of Rohan).

This is followed by sections fleshing out The Lord of the Rings. 'The Quest of Erebor' explains how Gandalf came to join forces with Thorin and the dwarves and how he convinced them to recruit Bilbo Baggins to join their quest. This was actually a chapter from The Lord of the Rings, written as part of Tolkien's attempts to better-connect The Hobbit and the later work, but was wisely exorcised for killing the pace of the novel (it was supposed to be a discussion between Gandalf and Frodo between the victory over Sauron and the Scouring of the Shire, where it would have been ill-suited). However, as a stand-alone narrative it's a valuable - and enjoyable - asset in clarifying the relationship between the two books. This is followed up by 'The Hunt for the Ring', a detailed account of how the Ringwraiths set out in search of the Ring after losing track of Gollum (who had been captured by Aragorn). Though rather brief, this short piece does feature a memorable confrontation between Saruman and the Witch-King of Angmar. Rounding off this section is 'The Battles of the Fords of Isen', revealing in detail the battles fought by Rohan against Isengard on the Isen (alluded to but unseen in The Lord of the Rings). Again, it's not essential but does help flesh out a side-element of The Lord of the Rings.

Rounding off the book are three complete essays on three separate topics. The first expands on the Druedain or Woses, the wood-men who help the Rohirrim bypass Sauron's armies to reach the Pelennor Fields. Tolkien reveals in this essay that he was considering giving the Druedain a much bigger role in the backstory of Middle-earth, and even have them playing a role in The Silmarillion, but passed away before this idea could be fully fleshed-out. The second discusses the Istari, or the order of wizards that Gandalf, Radagast and Saruman belong to. We learn the names of the other two wizards who vanished into the east (Alatar and Pallando) and some interesting backstory emerges here. The third and final essay delves into the Palantiri, the magical seeing-stones which play a major role in The Lord of the Rings. This is atypical Tolkien, since normally he preferred to leave the magical elements of his world vague and mysterious, but here he delves into the capabilities of each palantir with the kind of magic system-building enthusiasm we now see with writers such as Brandon Sanderson.

Unfinished Tales (*****) is a fascinating book, representing a collection of writings by the most influential fantasist of all time extending over thirty years. Many of the individual stories and essays are excellent, certainly all are interesting and the only complaint that can be made is that several break off with no resolution. But then the book does tell you that on the cover, so it's hard to hold that against it. Unfinished Tales is available now, in numerous editions, in the UK and USA.

Ending The Lord of the Rings

After seeing an interesting thread on SFFWorld about this, I thought it was an interesting point to explore.


For most people, The Lord of the Rings ends with Sam riding home to Hobbiton and saying, "Well, I'm back,". Both the movie and the main text of the novel end at this point. However, both the book and, much moreso, the movie get some criticism for having 'too many endings', with quite a few moments before then where it feels like the end credits/appendices should have rolled instead. The book mostly gets around this by having the thematically vital 'Scouring of the Shire' chapter at the end, featuring the final confrontation between the Hobbits and Saruman.

However, what is interesting is that the ending of the book would have been significantly longer if Tolkien himself hadn't actually edited several more sequences out. Something that concerned Tolkien during the latter phases of writing The Lord of the Rings was reconciling the book's darker and more serious tone with the earlier, somewhat more frivolous text of The Hobbit. A second edition of The Hobbit was issued which used the darker, more murderous incarnation of Gollum from Rings rather than the more amiable trickster of the first edition, but Tolkien also felt that the underlying premise of The Hobbit, that thirteen hardcore dwarven warriors would want or need the help of a Hobbit to help them out to kill a dragon, was somewhat odd. To account for this he wrote a chapter for Rings called 'The Quest of Erebor' in which Gandalf sat down with Frodo in Minas Tirith and explained to him how he found Thrain dying in Dol Guldur and recovered his map, then many years later met Thorin and arranged the quest and why he through Bilbo could help with the mission. However, during the writing of the chapter Tolkien realised it was going off on a massive tangent from The Lord of the Rings and set it aside, finished but not rewritten to his normal exacting standards. Many years later he went back to redraft it as one of several essays he was writing on the subject of Middle-earth, and it is this version which eventually appeared in Unfinished Tales.

Tolkien also wrote an additional chapter that came after the "Well, I'm back," moment and explained in some detail what happened to each of the members of the Fellowship after the War of the Ring, and ended with Sam listening to the sound of the sea washing on the shores of Middle-earth. Tolkien, suspicious of over-sentimentality, decided this wasn't really appropriate either and pulled it out of the book, although it was finished. Christopher Tolkien eventually included it in Sauron Defeated, the ninth book in the History of Middle-earth series and the last one dealing with the Lord of the Rings era of his father's writing.

A lesser-known fact is that at some point after Lord of the Rings was published, Tolkien actually started writing a sequel, which he called The New Shadow. Tolkien's idea in this book would be that evil would return to Middle-earth and engulf the kingdom of Gondor in the Fourth Age, creating a crisis that one of Argorn's descendants would have to deal with. However, this idea does not seem to have fired his interest, possibly as it would deal with purely human villainy (so as not to contradict Rings' ending which had most of the supernatural and non-human elements of Middle-earth slowly fading away to make room for the age of men), which did not interest him as much as more mythic elements and material. The few pages that survive eventually appeared in the final book of The History of Middle-earth, The Peoples of Middle-earth.

Then of course are The Lord of the Rings' lengthy appendices, which a lot of readers skip. The first appendix deals with side-elements, such as the story of Aragorn and Arwen's relationship, whilst the second is the most interesting to a general reader, featuring as it does a lengthy timeline of the history of the Second and Third Ages (Tolkien didn't include the First, feeling that it would spoil The Silmarillion, which he was still working on) and a detailed timeline of what events took place in relation to one another in the book. Peter Jackson laudably paid attention to this timeline when making the movie trilogy, which is why some events in the second and third movies are moved around to their chronologically correct positions. Unfortunately, this did also less laudably require Jackson to introduce some weak 'filler' elements in the second movie, such as a pointless side-trip to Osgiliath, to fill in the resulting diminishing of screentime for Frodo and Sam. The later appendices mostly contain information on the languages of Middle-earth and form probably the most frequently-skipped part of the book (possibly after the poems).


Interestingly, The Lord of the Rings' appendices (which take up well over a hundred pages of the published book) were supposed to be considerably longer and more detailed, and Tolkien despaired over their 'truncated' state. At one point he considered expanding them into a companion volume to the series and started writing a series of essays on various elements of life and history in Middle-earth, but did not get far with them before he passed away. However, many of these essays, on such fascinating subjects as the Blue Wizards, the Palantiri, the military organisation and history of Rohan, the (sadly incomplete and self-contradictory) history of Galadriel and Celeborn, and a detailed report of the Battle of the Gladden Fields (where Isildur lost the One Ring), were recovered and published in Unfinished Tales, which Christopher Tolkien published in 1983 as a sort of replacement for the mooted companion volume.

It is interesting that Tolkien did produce a lot of extra material for The Lord of the Rings which didn't see the light of day for some considerable time, and did eventually address a number of questions people had left over from the end of the book, so if you can't get enough of the original book there's still a fair bit of additional material you can track down.