The Fall of Númenor
| The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth | |
|---|---|
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| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Editor | Brian Sibley |
| Illustrator | Alan Lee |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | 15 November 2022 |
| Format | Hardcover; deluxe edition |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | 0008537836 |
| Preceded by | The Nature of Middle-earth (2021) |
| Followed by | The Battle of Maldon (2023) |
The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth is a collection of writtings by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley as a single book and published in 2022. It collects all the published materials concerning the Second Age of Middle-earth, presenting them for the first time in a single volume.
The texts were previously published in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, and The Nature of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien and Carl F. Hostetter. Therefore no new material by the author is presented. The book is illustrated by Alan Lee.
Contents[edit | edit source]
- About this Book
- Introduction: The Saga of 'A Dark Age'
- Before the Second Age
- The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands)
- Appendices:
- A: A Brief Chronicle of the Third Age of Middle-earth
- B: The Númenórean chapters from The Lost Road
- Footnotes
- Notes
From the publisher[edit | edit source]
Presenting for the first time in one volume the events of the Second Age as written by J.R.R. Tolkien and originally and masterfully edited for publication by Christopher Tolkien, this new volume will include pencil drawings and colour paintings by Alan Lee, who also illustrated The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and went on to win an Academy Award for his work on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a 'dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) told'. And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices.
It was not until Christopher Tolkien presented The Silmarillion for publication in 1977 that a fuller story could be told for, though much of its content concerned the First Age of Middle-earth, there were at its close two key works that revealed the tumultuous events concerning the rise and fall of the island-kingdom of Númenor, the Forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dûr and the rise of Sauron, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.
Christopher Tolkien provided even greater insight into the Second Age in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth in 1980, and expanded upon this in his magisterial 12-volume History of Middle-earth, in which he presented and discussed a wealth of further tales written by his father, many in draft form.
Now, using ‘The Tale of Years’ in The Lord of the Rings as a starting point, Brian Sibley has assembled from the various published texts in a way that tells for the very first time in one volume the tale of the Second Age of Middle-earth, whose events would ultimately lead to the Third Age, and the War of the Ring, as told in The Lord of the Rings.
Publication history and gallery[edit | edit source]
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- HarperCollins hardcover (2022), pp. 352. ISBN 0008537836
- HarperCollins hardcover with slipcase (2022), ISBN 0008537844
- HarperCollins paperback (2023), pp. 480. ISBN 0008601399
External links[edit | edit source]
- New Tolkien book: The Fall of Númenor to be published on Tolkiensociety.org
