The Fall of Númenor

The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth
Publication Information
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)
Gallery	The Fall of Númenor editions

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.

Instead of the usual map of Middle-earth, it includes a reproduction of the older General Map of Middle-earth, showing the Havens of Umbar and the Cape of Forochel. The map is a post-1970 Allen & Unwin version, taking the Glanduin and Swanfleet from the Pauline Baynes Map and erroneously applying them to the upper course of the Isen (instead of a tributary of the Gwathló).

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. No new material by Tolkien is presented in this book. The book is illustrated by Alan Lee.

Contents

• 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

• Notes

From the publisher

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

• 

  2022 hardcover

• 

  2022 hardcover deluxe edition

• 

  2023 paperback large print

• 

  2024 paperback

• HarperCollins hardcover (2022), pp. 352. ISBN 0008537836
• HarperCollins hardcover with slipcase (2022), ISBN 0008537844
• HarperCollins paperback (2023), pp. 480. ISBN 0008601399
• HarperCollins paperback (2024), ISBN 0008655677

External links

• New Tolkien book: The Fall of Númenor to be published on Tolkiensociety.org