LOTR/Unfinished Tales Readalong

 


   no geoducks. they are not weird they are plain disgusting

Does that mean anything that looks like geoducks are disgusting?   

How about oysters? Are oysters okay?

I guess breaking down the finer details of Unfinished Tales can't compare to the joys of giggling at geoducks.

I'm almost half way through A Game of Thrones so I don't really want to pick up any other books until I get caught up with A Song of Ice and Fire, and yeah I think I'd rather come on here and giggle at dumb stuff and oyster vaginas than dissect Tolkien. (No offense, professor.)

I totally get what you mean; none of my reading/watching lately has been Tolkien related. But there seemed to be some interest on the previous page so I figured it was going to happen I'd want to be part of it.

I read this a few months back and the only part I could really get into was Part III, particularly "The Hunt for the Ring".

I actively disliked "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife".

I liked Aldarion and Erendis, but it's utterly unlike any of Tolkien's published works. A mature (if quite, shall we say, formal) depiction of a love story and the resultant relationship. It's more of a psychological character piece than anything else. Aldarion plays an important part in the overall history of Middle-earth, but this is only alluded to in the story. Not something you read to put a smile on your face either. I'll admit that a big part of its appeal for me was the chance to get a glimpse at Numenorean society from the inside, but I did find the characters to be interesting as well. But everything feels a little cold and distant, which might have been deliberate, but I'm not a huge fan.

My favorite parts of UT are the historical parts, especially Cirion and Eorl. As a lorehead I ate that stuff up. Giant battles, movements of peoples, the tomb of Elendil! That was like my favorite Tolkien thing ever when I was 12 and had been re-reading the LOTR Appendices for years already. The Battles of the Fords of Isen was a favorite when I was experimenting with role-play because I was trying to do Rohan characters. And I swear to God, I genuinely enjoyed and found to be interesting the Appendix on Numenorean linear measures at the end of The Disaster of the Gladden Fields.

It's not a book that you read unless you're really invested (Tolkien himself would say over-invested) in the gritty pseudo-historical details though.

I really like The Battles of the Fords bit, as it reads like a history book of an actual battle pieced together by historians after the event from the available evidence- a wonderfully executed conceit.

"Aldarion and Erendis" was not without its value. I guess I should be more specific about what I disliked about it and say that Aldarion was clearly in the wrong and became more unlikeable as the story progressed. His character really grated on me.

"The Hunt for the Ring" came out of left field for me: writing from the Ringwraiths' (or any villain's) perspective is something I'd never have thought Tolkien to have written. I ate it up with a spoon. And I kind of found myself wishing more of this was in LotR.

Oh yeah, he definitely turns into an unlikable prick. But I thought the story did a good job of developing his character and showing how it happened, so I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The Hunt for the Ring is another really good chapter, I agree. I think it was used (technically illegally) by the BBC radio adaptation of LOTR back in the '80s. Petty can probably say for sure. It's neat though, especially since the only glimpses we have of the other side in the book itself are the orcs who captured Merry and Pippin and Shagrat and Gorbag in ROTK.

Yeah the BBC version has a few bits from UT snuck in there.
It puts Gandalfs escape from Orthanc, as recounted at the Coucnil of Erond into its place chronologically in the telling, and after Gandalf goes to Rohan for a horse and takes Shadowfax, it includes one of the versions from UT of the account of the Riders questioning Saruman at the gates of Isengard and then finding Wormtongue on his way to report about Gandalf, and its from him the Riders learn that Gandalf has gone to the 'land of the halflings' and where it is.

I actually dont like those bits myself n the adaptation, not that they are done badly, they are well enough adapted, its just I feel the Black Riders are better if when you first encounter them its as the hobbits do, and when they are largely a weird and scary unknown. Knowing who they are and where they come from and having already heard them having lengthy conversations with people reduces their menace in my view rather than increases it.

Eldorion wrote:The Hunt for the Ring is another really good chapter, I agree. I think it was used (technically illegally) by the BBC radio adaptation of LOTR back in the '80s.  Petty can probably say for sure.  It's neat though, especially since the only glimpses we have of the other side in the book itself are the orcs who captured Merry and Pippin and Shagrat and Gorbag in ROTK.

Oh, right, that is written from the villains' POV as well; plus the orcs who fight each other in Minas Morgul.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I actually dont like those bits myself n the adaptation, not that they are done badly, they are well enough adapted, its just I feel the Black Riders are better if when you first encounter them its as the hobbits do, and when they are largely a weird and scary unknown. Knowing who they are and where they come from and having already heard them having lengthy conversations with people reduces their menace in my view rather than increases it.

True. Good point.

I have the same problem with PJ's version- the viewer knows far too much, way more than any of the main characters, even Gandalf does, before anything actually happens involving the main characters. It destroys the suspense, the mystery and the build up.

I always rather liked the First and Second age parts. As it filled in a lot of blanks in the already commonly available released material.

The Tuor and Gondolin part I think is one of my favourites. Shame Tolkien never finished it.

Cirion and Eorl was my favorite bit from Unfinished Tales as well. I also liked the part about the Pukel men. The essay on Palantiri was fascinating.

All in all I think UT is the most satisfying Tolkien book outside of LoTR and the Hobbit. I want more.

Oh yeah, Tuor and Gondolin was fantastic. It's all the more disappointing that it wasn't finished, because the only other substantial version of the Gondolin story we have is the original from The Book of Lost Tales, which is very different from what the legendarium became (although large chunks of it were incorporated into the version in the published Silmarillion out of necessity).

I agree that UT is one of the most satisfying books. I was initially very disappointed that The History of Middle-earth wasn't more like it, and that HoME had so much more background text/explanations. But that's a factor of the different goals of the two books, and also because so many of the fragments in HoME are much less finished than the ones in UT.

Yeah. Shame is it cuts of just as things are getting really interesting too.

Always loved the cover art of UTs, which coincidentally is from that exact story.

That is some really neat art. My version of Unfinished Tales is the mass market paperback from Ballantine, with this art:



That's Tolkien in the portrait in the background, btw. My personal favorite UT cover art is probably Amon Rudh (lair of Mim the Petty-dwarf from Narn i Hin Hurin).

That's my version of UT, too.

Mine three.

[quote="Eldorion"]That is some really neat art. My version of Unfinished Tales is the mass market paperback from Ballantine, with this art:





I love this cover ! havent seen it before ? That looks more Hobbity than ANYTHING peejers has come up with !

I'm not surprised you hadn't seen it before. As far as I know it's exclusive to the Ballantine edition, which is only published in America. It is pretty nice.

I just checked my copy and the cover art is by Tony DiTerlizzi, who is better known as a children's book author and illustrator in his own right (he won the Caldecott, which is a very prestigious award for picture books).  I did a bit of Googling and he has an interesting article about the cover on his blog.

http://diterlizzi.com/home/books-there-and-back-again/

Eldorion wrote:My personal favorite UT cover art is probably Amon Rudh (lair of Mim the Petty-dwarf from Narn i Hin Hurin).

Those are pretty great too.

Think I still prefer the Ulmo one though, for it's dramatic nature. And, after all, that is the moment that lead to Morgoths downfall.