I'm reading reviews from amazon and some are saying if you own the silmarillion or some other books you don't need this one. And also that this one has incomplete stories. Have you read it yet and confirm this?
I love how the historians of middle earth don't consider literally reshaping the entire planet from a flat plane to a globe worthy of declaring the start of a new age, but cutting off some guy's ring is entirely worthy of it.
Uh? Tolkien defined the ages in function of the enemies of the middle earth. The first age ended with Morgoth being thrown into the void and the second age begun with the fall of Numenor (caused by Sauron) and ended with his defeat.
“Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate; they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.”
Tolkien stated that not only did he consider the culture of the Hobbits to be superior to all others in the Third Age of Middle Earth, but also that the Hobbits, partially because of their culture, were also uniquely capable of resisting and healing from the effects of evil. He was also a professor of linguistics, with a focus on old English, a field with notoriously unreliable and spotty records for reference. I think it’s kind of funny how he slips a preference for particularly accurate and factual reference books into his ideal society.
Finished it last night and I'm head over heels for it. In my opinion it is the best single narrative volume since the Children of Hurin. It works great as a collected story in the vein of the Silmarillion and, as you say, gives a very great "overview"? of the second age. So glad they made this, a great prelude to the tales of the third age we all know and love.
The perfect book for any Tolkien-accurate fan looking for a more chronological compendium of the Second Age of Middle Earth. It's amazing how many people thought this was going to be some sort of new canon as a result of Amazon's show, where on earth would they have received such a terrible rumor.
@@FlynntheHuman602 The film series and tv show are their own thing; separate and an adaptation of the Tolkien legendarium. They don't somehow overwrite the cannon of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It's a nice courtesy that the Amazon show tries to stay compatible (from a lore and production design standpoint) with the the New Line film series; it's nice for casual fans who may only have watched Middle-Earth stuff. But for licensing reasons, Amazon's adaptation is separate from New Line's adaptation, which is separate from the original Tolkien legendarium. Of course if we want to split hairs, the only "Official Canon" is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The unfinished works that make up the rest of the legendarium are not internally consistent, as we all well know. Heck, Lord of the Rings wasn't even internally consistent with The Hobbit when it was published, which is why the Hobbit was slightly rewritten for later publications.
@@Doug_Hannon to be honest rings of power doesn’t even stick with the films cannon. Like I would totally get if they just went off the movies for the more casual viewer, but they completely ignored everything, except when trying to get people to recognise elements of the movie trilogy(obviously written greatly inferior) and the books. No clue what rings of power is actually based on apart from being it’s own universe of a badly written unwatchable mess.
@@beeeeeesbury I mean we can just ask if it’s good and Rings if Power misses on that one too. If they wanted to be creatively unlimited they would invent a world and characters of their own and make it somehow interesting to watch E: honestly, I don’t understand the new obsession with buying out big franchises to use the characters as action figures for random scripts. Especially with material that has never been made into this medium before
Current day prints of all of the Tolkien texts, as well as the Peter Jackson films, wouldn’t have been nearly the same without Alan Lee’s masterful talent of bringing Tolkien’s legacy to life. He’s simple a master who takes his craft as serious of a care as the words in the very texts were written with.
I would love it if you made a video about making a Tolkein library. Those books you showed at the beginning, and the others like Of Beren and Luthien, are books I want. But keeping track of what's worth owning and which edition is the most authentic (and also has the most Alan Lee art) can be so confusing. For context, I once bought a David Day collection in my ignorance.
Of all the wonderful Tolkien illustrators over the decades, Alan Lee is my favorite. I remember how much fun it was to go through the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, my first exposure to Alan's work.
I have to compliment you on one thing in particular. The fact that you actually SHOW the freaking book. I am an avid book tube watcher and I can't find but a handful of reviewers who actually show the books. Most either yak about or just hold up the book and show the covers. worthless. As someone with no bookstores within a 100 miles and with troublesome eyesight I hate not being able to see the font of books so I can determine if I will even be able to read it. If booktubers are going to review a book then more need to follow your lead and actually review and discuss the ACTUAL book. True of paperbacks, hardbacks, etc. Many of us are buying blind. Totally subscribed!
I love how they managed to show us the inner workings of the best immortal craftsmen in the world. I’m sure Tolkien kept that a mystery because he didn’t have the depth of mind to suggest more than one alloy be combined. Modern day smiths could learn from this show!
@@magnificus8581 I would not have been shocked if Halbrand had whipped out an iPhone and scrolled through a bunch of twerking girls to show Celebrimbor a 20 second smithing video on tik tok
Loved the whole interview with Brian and that book is definitely a must have. And I hope that the series adapts that drawing of the temple of Melkor with everything and that river of blood
Thanks for all you do! I got into tolkiens stuff a few years ago and your RUclips channel has been instrumental in helping me love his world all the more! Keep doing what your doing
I just received my hard copy today. I’ve been listening to the audiobook and it is excellent! So grateful to those dedicated to compiling and editing Tolkien’s works so we can continue to discover and delight in the incredible depth and stories of Middle Earth.
I have Pre-Ordered, and I am excited for the same reason, We are getting a Merged together all (most) the tales of the Second Age in 1 Book!!! I haven't just looked inside, but Brian Sibley even put it in Chronological Order!!! Man Thanks Brian, Nice Touch!!!!
Thanks my friend. As I pretty much own an edition (or two) of all of JRR's works, I think this book, well edited by Brian Sibley, will be very much appreciated! note: I purchased the "History of Middle Earth" books as Christopher released each volume, so I envy the smaller footprint of your 3 Vol set, heh. Might I also suggest, you investigate the availability of Vol 13 to that set, which serves as an outstanding 'Index' to not just the "HoME" set but the other vols of the Legendarium as well. When I purchased it, it was still "print on demand" but I believe it has since garnered sufficient success for them to have pre-published editions available from Harper Collins. :) p.s. Dang, yet another Silmarillion for me to purchase (with JRR's artwork)? That's another slam-dunk.
Pre-ordered the book & am really looking forward to reading it. Already excited just watching you page through it. Should cut down on the “book-jumping” I usually do!!
That's why I'm not watching this video and just perusing the comments while listening. I don't want electronic viewing spoilers. Also my laptop doesn't smell anything like a book.
I hadn't seen your face until recently, and I have to say, I'm shocked that you're not NEARLY as Nerdy as I expected. I have always watched these envisioning the face of Richard Langly ala Lone Gunman/X-Files, and here you are a totally normal guy!! This is like by FAR the best Tolkien channel, and one of my all-time favs on RUclips. I've seen them all.
Great video! What bugs me about the US editions of Tolkien’s latest is that they aren’t in scale with my UK editions - a fell afoul of this when Nature of Middle-earth came out. Thankfully I’ve got my family back in England to kindly pick up the UK edition for me and have it signed by Alan and Brian at Blackwell’s, Oxford 🤩
So a while back, I discovered you can just order from Amazon UK rather than Amazon US. It's great for buying unadulterated versions of books written by UK authors. IDK why, but American publishers insist on Americanizing books for the US market. You can also sometimes get books before they're released in the US.
Thank You, Nerd of the Rings, for your thoughtfully put-together recommended list and thoughtful elegantly edited presentation AND your setup is nicely understated yet rich in content! Going with your previous overall recommended reading order with tweaks of course.
My reading list keeps getting bigger the more videos I watch haha. Book looks great and awesome you got to interview him for the second time. I'll need to go back and watch your Tolkien reading video and plug this one in there.
Ordered it. I love the idea of everything about Numenor in one place. The illustrations alone make the book worth it anyways even though I am already buying wayyy too many books and my bank account is being highly pressured right now🤣🤣🤣
Looks amazing. I did enjoy most of Christopher Tolkien's publications, but I prefer the continuous narrative approach like Children of Húrin over the History of Middle-Earth style presented in the subsequent releases. This looks more like the former.
That's the thing I love the most. Being able to add something, not just comment on already given content :) So here it is, my review, mostly of the release itself. I work with book production (post DTP, post print, rather all that happens after raw print on B-sized sheets and before ready product). I have the same release as author has in his video. = THE BODY = It was supposed to be the last part, but as it's my professional experience, I can say something about often-neglected part. The release itself. I got Polish version, but looks the same. It has double cover - soft and hard, soft with UV 3D selective lacquer (that isn't cheap, manual work by the means of screen printing), soft-touch foil coating (that velvety feel, one of the most expensive foils for paper) and that combination - 3D lacquer + soft touch - is done with higher shelf products. It has a red ribbon to serve as bookmark. The quality of paper is overall fair, but here it's not something expensive, your standard non-whitened 80g/m2 paper, so thickness like typical printer paper. The print is all black and white with some pencil alike sketches, not as content that adds anything, but more like the space fillers. But they are nice. There are a few cluster of pages (i.e. a few in a row, not one evey x pages) with thicker paper quite nice colourful images with a sort of glitter paint, but no labels whatsoever (the first one caused my instant reaction "oh, that's Moria, cool that you can see it without label", but then everything looks like Moria, so maybe it wasn't it?). There are two maps - both in color. One of the Numenor (one of these thicker pages), one of the Middle Earth at the end of TE (inner cover). I can't say much about DTP itself, but there's a weird approach: I felt like I have to relearn regular expressions - things in braces are something, unless they have some margin, but things in... One day I might make a block chart of DTP of Numenor. Font is average size, easy readable References are a hell. [edit: language quirk, I mean rather footnotes, but they are mixed up with references] They are on the end of the book, which I hate (it's not like they didn't have space, there are pages with half content and rest empty or with some another sketch) and without differentiating of simply pointing to source (like "Rings, p. 234") or some key details, nursery-rhymes/songs and other content that add something to the content. No, you don't know if you gonna finish half sentence to jump for the references pages (it's not the last, so own bookmark is needed) to learn something more or just to see it's a quote from Hobbit. So generally while cover is really expensive, the insides feel cheap and rushed. Books with such price are often coffee-table style books, printed all color, on coated HQ paper. == THE SOUL == Then more intros, we got some history of the books, no stories about book itself, which might be good, if you look for creation OF fiction, not creation IN fiction. And when we finish it, we are already almost halfway to the book. Then we have some stories, but I always got this feeling "I know it already from somewhere". I don't remember if LOTR, Hobbit, Sil, or my fav - Unfinished Tales, but it wasn't all new for me, while in earlier books (read in given order) there were mentions, continuity, but without that feeling of rereading things. OK, a few new things here and there, but generally channels like this one give you more IMO. You may say books has more details and that's usually true, but here - no really. After all they are leftovers of leftovers. So maybe for hardcore fans, maybe for these who want to understand RoP series better (wasn't that real purpose of the book?). But if you want new content, you won't be happy. And who gets all the cash from the book? With usual 30% profit marigin (for 30 PLN book, they earn 9 PLN and 21 PLN is the cost), here it's by my estimates the book cost is about 20-30 PLN at most and price is ~100 PLN, so profit margin is about 70%.
So now that this book is released, what would you say is the "reading order" for the middle earth universe for someone who wants to start chronologically? The Hobbit and LOTR aside, from my understanding the reading order (that some people suggested to me) was: 1. The Silmarillion (up until the chapter Of the Fifth Battle) 2. The Children of Hurin 3. The Silmarillion (start again from the chapter Of the Ruin of Doriath) 4. Beren and Luthien 5. The Fall of Gondolin 6. Appendices of The Return of the King And then continue with History of Middle Earth series, Unfinished Tales and Letters of JRR Tolkien if you crave more. How does that list change with this book being released?
it is a bound bookmark or more commonly a ribbon marker, which is most often attached to the book by being adhered to the head of the spine and brought out under the endband, if there was one.
Just to be clear....it basically just takes everything Tolkien ever wrote about the 2nd age and just organizes these writings in Chronological order? So it takes stuff from Unfinished Tales, the Silmarillion, HOME, LOTR Appendices, and excerpts from LOTR and just combines them all into one essentially?
@@NerdoftheRings Ok appreciate you clarifying. So essentially there's no "new" material so to speak. I also heard they left out the writings on Celeborn and Galadriel but I guess given how incomplete they were I can see why.
I wonder if we will ever have a reworked Silmarillion on the basis of all that was unearthed in HoME. From a philological point of view, Christopher Tolkien has always been more a geneticist than an ideal manuscript guy, but audiences expect complete and coherent works. This kind of job by Sibley on the narrower case of Numenor is suggesting to me that the publisher wants to test whether “clean” editions of the legendarium still sell, even though they do not provide new materials.
The Silmarillion should have the last 2 chapters removed, focusing on the silmarils. And they could make a single book just for ainulindale and valaquenta, Full of illustrations more than any other (like Hp by Jim Kay), and there could also be one for the 3 age (before the Hobbit, and between the Hobbit and lotr). And one for everything after the 3 age
That’s exactly what I thought when I read Unfinished Tales and later The Nature of Middle-Earth. There should be a revised version of the Silmarillion, since many things changed in Tolkien’s later writings.
The problem with doing this is that there’s just too many times Tolkien changed his mind. Many of his final thoughts contradict the rest of the story he had already written and didn’t have time to change. It would be almost impossible without such a published work seeming like a fan fiction piecing his contradictions together and making them make sense. Gil-Galad’s backstory alone amplifies this problem, as well as the problem of Sauron setting aside/carrying his ring from Numenor (which one is it!?) Fan-fiction is fine, I guess, but then others would have their complaints about which of their favorite versions of the stories were left out. 🤷♀️
A Tolkien book without appendices is like a Marvel film without an 'after-credits scene' (in fact, I'd contend that Marvel got that idea from Tolkien books 😜 ). I pre-ordered my copy...but it's being delivered to a place I've moved from....can't wait to go collect it!! Excited!
as someone who owns damn near every tolkien related book including HoME. i wish all NEW content in future prints could be distilled out of many of the publications
I'm a casual fan so this might be a silly question, but you mentioned a lot of these books are compiled works. So is it all stuff that was previously printed aka the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings apendices just restructured?
DEATH BATTLE is having a fight between Sauron and the Lich King from Warcraft this Monday. Do you have any thoughts, and would you consider doing a live reaction to it?
Quick Question matt? how far has your hiking journey gotten! i remember we got a short about your medal before but just wondering where you are at now!
Ah! Our fellowship completed it! You can't see it in the background of this video bc the shield is covering them, but I have all the medals hanging in the background.
I love getting 'new' Tolkien books. I remember reading the Silmarillion and loving the story of Beren and Luthien but getting the book 'Beren and Luthien' was more than worth it.
Thank you! I noticed that you have the latest edition of The Silmarillion, illustrated by Tolkien. I am itching to have my own copy of the book, but I am trying to choose which edition to go for. The options being - this one, the 2021 Illustrated or 2021 Illustrated Deluxe. The 2021 ones contain Ted Smith's artwork, and around 49 of them I hear. I am leaning towards a simple thought - for text Tolkien, but for artwork go to Ted Nasmith, or Alan Lee. Would you mind suggesting one way or the other, please?
Is the story of Tal-Elmer from HoME included in this? It was unfinished but I always liked that story, seeing the Numenoreans from an outside perspective was super interesting, couldn’t see it in the chapter list and not sure where it would fit chronologically
"Bookmark string" is the technical term coined in 967 for monks to track passages of the Bible for the next service. Just kidding; book mark or placemark is often used, but to my knowledge no literal name. I'm excited for this book! Thanks for going through it. It'll be nice to not have to jump between books to reference the age.
I have US editions of the Great Tales as well as Tales from the Perilous Realm. This book measures 9 inches tall instead of 8.5 (as the other books are) which is a bummer. Also the cover doesn't look glossy like the other US covers. This is going to mess up my shelf a little. Had I a little more knowledge I would have bought Harper Collins to begin with. Now that William and Morrow have taken over they've slightly adjusted their production from HMH.
You keep insisting about the Blue Wizards changed canon, however how the canon goes about Yolkien’s books is - it cannot contradict The Hobbit and The LOTR books , as the published ones by Tolkien . Which is why Christopher published the Silmarilion in the version as it is - to not contradict the canon already established. That’s why neither Unfinished Tales , nor ( and I can’t emphasise more , especially) History of Middle Earth , are not canon ( as Christopher writes in the notes ). So , mixing everything together on fact tries to change the canon. And the Blue wizard topic , nor the new Tree Years calculations are NOT canon.
I can understand that perspective if you want to only treat LOTR & Hobbit as canon, but to do so is to ignore a great deal of Tolkien’s wider world. (Even The Silmarillion cannot be wholly “canon” by your standard as Christopher made it clear he made mistakes in it.) Tolkien’s reworking of the Blue Wizards were some of his last-ever writings of Middle-earth, and while they weren’t published in a book in his lifetime, they also were not abandoned/struck down by Tolkien like “New Shadow” was. I’ll conclude with Tolkien’s own words regarding the Blue Wizards… “They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.”
@@NerdoftheRings by no means do I say everything else should be ignored . However it should be not treated as canon when it contradicts the first published officially materials by him ( in regards of Middle Earth related materials ). Which is why when Christopher published those that were left unfinished or in contradiction , he put them as something outside of the canon ( writing long notes where and how they were written by his father and how they contradict the canon). My fear comes in cherry picking what contradictory materials to choose as “ new canon”. And that such books ( haven’t read this one being reviews by you here, yet myself). Would do exactly that , mix up canon i counter-canon and create a completely new ( and thus contradictory ) idea about canon. As for Tolkien’s words about the Blue Wizards in Unfinished Tales about the Istari his vision about them was that they most likely get corrupt . Tolkien’s work on his world and story building is so vast it’s bigger than the life of the author himself . So, it’s normal different ideas to come to his fascinating imagination and creativity , that if not fully checking in every moment the established canon in the already published can create contradictions. But exactly because of that we are grateful to Christopher, for both selecting your best of his ability the stories that can fit in the already established and published narrative , and to further give all the other materials , but giving them the background and the context and the comparison to the established. And a book mixing everything up can as easily create misinformation for a reader who has not read all of the materials presented with all of the info why they were not published as canon .
Indeed! That is actually the copy of The Silmarillion I show in the beginning and reference at the end. My deluxe edition is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'm hoping to record both regular and deluxe edition in the same video. :)
Thanks for a great video. I'm excited for these new books. I definitely want The Fall Of Numenor and the new edition of The Silmarillion. That's a nice cover on The Unfinished Tales. Is that a U.S. or UK edition? I actually have the first U.S. edition, first print of Unfinished Tales.
Thanks for the video. I can’t wait to get mine. What’s dissatisfying about Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Luthian, and History is how they’re edited. The different versions and sketches are separated by commentary and there’s no chronological narrative. I want to know if this reads as a continuous narrative or as an academic analysis of Tolkien’s work.
In 2994, during the settling of Balin's Colony, they were attacked by an onslaught of orcs.[3] Óin led a group to the west side of the city hoping to find escape through the Doors of Durin, but instead he found the water up to the doors where the Watcher in the Water killed him. The Dwarves were trapped, and wiped out. Wasn't the door open at the time of Oin´s death?
Thank you for this review. I wonder if this book changes how the beginner to the expanded world of LOTR's first explores the second age? Is this book the equivalent then of how "Children of Húrin", "Beren And Lúthien", and "The Fall Of Gondolin" fills out the First age from the Silmarillion? (Am I right about those being first age stories? Out of those books,, so far I only have the Silmarillion, but I am working on collecting what I need to best explore the Tolkien world after the Hobbit and LOTR's.) The Fall of Númenor seems to be the most complete, and in chronological order, of the Second age all in one book expanding on the Númenor chapter is the Silmarillion from various other texts. So my biggest question I guess is, does this make "Unifinished Tales" unnecessary for the first time collector as an essential now? I realize that long term fans already have Unfinished Tales, and they might be asking the question the other way around. But I don't have a good copy of Unfinished Tales, and wonder what might be in that, that isn't now included in "The Fall of Númenor.? Is there anything in the Unfinished Tales that isn't included in any of the books I mentioned covering the first, second, or even the third age? Does "The Fall of Númenor" change how essential Unfinished Tales is to understanding or appreciating Middle Earth before the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?
I heard that the Fall of Numenor is just the same text as we read about numenor from the previous books with no extra stuff, unlike the fall of gondolin and beren and luthien and the children of hurin, where they add extra text and early versions of the story, and unfinished edits.
I haven’t read any books yet. I plan on doing a solid read through of as many as I can. I have been gifted this book and am so eager to read. Huge fan of the movie franchise and I enjoyed the hobbit. How would you include this book in order of read through? I have seen your video explaining your recommendation, though it did not include this book obviously because of the release difference. Love your content by the way. Huge fan Thanks
I´m currently reading the first book of the franchise, the hobbit. I thought for years about getting in and now finally I am at it! Enjoying it so far really, since I´m a huge fan of fantasy lore. I already bought the Trilogy to continue after the hobbit. Can´t wait for it to start reading. Btw do you have a recommendation for me in wich order I should read the books?
It seems nice and those illustrations are honestly a wonderful addition! However it still feels a bit redundant once one already has all of Tolkien’s books.
I actually pre ordered the audiobook and it just finished downloading! Definitely will listen to it next after the Children of Húrin, so I'm guessing they don't have a audiobook of the nature of middle-earth but one called the tales of the perilous realms. Is that somewhat the same?
Completely different. Tales of the Perilous Realm are a collection of short stories mostly unrelated to Middle Earth. Only a short collection of poems pertaining to Tom Bombadil. No plans for an audiobook version for the Nature of Middle Earth are planned so far.
The Fall of Númenor is available now!
Regular Edition: amzn.to/3h30jey
Deluxe Edition: tinyurl.com/32vxm475
Audiobook: amzn.to/3Undnd2
I'm reading reviews from amazon and some are saying if you own the silmarillion or some other books you don't need this one. And also that this one has incomplete stories. Have you read it yet and confirm this?
Where would you place this in your reading order between which books?
I love how the historians of middle earth don't consider literally reshaping the entire planet from a flat plane to a globe worthy of declaring the start of a new age, but cutting off some guy's ring is entirely worthy of it.
Uh both those events are in the same age. The reshaping of arda and the war of the last alliance are in the second age
@@historicdude7996 that’s the point he’s making
@@bnasty5614 oh wait my bad i totally misread it
Uh? Tolkien defined the ages in function of the enemies of the middle earth. The first age ended with Morgoth being thrown into the void and the second age begun with the fall of Numenor (caused by Sauron) and ended with his defeat.
Are they, except the Valar and their followers, awared of the reshaping of Arda?
Alan Lee is a godsend when it comes to Tolkien-related art. Him, John Howe and Ted Nasmith are to me the definitive Middle-earth artists.
Damn right
Not Hildebrandt? /s
Brothers Hildebrandt, man. Sheesh....
Such a great explanation of the need for this book and its contents. I really appreciate the work you do to make Tolkien accessible to all the fans.
“Hobbits delighted in such things, if they were accurate; they liked to have books filled with things that they already knew, set out fair and square with no contradictions.”
Tolkien stated that not only did he consider the culture of the Hobbits to be superior to all others in the Third Age of Middle Earth, but also that the Hobbits, partially because of their culture, were also uniquely capable of resisting and healing from the effects of evil. He was also a professor of linguistics, with a focus on old English, a field with notoriously unreliable and spotty records for reference. I think it’s kind of funny how he slips a preference for particularly accurate and factual reference books into his ideal society.
Finished it last night and I'm head over heels for it. In my opinion it is the best single narrative volume since the Children of Hurin. It works great as a collected story in the vein of the Silmarillion and, as you say, gives a very great "overview"? of the second age. So glad they made this, a great prelude to the tales of the third age we all know and love.
Glad to see that this is all Tolkien. Artwork looks amazing.
The perfect book for any Tolkien-accurate fan looking for a more chronological compendium of the Second Age of Middle Earth. It's amazing how many people thought this was going to be some sort of new canon as a result of Amazon's show, where on earth would they have received such a terrible rumor.
We do have a new officially licensed canon courtesy of the Tolkien estate and Amazon. It’s becoming Star Wars in that way
@@FlynntheHuman602 The film series and tv show are their own thing; separate and an adaptation of the Tolkien legendarium. They don't somehow overwrite the cannon of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It's a nice courtesy that the Amazon show tries to stay compatible (from a lore and production design standpoint) with the the New Line film series; it's nice for casual fans who may only have watched Middle-Earth stuff. But for licensing reasons, Amazon's adaptation is separate from New Line's adaptation, which is separate from the original Tolkien legendarium. Of course if we want to split hairs, the only "Official Canon" is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The unfinished works that make up the rest of the legendarium are not internally consistent, as we all well know. Heck, Lord of the Rings wasn't even internally consistent with The Hobbit when it was published, which is why the Hobbit was slightly rewritten for later publications.
@@Doug_Hannon to be honest rings of power doesn’t even stick with the films cannon. Like I would totally get if they just went off the movies for the more casual viewer, but they completely ignored everything, except when trying to get people to recognise elements of the movie trilogy(obviously written greatly inferior) and the books. No clue what rings of power is actually based on apart from being it’s own universe of a badly written unwatchable mess.
@@FlynntheHuman602 what's with people's obsession with cannon and non-cannon material? Its so creatively limiting.
@@beeeeeesbury I mean we can just ask if it’s good and Rings if Power misses on that one too. If they wanted to be creatively unlimited they would invent a world and characters of their own and make it somehow interesting to watch
E: honestly, I don’t understand the new obsession with buying out big franchises to use the characters as action figures for random scripts. Especially with material that has never been made into this medium before
I've heard a librarian call it a " Readers Ribbon" could have just been her name for it but I liked it.
Current day prints of all of the Tolkien texts, as well as the Peter Jackson films, wouldn’t have been nearly the same without Alan Lee’s masterful talent of bringing Tolkien’s legacy to life. He’s simple a master who takes his craft as serious of a care as the words in the very texts were written with.
It's so well laid out.
And it's so cool to see new Alan Lee artwork.
I would love it if you made a video about making a Tolkein library. Those books you showed at the beginning, and the others like Of Beren and Luthien, are books I want. But keeping track of what's worth owning and which edition is the most authentic (and also has the most Alan Lee art) can be so confusing. For context, I once bought a David Day collection in my ignorance.
i second that
Please do this!
This would be fantastic
At least the colour artwork in David Day's books isn't just shades of grey.
@@frankshailes3205 Yes!
Of all the wonderful Tolkien illustrators over the decades, Alan Lee is my favorite. I remember how much fun it was to go through the centenary edition of The Lord of the Rings, my first exposure to Alan's work.
Is that the one with the brown cloth hardboards and the battle of Helm's Deep, after the Fire of Orthanc breaches the wall, on the dust jacket?
I expect we'll get a "The Fall of Arnor" sometime in the future. Lots of scattered info on the Third Age too.
I'd love that, because I find the war against the witch-king a really interesting topic. Also, I'd love to see Alan Lee's illustrations for that book.
You think that the fall of armor could be a possible nother book
It would be a pretty cool triple set to have on a bookshelf.
1) The Fall of Gondolin
2) The Fall of Numenor
3) The Fall of Arnor
Fall of Arnor would be great! I hope there are enough writings from Tolkien for a new book.
The Fall of Arnor could/would be cool, though I believe its covered enough within the appendices of LotR.
You never know, though!
I have to compliment you on one thing in particular. The fact that you actually SHOW the freaking book. I am an avid book tube watcher and I can't find but a handful of reviewers who actually show the books. Most either yak about or just hold up the book and show the covers. worthless. As someone with no bookstores within a 100 miles and with troublesome eyesight I hate not being able to see the font of books so I can determine if I will even be able to read it. If booktubers are going to review a book then more need to follow your lead and actually review and discuss the ACTUAL book. True of paperbacks, hardbacks, etc. Many of us are buying blind. Totally subscribed!
Numenor is, in my opinion, Tolkien's most poignant tale. My copy of this is on order and I anxiously await its arrival!
I love the chapter where halbrand helps Celebrimbor forge the rings of power and Galadriel suggests to make 3. Gave me chills.
How original.
I love how they managed to show us the inner workings of the best immortal craftsmen in the world. I’m sure Tolkien kept that a mystery because he didn’t have the depth of mind to suggest more than one alloy be combined. Modern day smiths could learn from this show!
@@kingkai1763 he was not aware that the metals needed to coaxed together. Thankfully tictok videos show modern smiths how to do it properly.
That was my favorite part
@@magnificus8581 I would not have been shocked if Halbrand had whipped out an iPhone and scrolled through a bunch of twerking girls to show Celebrimbor a 20 second smithing video on tik tok
Loved the whole interview with Brian and that book is definitely a must have. And I hope that the series adapts that drawing of the temple of Melkor with everything and that river of blood
Thanks for all you do! I got into tolkiens stuff a few years ago and your RUclips channel has been instrumental in helping me love his world all the more! Keep doing what your doing
I just received my hard copy today. I’ve been listening to the audiobook and it is excellent! So grateful to those dedicated to compiling and editing Tolkien’s works so we can continue to discover and delight in the incredible depth and stories of Middle Earth.
Great review🎉
Alan’s art looks stunning
The music is a bit distracting but thank you for showing us the contents of the book. Alan Lee is a fantastic illustrator!
Im off to Oxford tomorrow (11/11/22) for the signing by Alan Lee and Brian Sibley of this book as you can imagine Im very excited
I have Pre-Ordered, and I am excited for the same reason, We are getting a Merged together all (most) the tales of the Second Age in 1 Book!!! I haven't just looked inside, but Brian Sibley even put it in Chronological Order!!! Man Thanks Brian, Nice Touch!!!!
I love how you just pile up the books I couldn't stop laughing !
So well done Matt! This is why your Channel is so amazing! Enjoyed this. Excited to get my copy coming in the mail!
I have started to listen to the audio book - it is awesome - Brian Sibley is a great narrator.
Thanks my friend. As I pretty much own an edition (or two) of all of JRR's works, I think this book, well edited by Brian Sibley, will be very much appreciated!
note: I purchased the "History of Middle Earth" books as Christopher released each volume, so I envy the smaller footprint of your 3 Vol set, heh. Might I also suggest, you investigate the availability of Vol 13 to that set, which serves as an outstanding 'Index' to not just the "HoME" set but the other vols of the Legendarium as well. When I purchased it, it was still "print on demand" but I believe it has since garnered sufficient success for them to have pre-published editions available from Harper Collins. :)
p.s. Dang, yet another Silmarillion for me to purchase (with JRR's artwork)? That's another slam-dunk.
The years with the major events titles is REALLY cool and helpful!
Matt you always add so much humour to your vids! Always the best dad jokes on show. Thanks for the review
Was glad you showed the TOC, which has been very hard to find online elsewhere.
Pre-ordered the book & am really looking forward to reading it. Already excited just watching you page through it. Should cut down on the “book-jumping” I usually do!!
That's why I'm not watching this video and just perusing the comments while listening. I don't want electronic viewing spoilers. Also my laptop doesn't smell anything like a book.
I have just preordered mine a while back. I've always been a fan of Second Age lore.
Tolkien is dead for 40 years and is still releasing works
Thats dedication
Can't stop won't stop
I hadn't seen your face until recently, and I have to say, I'm shocked that you're not NEARLY as Nerdy as I expected. I have always watched these envisioning the face of Richard Langly ala Lone Gunman/X-Files, and here you are a totally normal guy!! This is like by FAR the best Tolkien channel, and one of my all-time favs on RUclips. I've seen them all.
Great video! What bugs me about the US editions of Tolkien’s latest is that they aren’t in scale with my UK editions - a fell afoul of this when Nature of Middle-earth came out. Thankfully I’ve got my family back in England to kindly pick up the UK edition for me and have it signed by Alan and Brian at Blackwell’s, Oxford 🤩
So a while back, I discovered you can just order from Amazon UK rather than Amazon US. It's great for buying unadulterated versions of books written by UK authors. IDK why, but American publishers insist on Americanizing books for the US market. You can also sometimes get books before they're released in the US.
Thanks for the great presentation! Can’t wait to get my hands in a copy!
Thank You, Nerd of the Rings, for your thoughtfully put-together recommended list and thoughtful elegantly edited presentation AND your setup is nicely understated yet rich in content! Going with your previous overall recommended reading order with tweaks of course.
Book looks great , the illustrations are marvelous bonus
With this book, can you do an updated reading order?
My reading list keeps getting bigger the more videos I watch haha. Book looks great and awesome you got to interview him for the second time. I'll need to go back and watch your Tolkien reading video and plug this one in there.
You should do a collection tour of all your books
I am looking forward to picking this up! Thanks for the review 😊
Ordered it. I love the idea of everything about Numenor in one place. The illustrations alone make the book worth it anyways even though I am already buying wayyy too many books and my bank account is being highly pressured right now🤣🤣🤣
Looks amazing. I did enjoy most of Christopher Tolkien's publications, but I prefer the continuous narrative approach like Children of Húrin over the History of Middle-Earth style presented in the subsequent releases. This looks more like the former.
Might get this for the Alan Lee artwork and the convenience. I already own all the books in that great honkin' stack!
"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." -Bruce Feirstein
Have mine pre-ordered and set aside at my local bookstore and I cannot wait.
I can't wait for this book! What future books would you like to see that are similar to this one?
Sauron's wacky adventures in Mordor
I can't wait to read this was gonna ask it for a Christmas present but I can't wait till then 😘💜
🤭me too🤍
@@LaughThruLife yea 🤭🤗😁😘💜
Hahaha I was thinking the same!
That's the thing I love the most. Being able to add something, not just comment on already given content :) So here it is, my review, mostly of the release itself. I work with book production (post DTP, post print, rather all that happens after raw print on B-sized sheets and before ready product). I have the same release as author has in his video.
= THE BODY =
It was supposed to be the last part, but as it's my professional experience, I can say something about often-neglected part. The release itself. I got Polish version, but looks the same. It has double cover - soft and hard, soft with UV 3D selective lacquer (that isn't cheap, manual work by the means of screen printing), soft-touch foil coating (that velvety feel, one of the most expensive foils for paper) and that combination - 3D lacquer + soft touch - is done with higher shelf products. It has a red ribbon to serve as bookmark.
The quality of paper is overall fair, but here it's not something expensive, your standard non-whitened 80g/m2 paper, so thickness like typical printer paper. The print is all black and white with some pencil alike sketches, not as content that adds anything, but more like the space fillers. But they are nice. There are a few cluster of pages (i.e. a few in a row, not one evey x pages) with thicker paper quite nice colourful images with a sort of glitter paint, but no labels whatsoever (the first one caused my instant reaction "oh, that's Moria, cool that you can see it without label", but then everything looks like Moria, so maybe it wasn't it?). There are two maps - both in color. One of the Numenor (one of these thicker pages), one of the Middle Earth at the end of TE (inner cover).
I can't say much about DTP itself, but there's a weird approach: I felt like I have to relearn regular expressions - things in braces are something, unless they have some margin, but things in... One day I might make a block chart of DTP of Numenor. Font is average size, easy readable
References are a hell. [edit: language quirk, I mean rather footnotes, but they are mixed up with references] They are on the end of the book, which I hate (it's not like they didn't have space, there are pages with half content and rest empty or with some another sketch) and without differentiating of simply pointing to source (like "Rings, p. 234") or some key details, nursery-rhymes/songs and other content that add something to the content. No, you don't know if you gonna finish half sentence to jump for the references pages (it's not the last, so own bookmark is needed) to learn something more or just to see it's a quote from Hobbit.
So generally while cover is really expensive, the insides feel cheap and rushed. Books with such price are often coffee-table style books, printed all color, on coated HQ paper.
== THE SOUL ==
Then more intros, we got some history of the books, no stories about book itself, which might be good, if you look for creation OF fiction, not creation IN fiction. And when we finish it, we are already almost halfway to the book.
Then we have some stories, but I always got this feeling "I know it already from somewhere". I don't remember if LOTR, Hobbit, Sil, or my fav - Unfinished Tales, but it wasn't all new for me, while in earlier books (read in given order) there were mentions, continuity, but without that feeling of rereading things. OK, a few new things here and there, but generally channels like this one give you more IMO. You may say books has more details and that's usually true, but here - no really. After all they are leftovers of leftovers.
So maybe for hardcore fans, maybe for these who want to understand RoP series better (wasn't that real purpose of the book?). But if you want new content, you won't be happy. And who gets all the cash from the book? With usual 30% profit marigin (for 30 PLN book, they earn 9 PLN and 21 PLN is the cost), here it's by my estimates the book cost is about 20-30 PLN at most and price is ~100 PLN, so profit margin is about 70%.
cant wait to pick it up
So now that this book is released, what would you say is the "reading order" for the middle earth universe for someone who wants to start chronologically?
The Hobbit and LOTR aside, from my understanding the reading order (that some people suggested to me) was:
1. The Silmarillion (up until the chapter Of the Fifth Battle)
2. The Children of Hurin
3. The Silmarillion (start again from the chapter Of the Ruin of Doriath)
4. Beren and Luthien
5. The Fall of Gondolin
6. Appendices of The Return of the King
And then continue with History of Middle Earth series, Unfinished Tales and Letters of JRR Tolkien if you crave more.
How does that list change with this book being released?
Thank you for putting the link in the chat👍
Bought it, read it, loved it
it is a bound bookmark or more commonly a ribbon marker, which is most often attached to the book by being adhered to the head of the spine and brought out under the endband, if there was one.
Hey Nerd totally unrelated.. but ANDOR is so freaking good! Luthen's speech, damn!
So…freaking…good.
Just got this book for Christmas and I'm so excited to start reading
Just to be clear....it basically just takes everything Tolkien ever wrote about the 2nd age and just organizes these writings in Chronological order? So it takes stuff from Unfinished Tales, the Silmarillion, HOME, LOTR Appendices, and excerpts from LOTR and just combines them all into one essentially?
Pretty much, yes. The only other point to know is that it takes the final/most complete version of stories that have multiple versions.
@@NerdoftheRings Ok appreciate you clarifying. So essentially there's no "new" material so to speak. I also heard they left out the writings on Celeborn and Galadriel but I guess given how incomplete they were I can see why.
Where would you place this in your reading order? Would this be a good primer for the Silmarillion?
I would think more the other way around as most of The Silmarillion covers what happened before the 2nd Age.
I wonder if we will ever have a reworked Silmarillion on the basis of all that was unearthed in HoME. From a philological point of view, Christopher Tolkien has always been more a geneticist than an ideal manuscript guy, but audiences expect complete and coherent works. This kind of job by Sibley on the narrower case of Numenor is suggesting to me that the publisher wants to test whether “clean” editions of the legendarium still sell, even though they do not provide new materials.
The Silmarillion should have the last 2 chapters removed, focusing on the silmarils. And they could make a single book just for ainulindale and valaquenta, Full of illustrations more than any other (like Hp by Jim Kay), and there could also be one for the 3 age (before the Hobbit, and between the Hobbit and lotr). And one for everything after the 3 age
That’s exactly what I thought when I read Unfinished Tales and later The Nature of Middle-Earth. There should be a revised version of the Silmarillion, since many things changed in Tolkien’s later writings.
The problem with doing this is that there’s just too many times Tolkien changed his mind. Many of his final thoughts contradict the rest of the story he had already written and didn’t have time to change. It would be almost impossible without such a published work seeming like a fan fiction piecing his contradictions together and making them make sense. Gil-Galad’s backstory alone amplifies this problem, as well as the problem of Sauron setting aside/carrying his ring from Numenor (which one is it!?) Fan-fiction is fine, I guess, but then others would have their complaints about which of their favorite versions of the stories were left out. 🤷♀️
@@mrs.manrique7411 Yeah there is no *final* version because he never wrote one
A Tolkien book without appendices is like a Marvel film without an 'after-credits scene' (in fact, I'd contend that Marvel got that idea from Tolkien books 😜 ). I pre-ordered my copy...but it's being delivered to a place I've moved from....can't wait to go collect it!! Excited!
as someone who owns damn near every tolkien related book including HoME. i wish all NEW content in future prints could be distilled out of many of the publications
I'm a casual fan so this might be a silly question, but you mentioned a lot of these books are compiled works. So is it all stuff that was previously printed aka the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings apendices just restructured?
Do you think that the showrunners of The Rings of Power should read the book before filming season two ???
DEATH BATTLE is having a fight between Sauron and the Lich King from Warcraft this Monday.
Do you have any thoughts, and would you consider doing a live reaction to it?
Just downloaded a copy on Audible. Can't wait to dig into it!
Quick Question matt? how far has your hiking journey gotten! i remember we got a short about your medal before but just wondering where you are at now!
Ah! Our fellowship completed it! You can't see it in the background of this video bc the shield is covering them, but I have all the medals hanging in the background.
@@NerdoftheRings THATS AWESOME!
I love this book it's a very nice read after the silmarillion for me
I love getting 'new' Tolkien books. I remember reading the Silmarillion and loving the story of Beren and Luthien but getting the book 'Beren and Luthien' was more than worth it.
Thank you! I noticed that you have the latest edition of The Silmarillion, illustrated by Tolkien. I am itching to have my own copy of the book, but I am trying to choose which edition to go for. The options being - this one, the 2021 Illustrated or 2021 Illustrated Deluxe. The 2021 ones contain Ted Smith's artwork, and around 49 of them I hear.
I am leaning towards a simple thought - for text Tolkien, but for artwork go to Ted Nasmith, or Alan Lee.
Would you mind suggesting one way or the other, please?
Is the story of Tal-Elmer from HoME included in this? It was unfinished but I always liked that story, seeing the Numenoreans from an outside perspective was super interesting, couldn’t see it in the chapter list and not sure where it would fit chronologically
A must have book, thanks for this review. waiting for the new (Silmarillion) book review.
"Bookmark string" is the technical term coined in 967 for monks to track passages of the Bible for the next service.
Just kidding; book mark or placemark is often used, but to my knowledge no literal name.
I'm excited for this book! Thanks for going through it. It'll be nice to not have to jump between books to reference the age.
And they did let you know what that is actually called 🙃
According to Wikipedia, the ribbon is called a bookmark: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmark. I know, it’s not what I was expecting either.
Great job reviewing this book it looks awesome! Maybe sometime you could give us a tour of all your books in the Nerdcave
It would be nice to see the top of the book as well (so we can see how the book is bound; with 'signatures' or just perfect glue bound, etc.).
I have US editions of the Great Tales as well as Tales from the Perilous Realm. This book measures 9 inches tall instead of 8.5 (as the other books are) which is a bummer. Also the cover doesn't look glossy like the other US covers. This is going to mess up my shelf a little. Had I a little more knowledge I would have bought Harper Collins to begin with. Now that William and Morrow have taken over they've slightly adjusted their production from HMH.
You keep insisting about the Blue Wizards changed canon, however how the canon goes about Yolkien’s books is - it cannot contradict The Hobbit and The LOTR books , as the published ones by Tolkien . Which is why Christopher published the Silmarilion in the version as it is - to not contradict the canon already established. That’s why neither Unfinished Tales , nor ( and I can’t emphasise more , especially) History of Middle Earth , are not canon ( as Christopher writes in the notes ).
So , mixing everything together on fact tries to change the canon. And the Blue wizard topic , nor the new Tree Years calculations are NOT canon.
I can understand that perspective if you want to only treat LOTR & Hobbit as canon, but to do so is to ignore a great deal of Tolkien’s wider world. (Even The Silmarillion cannot be wholly “canon” by your standard as Christopher made it clear he made mistakes in it.)
Tolkien’s reworking of the Blue Wizards were some of his last-ever writings of Middle-earth, and while they weren’t published in a book in his lifetime, they also were not abandoned/struck down by Tolkien like “New Shadow” was. I’ll conclude with Tolkien’s own words regarding the Blue Wizards…
“They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.”
@@NerdoftheRings by no means do I say everything else should be ignored . However it should be not treated as canon when it contradicts the first published officially materials by him ( in regards of Middle Earth related materials ).
Which is why when Christopher published those that were left unfinished or in contradiction , he put them as something outside of the canon ( writing long notes where and how they were written by his father and how they contradict the canon).
My fear comes in cherry picking what contradictory materials to choose as “ new canon”. And that such books ( haven’t read this one being reviews by you here, yet myself). Would do exactly that , mix up canon i counter-canon and create a completely new ( and thus contradictory ) idea about canon.
As for Tolkien’s words about the Blue Wizards in Unfinished Tales about the Istari his vision about them was that they most likely get corrupt .
Tolkien’s work on his world and story building is so vast it’s bigger than the life of the author himself . So, it’s normal different ideas to come to his fascinating imagination and creativity , that if not fully checking in every moment the established canon in the already published can create contradictions. But exactly because of that we are grateful to Christopher, for both selecting your best of his ability the stories that can fit in the already established and published narrative , and to further give all the other materials , but giving them the background and the context and the comparison to the established.
And a book mixing everything up can as easily create misinformation for a reader who has not read all of the materials presented with all of the info why they were not published as canon .
Definately adding this to my collection!
Same here
Thanks for the great review! You convinced me to buy it
Are you picking up the new illustrated Silmarillion book? I would love a review on that one as well
Indeed! That is actually the copy of The Silmarillion I show in the beginning and reference at the end. My deluxe edition is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so I'm hoping to record both regular and deluxe edition in the same video. :)
@@NerdoftheRings I wrote that comment before watching the video and now I feel dumb now that I'm finally watching the video. Lol
Thanks for a great video. I'm excited for these new books. I definitely want The Fall Of Numenor and the new edition of The Silmarillion. That's a nice cover on The Unfinished Tales. Is that a U.S. or UK edition? I actually have the first U.S. edition, first print of Unfinished Tales.
Thanks for the video. I can’t wait to get mine.
What’s dissatisfying about Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Luthian, and History is how they’re edited. The different versions and sketches are separated by commentary and there’s no chronological narrative.
I want to know if this reads as a continuous narrative or as an academic analysis of Tolkien’s work.
The nice part about buying books preordered is they come wrapped rather than just open as the others do (other than the Bookset).
I have mine preordered from indigo, can’t wait 🎉
So...assuming one doesn't own copies of either Unfinished Tales or this book...which would you recommend getting first.
I wonder if folks are wondering about the faithfulness/fidelity of these texts, in the approach Briand takes vs Christopher.
In 2994, during the settling of Balin's Colony, they were attacked by an onslaught of orcs.[3] Óin led a group to the west side of the city hoping to find escape through the Doors of Durin, but instead he found the water up to the doors where the Watcher in the Water killed him. The Dwarves were trapped, and wiped out.
Wasn't the door open at the time of Oin´s death?
I think he opened the door from the inside, which is easy.
@@Manuel73618 I just reacted to something said in the video. That the doors were never opened until the fellowship came.
@@haraldkjall4561 The doors were easy to open from inside but they couldn't be seen from the outside or physically opened from the outside.
Thanks for the great content!
Thank you for this review. I wonder if this book changes how the beginner to the expanded world of LOTR's first explores the second age? Is this book the equivalent then of how "Children of Húrin", "Beren And Lúthien", and "The Fall Of Gondolin" fills out the First age from the Silmarillion? (Am I right about those being first age stories? Out of those books,, so far I only have the Silmarillion, but I am working on collecting what I need to best explore the Tolkien world after the Hobbit and LOTR's.) The Fall of Númenor seems to be the most complete, and in chronological order, of the Second age all in one book expanding on the Númenor chapter is the Silmarillion from various other texts. So my biggest question I guess is, does this make "Unifinished Tales" unnecessary for the first time collector as an essential now? I realize that long term fans already have Unfinished Tales, and they might be asking the question the other way around. But I don't have a good copy of Unfinished Tales, and wonder what might be in that, that isn't now included in "The Fall of Númenor.? Is there anything in the Unfinished Tales that isn't included in any of the books I mentioned covering the first, second, or even the third age? Does "The Fall of Númenor" change how essential Unfinished Tales is to understanding or appreciating Middle Earth before the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?
I heard that the Fall of Numenor is just the same text as we read about numenor from the previous books with no extra stuff, unlike the fall of gondolin and beren and luthien and the children of hurin, where they add extra text and early versions of the story, and unfinished edits.
Yeaaiih. My copy comes on Tuesday. I am very much looking forward sfter your little inteoduction.
I haven’t read any books yet. I plan on doing a solid read through of as many as I can. I have been gifted this book and am so eager to read.
Huge fan of the movie franchise and I enjoyed the hobbit.
How would you include this book in order of read through? I have seen your video explaining your recommendation, though it did not include this book obviously because of the release difference.
Love your content by the way. Huge fan
Thanks
This is great! Thank you for this video!
Wow, I didn’t know this was coming out!
I´m currently reading the first book of the franchise, the hobbit. I thought for years about getting in and now finally I am at it! Enjoying it so far really, since I´m a huge fan of fantasy lore. I already bought the Trilogy to continue after the hobbit. Can´t wait for it to start reading.
Btw do you have a recommendation for me in wich order I should read the books?
Great review.
Bookmark ribbons are called tassels, by the way.
It seems nice and those illustrations are honestly a wonderful addition!
However it still feels a bit redundant once one already has all of Tolkien’s books.
I actually pre ordered the audiobook and it just finished downloading! Definitely will listen to it next after the Children of Húrin, so I'm guessing they don't have a audiobook of the nature of middle-earth but one called the tales of the perilous realms. Is that somewhat the same?
Completely different. Tales of the Perilous Realm are a collection of short stories mostly unrelated to Middle Earth. Only a short collection of poems pertaining to Tom Bombadil. No plans for an audiobook version for the Nature of Middle Earth are planned so far.
@@emdesign8766 ahhhhh I gotcha, thank you for the clarification!