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Originally Posted by Galin
I actually have Foster's guide published before the 1977 Silmarillion, so that's based primarily on Tolkien-published material, and so to my mind ends up being like a good internal look at Middle-earth. Of course, one expects some things to be off, compared to what would later come to light, but I find it very interesting to read a companion that considers only (or at least mostly) what the Subcreator himself allowed his readership to read.
Anyway, again I doubt Foster or Tyler even claim to take up the difficult task of covering UT or HME, at least in full. Not that I know of anyway.
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In his forward, Tyler does say that much of the material in UT did add to expanding the known tales, whereas, HoME contained primarily earlier, rejected or superseded versions and such of previously released materials.
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- From the 3rd Edition Forward - Complete Guide to Middle-earth:
"If the many books by J.R.R. Tolkien published over the last 20 years - that is, since the Silmarillion - had individually contained even half as much new material as that work, compiling this 3rd Edition would have been a labour indeed. Fortunately, for my purposes anyway, they do not. ...
Yet, though anything but valueless to the Tolkien scholar, The History of Middle-earth proves to be of limited relevance to the compiler of Middle-earth reverence works. ...
Then there is Unfinished Tales. First published in 1980, this volume is anything but irrelevant. It consists of a number of shorter tales, essays and (by the Editor) annotations, nearly all of which cast fascinating light on hitherto unilluminated regions of Tolkien's world."
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I too have Robert Foster's Guide to Middle Earth, and it was quite invaluable to me when I got it in 1976 after I read Lord of the Rings a couple times. All we had in those days were the J.R.R. Tolkien-published books, and the gold-mine that is the Appendices. I agree it is a great glimpse back to what Tolkien himself had published.