[Formendacil]

It's funny that you start by mentioning how the tales, in general, feel more like the LotR than the Silm, because the first thing I noticed in rereading "Of Tuor" was just how much it reminded me of the LotR. It had been a few years since I'd actually sat down to read UT, for which reason I'm quite excited about this new CbC series, since it gives me a golden opportunity to read each tale for itself, rather than just mining it for quotes.

I think it's hugely important to note that "Of Tuor" is a post-LotR piece, because I felt, at least, that Tolkien's style here was far more reminiscent of Frodo in Mordor or Pippin in Gondor than it was of the compressed Silmarillion version. And, after all, the Silmarillion proper is mostly a pre-LotR composition, albeit much added to and edited post-LotR, whereas Tuor is a fresh writing, even if the Book of Lost Tales manuscript was right in front of Tolkien.

There are two elements, in particular, that reminded me of the LotR. The first was the character of the landscape, and the detail that Tolkien gives to it. Far more than any text in the Quenta Silmarillion, "Of Tuor" gives a vivid impression of Mithrim, the Ered Lomin, Nevrast, Faelivrin, the Vale of Sirion, and the Echoriath. The visualisation of these was as fully illustrated as any in the LotR, of which it is said that 'the landscape is one of the characters.' That is patently true here too.

The second really close point of convergence for me was the sense of ancient that pervades Tuor's world. In the Silm, we don't really get a sense of how long the Noldor have lived in Middle-earth, because we see everything from their perspective, and we rush over the centuries of their rule quickly. By getting to see things from Tuor's Mannish perspective here, we're able to get those sort glimpses into a rich past that made the LotR so compelling: where the LotR has places like Moria and the Argonath and Helm's Deep, "Of Tuor" has the Gate of the Noldor and Vinyamar--and the entrance into Gondolin (which reminded me of nothing so much as Pippin's arrival in Minas Tirith with Gandalf).

And, speaking of Gandalf, "Of Tuor" gives us the most "intimate" experience of a Valar in any piece of Tolkien's writing. Granted, we get a lot of the Valar in the Silmarillion, and they are almost given in more detail than the Elves, but there is still a remoteness in the Silm narrative that is not so present in "Of Tuor." Certainly, since the first time I read it, this has been the definitive account of Ulmo for me, and his lines here probably among my favourite pieces of dialogue in Tolkien's work.

And, from Ulmo, we get the Sea. Tuor's encounter with Belegaer (said to be the first of any Man) and his months dwelling along the coast, together with Voronwë's tale, is the most compelling account of Sea-longing and the mystery of the Sea in all of Tolkien's later (post-Book of Lost Tales) work--far more direct and immediately felt than Legolas's retold account in the RotK.

To conclude, there is no tale in UT that I find more compelling, and no tale Tolkien left unfinished that I wish he had finished more.