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Old 11-11-2012, 07:25 PM   #2
jallanite
Shade of Carn Dûm
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Toronto
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Apparently almost 100% of J. R. R. Tolkien’s posthumous works on Middle-earth have been published in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Húrin, and in the 12-volume HoME series. Linguistic material is still being published in the publications Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwar (see http://www.elvish.org/).

I have never heard of any unpublished Tolkien material related to Middle-earth that is close to being a completed story. Indeed I have never heard of any unpublished Tolkien material related to Middle-earth at all, save for purely linguistic material being published in Parma Eldalamberon and Vinyar Tengwa, which is probably not what you are talking about.

The last three volumes of the HoME series contain a number of almost-complete or complete items that mostly fit in with The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the published Silmarillion.

Morgoth’s Ring (HoME 10):
  1. “Laws and Customs Among the Eldar” (pp. 207–53). Several essays during which J. R. R. Tolkien expresses, among much else, the idea that Elves are reborn to new parents. This idea is later changed but otherwise the ideas here are probably later accepted. Mostly concerned with Míriel.
  2. “Later Versions of the Story of Finwë and Míriel” (pp. 254–60). Mostly more essays on Míriel and death of Elves.
  3. “Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andeth″ (pp. 301–66). Mainly a discussion between a mortal wise woman and an elf about the fates of both races. Here first appears J. R. R. Tolkien’s new idea that Elves are not reborn but return from Mandos in adult form. A complete story.
  4. “Myths Transformed” (pp. 367–431). A number of essays circling around the cosmos of The Silmarillion not agreeing with the findings of modern science: flat Earth, Sun and Moon created later, etc. Tolkien first tries to remodel the Silmarillion but soon gives up and decides to regard the Silmarillion as distorted Mannish tales passed on among Men, as garbled and incorrect legend within his imaginary world. Orcs remain a problem. Do Orcs have souls? It seems that Tolkien cannot come to a permanent decision one way or the other. The last essay covers the Undying Lands.
The War of the Jewels (HoME 11):
  1. “The Wanderings of Húrin” (pp. 251–300). A complete story of Húrin’s adventures when first released by Morgoth, mostly not told elsewhere but in agreement with what is told in the published Silmarillion and in The Children of Húrin. Mostly omitted from the published Silmarillion because Christopher Tolkien felt that its length would overweigh his presentation of the Silmarillion but that abridging this account would destroy its literary qualities.
  2. “Quendi and Eldar” (pp. 357–424). Mostly a long discussion of various words meaning “elf” in various Elvish tongues and of names given to other peoples with a note on the language of the Valar. Includes an Elvish “fairytale” of the first awakening of the Elves.
The Peoples of Middle-earth (HoME 12):
  1. “Of Dwarves and Men″ (pp. 295–330). A long essay, apparently unfinished, mostly about the early history and legends of Dwarves and Men.
  2. “The Shibboleth of Fëanor” (pp. 331–66). Discussion of a puzzling phonetic change in Elvish history that leads into a long discussion of Elvish names and their meanings.
  3. “The Problem of Ros” (pp. 367–76). A long essay on the origin of the word ros ‘foam’ in Sindarin, which ends with J. R. R. Tolkien deciding against his own new theories because they contradict published material.
  4. “Last Writings” (pp. 377–94). Brief late essays on Glorfindel, the Five Wizards, and Círdan.
  5. “Dangweth Pengoloð″ (pp. 395–402). Teachings on language given by Pengoloð to Ælfwine. Since the Ælfwine story apparently no longer exists in Tolkien’s later thought, the back story used here is probably invalid.
  6. “Of Lembas” (pp. 403–05). An essay on the making of lembas by the Elves.
  7. “The New Shadow” (pp. 409–21). The first chapter of a never-completed sequel to The Lord of the Rings set 105 years following the fall of the Dark Tower during the reign of Aragorn’s son Eldarion.
  8. “Tal-Elmar” (pp. 422–38). The beginning of a story of the Númenóreans settling in Middle-earth from the point of view of a native of the lands to which they have come.
Elsewhere in HoME various fragments are perhaps to be regarded as still valid, though embedded in versions of the tales that as a whole are not valid.

Last edited by jallanite; 11-11-2012 at 11:20 PM.
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