Unfinished Tales cover art

Unfinished Tales

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Unfinished Tales

By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien - editor
Narrated by: Timothy West, Samuel West
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

 JRR Tolkien’s legacy of short stories which inhabit the realm of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, on audio for the first time.

Unfinished Tales is a collection of narratives ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and provides those who have read The Lord of the Rings with a whole collection of background and new stories from the twentieth century’s most acclaimed popular author.

The book concentrates on the realm of Middle-earth and comprises such elements as Gandalf’s lively account of how it was that he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan.

Unfinished Tales also contains the only story about the long ages of Numenor before its downfall, and all that is known about such matters as the Five Wizards, the Palantiri and the legend of Amroth. The tales were collated and edited by JRR Tolkien’s son and literary heir, Christopher Tolkien, who provides a short commentary on each story, helping the reader to fill in the gaps and put each story into the context of the rest of his father’s writings.

©1980 The Tolkien Estate Limited and C.R. Tolkien (P)1980 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Military Feel-Good

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Fall of Númenor cover art
The Children of Hurin cover art
The Fall of Gondolin cover art
Beren and Lúthien cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil cover art
Tales from the Perilous Realm cover art
The Hobbit (Dramatised) cover art
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring cover art
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth cover art
The Hobbit cover art
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight cover art
Beowulf cover art
Alfred Tennyson cover art
The Divine Comedy cover art
Smith of Wootton Major cover art

Join Audible today

Find a membership that’s right for you.

Critic reviews

"Another monument to the incredible imagination of Tolkien." (Sunday Telegraph)

"Moments of mythic grandeur." (Sunday Times)

All stars
Most relevant
Presenting this father and son team to deliver this audiobook of a father’s work edited by his son is a work of genius. It would be wonderful for the whole of The History of Middle-Earth series to be presented in this way. It was also wonderful to be reminded in listening to this that some of JRR Tolkien’s most beautiful writing is here in this book.

A Brilliant Format for an Audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
it's like a walk through a limitless mind on the journey of the beginning of a creation as the ideas and figures become a reality & turn into an awesome story. there are so many characters & each has a story , a history & a role that enchants deviates charms repulses scares amaze

amazing background

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
At times is it such a drag. Difficult to focus on and follow. I find Timothy’s voice oscillating and at times just too difficult to follow without constantly changing the volume.

Essential piece to Tolkien’s universe but…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Other Audible audiobooks consisting of short stories manage named chapters in the app to allow easy navigation so why can’t an important book by a major publisher?

FIX THE CHAPTERS

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is for the more “hardcore” Middle-Earth fans. As more of a Silmarillion reader, I nevertheless enjoyed myself immensely when listening to stories and anecdotes set in the later ages.
The narrators are superb. Father and son wrote and edited the book. Similarly, father and son narrate the book. The older narrator reads Christopher’s footnotes and comments, as a lovely tribute to the editor who recently passed away at the advanced age of 96 (the book is published in 1980 though). Samuel West has the voice for the ageless, eternal storyteller and scholar, the real-world Illuvatar.
I would really love to listen to their version of Nature of Middle-Earth.

Fabulously presented

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a LOTR-Hobbit fan, rather than an Elder Days fan, I found this filled in background for the 4 Ages that was of great interest. The narration is excellent and Samual West has a great voice with (from what I could tell) was perfect pronunciation of the many names in the books and stories.

What I found most entertaining was that in a role reversal, the son (Samuel) read the story and the father (Timothy) filled in the history and notes. It was like Christopher reading the story and JRRT filling in the background.

It has even made me want to revisit the Elder Days stories, and the Andy Serkis version of The Silmarillion may be where I will start (having struggled with Martin Shaw's version).

A Father and Son Reprise

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book full of knowledge and different approaches to middle earth lore. I recommend this book to any lotr fan

Invaluable lore

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Expands&explains details in the Hobbit, LOTR and Silmarilion. Loved it and will read it again.

Awesome Tolkien

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Massive lord of the rings fan and had somehow never heard this or the Silmarillion 😅😅

Loved both

Never heard before and loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The West's made for great listening. It's a double act that give the lore a worthy gravitas.
My favourite parts are those that relate to the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The story of how Gandalf meets Thorin Oakenshield and convinced him to take Bilbo along on the venture to the Lonely Mountain is essential listening. The chapters on the Pukelmen, Istari and Palantir expanded the lore.
Equally I really enjoy the story of Aldarion and his unhappy marriage from the Second Age.

A Wonderful Expansion to Middle Earth

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews