In what year was J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous book Unfinished Tales first published?

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J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous book Unfinished Tales was first published in 1980.

Christopher Tolkien edited and arranged the collection after his father’s death. It was published as Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth and brought together narratives, fragments and background material from different periods of Tolkien’s writing.

The book expands the history of places and characters including Númenor, Gondor, Rohan and the Wizards. Some sections are relatively complete stories, while others preserve drafts or explanatory material rather than finished narratives.

Unfinished Tales is distinct from The Silmarillion, which Christopher Tolkien edited and published in 1977. The two books both draw on Tolkien’s papers, but Unfinished Tales generally presents separate episodes and variants instead of attempting one continuous account of the mythology.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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