J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous book published in 1980 was Unfinished Tales.
The volume was edited by Tolkien’s son Christopher and published after Tolkien’s death. It gathers narratives and fragments connected with Middle-earth, including material about Númenor, the Third Age, and figures such as Galadriel, Celeborn, and the Istari. The texts are not presented as one continuous finished novel; many preserve alternative versions, incomplete passages, or editorial notes.
Unfinished Tales is distinct from The Silmarillion, which was published in 1977, and from The Children of Húrin, which appeared in 2007 as a more unified narrative assembled from Tolkien’s writings. Readers often use Unfinished Tales as a bridge between the published novels and the broader archive of Tolkien’s mythology. Its editorial format makes it especially valuable for comparing different stages of Tolkien’s ideas.