Unfinished Tales was published posthumously in 1980 as a collection of unfinished Middle-earth tales.
Christopher Tolkien edited the volume from writings left by his father, J.R.R. Tolkien. Unlike a conventional novel, the book gathers narratives from different periods and stages of development. It includes material about Númenor, the First Age, the Third Age, and characters such as Galadriel, Celeborn, and the Dúnedain.
The book is valuable because it expands episodes that are only briefly mentioned in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Examples include the history of the Children of Húrin, the disaster of the Gladden Fields, and the journey of the Istari. Some accounts remain incomplete or exist in multiple versions.
The title is sometimes confused with The History of Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien’s twelve-volume study of his father’s drafts. Unfinished Tales is a single 1980 volume, while The History of Middle-earth was published as a much larger series between 1983 and 1996.