Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Very exciting news. A new collection of unseen Tolkien essays will be published next summer! Very excited to see what new information will be available!

Unseen JRR Tolkien essays on Middle-earth coming in 2021

Ooooh.... lots of Numenor stuff!!

Maybe the question of Adunaic script will finally be answered!!

More beards!

That's exciting news!

Rob

Yeah, I'm fingers crossed that we get some new useable tidbits out of this one. I'll be a guilty pre-orderer for sure.

Looking forward to them.

Thanks for the heads up.

Seems like they keep uncovering unseen writings of Tolkien, like they keep finding unreleased recordings from Tupac.

robinhoodsghost wrote:Seems like they keep uncovering unseen writings of Tolkien, like they keep finding unreleased recordings from Tupac.

Any writer is going to have tons of scribblings, false starts, background material, so forth and so on that never makes it to print in their lifetime.
We've known in the abstract that these notes existed for years - there was just no public record of what was in them.

I'm certain in all those notes were many things the Professor would still hold "true" for Middle-earth, as well as many things he was uncertain of or categorically changed his mind about. Given how involved Christopher was with his father's work, I think it was a good thing that the son held the reins so tightly on that material, frustrating as it's been for us fans. The time gave him the chance to put what remained all in some kind of intelligible order, based on all the conversations he must have remembered that were never set to paper.

What's left now I think is of dubious/arguable "canonicity" - but I've little doubt it's all authentic.

From what I've seen of the supposed 'contents' of the forthcoming book, I don't think 'unseen' is the right word. I could be (and hope I am) wrong, but based on the topics presented, I think most of the essays and notes have been published before, just in obscure-to-casual-fans publications like Vinyar Tengwar, and this would be the first time they've been collected and widely available. The Elvish immortality and reincarnation topic probably refers to 'Fragments on Elvish Reincarnation' which for some reason is only available in French. The others will likely include 'The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor', 'Quendi and Eldar', and 'The Shibboleth of Fëanor'. Not sure about the topic relating to animals of Númenor, hopefully something more than what's already in UT.

Hrm - well that's disappointing. I do recall reading bits of some of those at some point I think - I forget where.

I guess I'll keep holding out hope for some new stuff in there - but regardless, having it all one place with a nice cover will be worth the perusing, I think.

A small update -

Per HERE it seems like the release has been delayed until September 2021.

I came across a facebook post from The Tolkien Society group that mentioned that the release of The Nature of Middle-Earth has been delayed until September 2021. It appears the editor of the book confirmed it in the comments.

Yes, Carl has confirmed he is still doing some fine tuning to the manuscript, so y'all just need to hang in there.

And to dispel Udwin and Elleth's fears -

Udwin wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 5:24 pm From what I've seen of the supposed 'contents' of the forthcoming book, I don't think 'unseen' is the right word. I could be (and hope I am) wrong, but based on the topics presented, I think most of the essays and notes have been published before, just in obscure-to-casual-fans publications like Vinyar Tengwar, and this would be the first time they've been collected and widely available. The Elvish immortality and reincarnation topic probably refers to 'Fragments on Elvish Reincarnation' which for some reason is only available in French. The others will likely include 'The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor', 'Quendi and Eldar', and 'The Shibboleth of Fëanor'. Not sure about the topic relating to animals of Númenor, hopefully something more than what's already in UT.

Elleth wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:22 pm Hrm - well that's disappointing. I do recall reading bits of some of those at some point I think - I forget where.

I guess I'll keep holding out hope for some new stuff in there - but regardless, having it all one place with a nice cover will be worth the perusing, I think.

A direct quote from the editor Carl F. Hostetter (aka Aelfwine) himself on Tolkien Guide.

I cannot yet speak to the contents in specifics, but let me dispel this speculation now. It is true that The Nature of Middle-earth will contain some primary material that was previously published in specialist journals; but the vast majority of the material is previously unpublished. (That's why I've been at work on this in earnest and as my schedule permits for some years now.)

WONDERFUL!

... well now I know what I'm hoping arrives under the Christmas tree.

Aaaand with that new information in mind...my copy's been pre-ordered. So excited!