The Fall of Númenor

(10/11/22) Though this book has no new content, it's wonderful to finally have a collection that puts the bulk of writing on the Second Age in one place.

The Fall of Númenor contains writing previously found in snatches in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, The Nature of Middle-earth, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien and multiple volumes of The History of Middle-earth. Thus, before today, if you wanted to read about the Second Age, you had to do your best Gandalf-in-Minas-Tirith impression and look like a crazy scholar surrounded by mountains and mountains of papers.

This book tells the story of the Second Age from beginning to end, with a focus on the events of Númenor (which makes sense; the most complete narratives of the second age are Aldarion and Erendis, found in Unfinished Tales, and Akallabêth, found in The Silmarillion) and puts everything into chronological order in the way recounted in the Tale of Years in the appendices of LOTR. Sibley also uses drafts of unfinished writings to fill out events, most notably in the (notoriously contradictory) stories of Celeborn and Galadriel, of which there are multiple versions. It features Celebrimbor and the forging of the rings of power, the establishment of Gondor and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and the coming of the Third Age.

Discussion of the stories by Sibley, and how he chose to arrange them is also featured so it is obvious where things have been altered or arranged to be more cohesive. It is not unlike Unfinished Tales in presentation of the text itself, although the book as a whole is laid out in a way more reminiscent of the chronological semi-interconnected structure of The Silmarillion.

Illustrations by Alan Lee are also always welcome. It's a beautiful book, and as someone who has always been especially drawn to the Second Age it's one I'm thrilled to have on my shelf.