The Fall of Númenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth

J.R.R. Tolkien famously defined Middle-earth's Second era as a "dark age" in which "not very much of its history is (or needs to be) told." for many years, readers had to settle with tantalizing glimpses of it in The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, such as the forging of the Rings of Power, the construction of the Barad-dûr, and the rising of Sauron.

A more complete account could not be presented until Christopher Tolkien released The Silmarillion after his father's death. Although the majority of the book dealt on the First Age of Middle-earth, there were two significant works near the end that detailed the turbulent events surrounding the emergence and collapse of the island of Númenor. Raised from the Great Sea and given to the Men of Middle-earth as a reward for assisting the angelic Valar and the Elves in the defeat and capture of the Dark Lord Morgoth, the kingdom grew in power and wealth; however, as the Numenóreans' power grew, the seeds of their demise were sown, culminating in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

Even more insight into the Second Age would be revealed in subsequent publications, first in Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, then in Christopher Tolkien's magisterial twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth, in which he presented and discussed a wealth of additional tales written by his father, many of which were in draft form.

Editor Brian Sibley has assembled into one comprehensive volume a new chronicle of the Second Age of Middle-earth, told substantially in the words of J.R.R. Tolkien from the various published texts, with new illustrations in watercolour and pencil by the doyen of Tolkien art, Alan Lee, adhering to the timeline of 'The Tale of Years' in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings.

Hardcover. 352 pages.