The Great Tales of Middle-earth Box Set: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin

i bought a like new used set. the seller was great! shipped so well, arrived early. the set is immaculate. books are beautiful, good paper, lovely illustrations. thrilled with purchase! thx!

I'm breaking this review into 2 parts: Part 1) Physical Appearance & Book Quality (for collectors as well as readers) I’m writing the first portion of this review mainly for those who, like me, are both readers and collectors, and care just as much about the physical details of the books as the stories inside them. I found it surprisingly difficult to get clear information about what these books actually look like in this specific box set, so I more or less took a shot in the dark. I’m attaching several photos to show the details and the exact version of the set I received, in the hope it helps someone else avoid the same guessing game. The set I purchased is the William Morrow Publishers edition, published in 2025. The books in this box set match perfectly in size and overall appearance with other recent William Morrow Tolkien hardcovers, including Unfinished Tales, The Fall of Númenor, The Silmarillion, and the History of Middle-earth volumes (see photos for comparison, especially with Unfinished Tales). All three books feature: - Matte-finish dust jackets - Sewn bindings - Ribbon page markers In other words, they feel solid, well-made, and consistent with the quality seen in the UK HarperCollins editions. Since William Morrow is the U.S. imprint of HarperCollins, the books are essentially identical in look and construction. I’ve also included a photo of one of the books without the dust jacket—all three are identical beneath the jackets. The box itself is beautiful, illustrated by Alan Lee (arguably the definitive Middle-earth illustrator), and matches the aesthetic of the books perfectly. Hopefully this helps anyone else who’s been scouring the internet for answers like I was. The set is genuinely beautiful, and I’m very happy to have added it to my collection. One quick shipping note: Amazon can be hit-or-miss when it comes to whether a book arrives pristine or looks like it’s been on a long march through Mordor (see what I did there...). In my case, the set arrived in perfect condition—shrink-wrapped, in a well-fitted box, which was then placed inside a shipping box. Obviously your mileage may vary, but it’s worth mentioning. Part Deux) Contents (very brief overview bc i'm sure most have stopped reading by now...) For those interested in the actual contents of the books: this box set presents Tolkien’s three great First Age stories—The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin—each edited by Christopher Tolkien. These books expand on the legends only briefly referenced in The Silmarillion, presenting them in fuller narrative form while also showing how the stories evolved over time, with commentary and multiple versions where relevant. If you love Tolkien’s deeper mythology, these are essential reads—and this set is a fantastic way to own them. Hope this helped!

This is a solid collection for the great tales. The boxset is of a good quality and the dust jackets have a nice shine to them. The artwork by Alan Lee is absolutely gorgeous. If you’re looking for a new set and haven’t read these, this is the one! My review for The Children of Húrin: This is one or part of Tolkien’s ‘great tales’, and it is apparently one of the earlier things he worked on, continuously altered, and made further notes on, until his death. The editing work from his son included completing the work and making it a cohesive linear story for readers, and was published in 2007. This is also a part of the Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. I had intended to read through some more of Tolkien’s work prior to September, and the release of The Rings of Power. When I realized it was already august, I knew I had to get it in gear. Now the great tales aren’t the storyline from tRoP, but I still wanted to conquer them as I have already read the appendices before. Due to time, I decided to go with the audio, which sadly means I missed the great illustrations on this first read through, but it is narrated by the late Christopher Lee…his performance is explosive. However it was a bit weird, because the audio is broken into 7 chapters for an 18 chapter book, with seemingly no reason whatsoever for it. Tolkien called this The Lay of the Children of Húrin, a lay being a narrative poem (typically sung). In many ways it also comes off as very epic, both in the style of poem, and the things happening. I really found myself thinking about this quote from Tolkien’s son (about Jackson’s LotR trilogy): “They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25.” And although film cannot mimic the lyrical and powerful nature of Tolkien’s ability to write, this story includes some heavy things, descriptions, and themes that would almost read more as George R. R. Martin. It’s for that reason I kept thinking of the quote. Tolkien writes of dismemberment, torture, orcs beheading huge groups of people, humans hanging large groups of orcs from trees, suicide, unwitting incest. I mean there’s a lot to digest, but a lot of these things kind of resonated with me as the kind of violence translated into Jackson’s films. Regardless of that, or with that being said, Tolkien still gives us the history, or almost overview of the story. The description is light, not exactly glossing over things, but he does not dwell on action and terror stroke by stroke. A huge battle is simply talked about as having happened, you’re never really inside the moment. It’s for that reason that Tolkien always translates into history for me. This is much more linear than the Silmarillion as a whole, but they can still be viewed as almost textbook like writing. None of this is meant as a negative in any way though, as I absolutely love Tolkien and I absolutely loved this story. My review for Beren and Lúthien: This one opens with a preface by Christopher, at the age of 93, that I found truly astounding. It kind of continues throughout the book, as the tale is rather short, and has several versions. I think that Tolkien fans are really fortunate that he felt himself to be a protector/scholar of his father’s work, rather than living in its shadow, because he’s the only reason a lot of these things saw the light of day. In this preface he spoke to how his father would often change things, or names, or themes, and how an addition of a single character or thing could influence him rewriting something entirely. I loved how Christopher spoke to how he did not take these versions of the great tales to be canon, or to uncanonize other versions, he was just striving to give fans the most linear, narrative story possible. Beren and Lúthien, or The Tale of Tinúviel (as the story and chapter are entitled—from The Book of Lost Tales Two), is an extracted version of their love and stealing of a Silmaril from Melkor/Morgoth. I personally kind of found this edited version to erase Beren, in the sense that it did not really include any background on him and his heroics. Lúthien runs from her father and even frees Beren, which is in no way an issue for me, but I think it weighs even heavier when you include who he was. Aka he felt a little useless to me. Luckily however, this is a rather short extraction. (And that’s not at all to say that I actually found it to be bad! At all!!). The remainder of the book continues on with additional context from Christopher throughout, as well as additional excerpts from various versions and histories that he’s chosen to highlight for this combined edition of the great tale. These excerpts are from the actual lay, and therefore are genuine poetry in rhyme. That’s never been my cup of tea, but you can tell the lyrical prowess that Tolkien had, and the audio most definitely flowed effortlessly. I once again for my first read through miss out on all the illustrations, but we are hightailing it for The Rings of Power prep. I of course would be remiss if I did not include the fact that it’s said the story originated from Tolkien taking woodland walks with his wife-to-be Edith, and that he found himself to be the mortal in the presence of greatness, a beauty of the Eldar. That is why Beren and Lúthien are inscribed on their tombstones, and I can only imagine the story was continually rewrote as their love grew and changed, and Tolkien wove it into the fabric of middle-earth. My review for The Fall of Gondolin: The final book edited by Tolkien’s son, and the final of the great tales. Again, I’ll express my great respect for all of the scholarly work Christopher did with his father’s work. This one followed the same format as Beren and Lúthien, with there being a preface as well as additional notes from Christopher throughout, as well as the actual content from Tolkien. I again did the audio, which was done very well by Timothy and Samuel West—with one of them reading for Christopher, and the other for Tolkien. Sadly, missed out on the illustrations again though. This one was again a rather short narrative tale that Christopher put together. It was roughly an hour and 45 minutes out of an 8:18 audiobook. For me that just goes to show the historical or textbook style writing that Tolkien had employed with these, not to mention he never finished entirely anyway. That’s not to say they aren’t poetic, or lyrical, it’s just that it was giving the information in a textbook/history way, it gives important events and major characters, without deeper detail. That’s again not to say I did not enjoy, I love the way the stories are told, it was just short! The only thing I dislike about this formatting choice is that it once again takes away from the linear tale itself. Whereas The Children of Húrin was for the most part the entire book, Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin are only a piece of the full book. It is true that Húrin has the most pieces anyway though. The Fall of Gondolin is a pretty dark tale of the might of Melko(r)/Morgoth, with balrogs, dragons, orcs, and men. He orchestrated the deaths of several named characters, as well as the overall downfall of the kingdom. I would love to see something done with this one day. A big thing I’d love to talk about with this book is that the fall of Gondolin features a Legolas Greenleaf! And seemingly not the fellowships Legolas, who was born in the second age?! It has been remarked that if Tolkien continued his work he would more than likely have changed this name entirely, as elf names were not typically reused. Another thing Christopher touched on that I really liked and wanted to highlight was that Tolkien considered TLotR to be one story, but in a referenced letter he had stated that he was fine with ANY of it being published for people to read, even calling it “this stuff.” So I am sorry Tolkien purists (I myself am kind of at least halfway in this camp…), but he was ultimately the approver of the trilogy it seems.

Great addition to the Tolkien collection

Can't go wrong with Tolkien!

So this review won't be delving into the content of the books or Tolkiens writing. I figure if you're here you are well versed in Middle Earth and a lover of the works of one of the greatest writers ever. So I will focus on the books presentation, artwork and overall quality. Short review : buy this. 10 outta 10 fully recommend. Longer review : these books are beautifully done. The art within is gorgeous and very fitting to Tolkiens writing style, while not trying to replicate the authors personal art that he originally made for his work. The dust covers are beautiful as you can see in the pictures I provided. Each depicts a scene that portrays to the literature inside. They feel about as good quality as you could hope for with a dust cover. We keep ours in the box they came with and have had no issues with them being damaged. The box itself is also very aesthetically pleasing. It's cardboard so don't be expecting a wooden frame of some sort but if you keep your books inside and in a place they won't be hurt it'll hold up just fine. Under the dust covers the books look very classic for hard backed books, not too much to say about that I believe we all have standard hard back books in our collections. I love these books, I gifted them to my husband as he is also a die hard Tolkien lover and he was ecstatic to receive them, especially The Fall of Gondolin as we have been looking for that particular tale for awhile. If you or someone you love can't get enough Tolkien, this set is perfect.

I read a comment regarding the book size being too small. I provided photos of the book compared to my other books. I would not call them small in size, they are around 23 cm's in length. Context wise, two of the books (Hurin and Gondolin) are in novel format and not too difficult to read for foreigners(like me). Beren and Luthien is written in a more poetic format and is harder to understand. If you are buying this as a gift to someone you know who enjoys Lord of the Rings series/books, make sure that they've already read Silmarillion or buy Silmarillion with this gift, it shouldn't be too expensive. Most of the stories included in these books are extensions of the ones mentioned in Silmarillion, thats why it should be read first. Customer satisfaction wise, the books have quality covers compared to my other purchases, they are shiny and they look like a good fit for someone who is buying these to place them in their library. The paper quality is average, however the visuals inside the book illustrated by Alan Lee are amazing, I provided a sample in the photo, if you are interested you can easily find many more on google. Hope this helps, enjoy everyone!

The quality of these books is fantastic and their content is even better. The box that contains the books is of good quality and is not too small. The hardback books are well-made and the artwork for the sleeves and plates are beautiful. These books are great for Tolkien readers of any level. Seasoned readers of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and/or The History of Middle-earth will be very familiar with the content of these stories but will find the point of view of looking at the development of each tale new and refreshing. Those who have only read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will also find these books easy to read and understandable as isolated stories from the First Age of Middle-earth. While they fit within a (much) larger framework and history, this context is not prerequisite to understand and enjoy these books. One of Christopher Tolkien’s primary purposes in publishing the content of these books in this style was to make these Great Tales from the First Age of Middle-earth more accessible and less daunting than other published works in which these stories appear. I believe that he accomplished this goal very well.

Edizione in lingua INGLESE! The Great Tales of Middle-Earth comprende le 3 storie Children of Húrin / Beren and Lúthien / the Fall of Gondolin, libri in formato hardcover, spedizione arrivata nei tempi stabiliti.

Los tres libros son los últimos escritos literarios de Tolkien editados postumamente por su hijo, expanden el imaginario del autor y por ello representan una entretenida lectura para sus fans. "Los Hijos de Húrin", la primera de dichas obras es la más elaborada debido a que Tolkien sí la concluyó en vida, aunque nunca la publicó. Las otras dos, "Beren y Luthien" y "La Caída de Gondolin" están atestiguadas en fragmentos que el editor recopiló y contextualizó para que el lector tenga idea de lo que el autor tenía en mente pero no concluyó. Respecto a la calidad de la edición, es buena, de pasta dura con cubrepolvos. El papel no es tan fino como el de otras ediciones en boxset de pasta dura como la de "Historia de la Tierra Media", pero sigue siendo buena y cumple con su objetivo. Además tienen bonitas ilustraciones impresas en papel fotográfico, y mapas que son muy útiles para el lector. Los tres volúmenes vienen en una caja de cartón duro con acabado en mate, estéticamente se ve bien. Por último, el boxset llegó muy rápido y en perfectas condiciones. Lo recomiendo ampliamente para los fans de Tolkien, y de la fantasía épica en general. Fue una buena compra.

Bought these as a Christmas present for husband, they look very good, great quality and can't wait for him to open his presents

So far, I’ve only read the first book (The Children of Húrin), and I have to say: DON’T READ THE INTRODUCTION! It contains heavy spoilers for the whole book. The book itself and the box are very well made. The font size is comfortable to read, even for my old eyes. The paper is high quality, and the paintings really give you a feeling for the world. You also get a map in the book, which gives you a good sense of the size of the world.

It was a gift and they loved it