[TheWhiteWalker]

I already own all 12 books of History of Middle Earth. So, is there any point in me buying Unfinished Tales now, or are all of its contents already contained by History of Middle Earth?

[worry]

Unfinished Tales is only for completists.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Haven't read History so couldn't say. Unfinished Tales has The Mariner's Wife (a Numenorean tale which is pretty awesome), a different version of Galadriel and the tale of how Gandalf met Thorin and started the quest for Erebor, and then some other bits and pieces like a little about the blue wizards - there's more but those are the major bits I remember.

[QuickTidal]

It's mostly going to be stuff you've read before, but tweaked or untweaked. I found lots of it I'd read in other volumes, but the versions are slightly different.

[Abyss]

TheWhiteWalker, on 14 February 2016 - 06:10 AM, said:

I already own all 12 books of History of Middle Earth. So, is there any point in me buying Unfinished Tales now, or are all of its contents already contained by History of Middle Earth?

I found it kind of incomplete.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

IMO, Unfinished Tales is the most interesting of the LOTR supplements. It's basically an entire volume equivalent to the appendices. Expanded canon, rather than simply being notes and commentary on the evolution of the storyline. Additional information on Numenor, the Istari, the Nazgul, etc., and deleted scenes, if you will. It's not just a shorter rehash of History.

[Werthead]

Huh? Unfinished Tales is the fourth (and final) part of the actual Middle-earth canon, although the least of the four books (after The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion). To my knowledge, the only drafts and alternate versions of the stories in UT are in UT itself; the History series concerns itself solely with drafts of The Silmarillion and LotR. So yes, for a full picture of Middle-earth UT is essential reading. The stories are mostly new (the Turin and Tuor stories are in The Silmarillion but the UT versions are massively expanded, and are not in the History series), they mostly have endings (sometimes delivered through Christopher Tolkien's editorials though) and they're pretty damn good.