La caída de Númenor

J.R.R. Tolkien described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a "dark age, and much of its history is not (or need not) told". And for many years, readers would have to be content with the tantalizing glimpses found in the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the building of Barad-dûr, and the rise of Sauron. It wasn't until Christopher Tolkien published The Silmarillion after his father's death that a fuller story could be told. Although much of the book's content dealt with the First Age of Middle-earth, at the end there were two key works that revealed the tumultuous events surrounding the rise and fall of the isle of Númenor. Rising from the Great Sea and gifted to the Men of Middle-earth as a reward for aiding the angelic Valar and Elves in defeating and capturing the Dark Lord Morgoth, the realm became a center of influence and wealth; but as the power of the Númenóreans increased, the seeds of their downfall would inevitably be sown, culminating in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. An even greater insight into the Second Age would be revealed in later publications, first in Unfinished Tales from Númenor and Middle-earth, then expanded upon in Christopher Tolkien's masterful twelve-volume book The History of Middle-earth, in which he introduced and discussed a host of more short stories written by his father, many in draft form. Now, adhering to the "Tale of Years" chronology in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, editor Brian Sibley has assembled in one comprehensive volume a new chronicle of the Second Age of Middle-earth, told substantially in the Tolkien's words from the various published texts, with new watercolor and pencil illustrations by the doyen of Tolkien art, Alan Lee.