Another posthumous Tolkien tale
By Marjorie Kehe | 01.07.09
This spring, HarperCollins will publish “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún” by “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote the book in the 1920s and ’30s, while he was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, before he wrote “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”
“The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún” is Tolkien’s version – in English narrative verse – of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs. Tolkien’s son Christopher edited the book and wrote the introduction.
It’s not the first time Christopher has published an early work of his father’s. In 2007 he edited and brought out “The Children of Húrin,” an unfinished fantasy novel.
Little is known about this new work, although a story in today’s Guardian suggests that some elements of the story – the slaying of a dragon, the appearance of a gold ring and a broken sword – were later echoed in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.”
Tolkienlibrary.com quotes David Brawn, the publishing director of HarperCollins UK, on the book. Brawn says: “[T]he clue as to what the book will contain is in the title…. You will surmise from this that it is not a Middle-earth book, but we are confident that Tolkien fans will be fascinated by it.”
“The Children of Húrin” received a mixed reception from the book world.
Jeremy Marshall of The Times said it was (perhaps), “the successor to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ ‘” even as Tom Deveson, writing for The Sunday Times, called the book ‘barely readable.’ ”
In the US, however, the book debuted at number one on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list and today there are more than one million copies in print in English worldwide.
HarperCollins, the Guardian suggests, has to hope that the fact that “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún” is in narrative verse “won’t put off Tolkien’s legions of fans.”
Comments
2. Jason Fisher | 01.08.09
Thanks for spreading the word. I also wrote about this on my Tolkien blog, Lingwë – Musings of a Fish (http://lingwe.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-tolkien-material-coming-this-summer.html), where I engage in some speculation (fairly informed, I believe) on the contents and probably length of the new work. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who might also be interested. – Jason
3. Michael Martinez | 01.09.09
Michael Drout’s J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia includes a note about the (then) unpublished manuscript, which Tolkien composed in the mid-1920s. There are some references to it in his letters and a couple of other sources.
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1. barrycanada | 01.08.09
J.K. Rowling books were published with different covers targeted at youth or adult markets… perhaps Harper-Collins will publish an edition with a “rap” tag, as well as the “narrative verse” edition.