Tolkien's Beren and Lúthien

[waysoftheearth]

In case you don't already know:

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396

[Deleted]

I didn't and thank you!

[cadriel]

I received the book yesterday, by pre-order. It's ... well, you have to kind of understand what it is.

Everything in this book is published elsewhere. If you have The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, The Lost Road and Other Writings, and Morgoth's Ring, you basically have most of what is presented here.

The longest narrative prose portion is "The Tale of Tinúviel" from The Book of Lost Tales, and the remainder of the book consists primarily of "The Lay of Leithian" interspersed with the Beren and Lúthien story as it is written in various later versions of the Quenta. It isn't a continuous prose novel like The Children of Húrin managed to be  It simply collects all of the material in one book.

This winds up being, well, a testament to the fact that J.R.R. Tolkien never managed to finish his "Beren and Lúthien" story in an extended format. The preface has a heavy finality to it; Christopher is in his nineties and is unlikely to finish what ought to have been the "trilogy" of Beren and Lúthien , Túrin Turambar and the fall of Gondolin. I would trade The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the rest of JRRT's publications during his lifetime in a heartbeat to have a proper novel trilogy of those three stories.

I love Beren and Lúthien more than probably any other story, so it feels melancholy that the best that CJRT could do was to put his father's work in order, but reading the book you quickly understand why. The language of "The Tale of Tinúviel" couldn't have been meshed with the later narrative versions of the Quenta, and "The Lay of Leithian" is both idiosyncratic and a poem.

It does also have new art by Alan Lee, which is lovely.

Look, if you're not a Tolkien scholar, you should get this book. It will save you having to hunt down six other books for the material. This is Tolkien's greatest story, and it's an enduring shame that it doesn't have a "perfect" version. But you'll come as close as we ever can.

[geoffrey]

Jun 2, 2017 8:27:32 GMT -6 cadriel said:

This is Tolkien's greatest story, and it's an enduring shame that it doesn't have a "perfect" version. But you'll come as close as we ever can.

Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guessed, and had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide.

"It's a gift!" he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally.

[Zenopus]

Thanks for the review, cadriel. I should receive my hard copy tomorrow and I can reflect on the contents more after I've read it. I'm curious to see exactly what texts that C. Tolkien intersperses with the Lay. There was some draft material that was never given in full in the HoME series.

Here's some context and speculation on the contents by Tolkien scholar John Garth (author of Tolkien and the Great War) when the book was first announced last October:
johngarth.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/beren-and-luthien-a-centenary-publication/

And here is his recent review of the final product. This is for a mainstream newspaper so it doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of the source texts that he considered in his October article.
www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/05/beren-and-l-thien-love-war-and-tolkien-s-lost-tales

This recent BBC article has a wonderful short video interview with Alan Lee which shows him working on a drawing of Luthien, and talking about he creates his artwork (pencil and watercolors):
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396

[tkdco2]

I'll have to put this one on my wish list.

[ritt]

Is she riding a giant dog on that cover? Is that canon?

I'm only a very casual reader of Tolkien so sometimes the odder corners of ME lore catch me by surprise.

[tkdco2]

Yes, it is a large dog: Huan, the Hound of Valinor

WARNING: Spoilers in the link, if you haven't read the story.

[Finarvyn]

Jun 2, 2017 8:27:32 GMT -6 cadriel said:

Everything in this book is published elsewhere. If you have The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, The Lost Road and Other Writings, and Morgoth's Ring, you basically have most of what is presented here.

Thanks for the heads-up about what the book is and what it is not. I have all of the above resources, but still can't wait to get this story all in a single volume, sort of like what Christopher did for Children of Hurin. This kind of book is probably the best "new" Middle-earth material we are likely to ever see.

[ritt]

Whoa.

No idea "Low monster" Middle-Earth had frickin' werewolves.

Groovy.

[Fearghus]

Jun 3, 2017 10:57:36 GMT -6 ritt said:

Whoa.

No idea "Low monster" Middle-Earth had frickin' werewolves.

Groovy.

Yep, and vampires! Thurinwethil (sp?) is the only one I recall, but there may be more. My wife picked up this book called Characters from Tolkien and it is a fun cliffs note read. It mentions all sorts of spirits and creatures I did not recall from my  other readings. 

[tkdco2]

Tolkien's werewolves and vampires were different form the Hollywood monsters, however. You won't see Dracula or the Wolfman in Middle-earth. Instead, these creatures are evil spirits taking on animal form.

[Zenopus]

I received my copy today, gave it a quick look over but haven't had time to read in detail. But I did read another review that confirms, as cadriel mentioned above, that it doesn't have any of the previously unpublished draft material:

"Unfortunately - no original material. All that appear in this book, have already appeared in the 'History of Middle-earth' years ago.
Most unfortunate of all - new materials that Ch. Tolkien mentioned back it 1987 (in The Lost Road & other writings, p. 324-5) are not included, even though they were unknown to him when he edited the Silmarillion:

"...Thus at the time when he [Tolkien] turned again to the Lay of Leithian (see III. 390), The 'Lord ofthe Rings' being finished but its publication very doubtful [circa 1949-50] he embarked also once more on a prose ‘saga’ of Beren and Lúthien. This is a substantial text, though the story goes no further than the betrayal by Dairon to Thingol of Beren's presence in Doriath, and it is so closely based on the rewritten form of the Lay, as to read in places almost as a prose paraphrase of the verse. It was written on the verso pages of the text AB 2 of the Annals of Beleriand, and was not known to me when The Silmarillion was prepared for publication."

I've been waiting for this version to be published for the last 30 years.... Unfortunately, Ch. Tolkien chose not to include it (or maybe forgot all about it). Guess I gonna have to wait some more..."
(y.welis on Amazon)

[Falconer]

I’m glad for this publication, since maybe it will be picked up by some people who are never going to pick up the incredible The Book of Lost Tales and The Lays of Beleriand.

[tkdco2]

I once searched for The Lays of Beleriand in a local bookstore. The clerk thought it was a porn story!

[Zenopus]

Jun 3, 2017 19:51:10 GMT -6 Falconer said:

I’m glad for this publication, since maybe it will be picked up by some people who are never going to pick up the incredible The Book of Lost Tales and The Lays of Beleriand.

Agreed. Children of Hurin gets mentioned a lot more often as a "favorite Tolkien book" since its publication as a stand-alone.