New Tolkien Books:updates

"[QUOTE=Child of the 7th Age]Thanks, Davem.

I see from your link there is a second author and she is a librarian in the Bodleian archives so I am a little more inclined to buy this. (OK, I am biased here, but librarians generally know their collections better than anyone else, including profs and perhaps they did fiddle around in the archives.) US Amazon lists paper copies for about $20."

Actually it is unpublished lecture notes. Tolkien's notes from Oxford (and some from Leeds) are all contained in the Bodleian library. The authors have gone through these and pulled out things mainly relating to his literature lectures/unpublished editions and used them. The piece about the Rohirrim comes from his lectures in a box called A30/1 (?). Anyway it says 'No one would learn anything valid about the 'Anglo-Saxons' from any of my lore, not even that concerning the Rohirrim. I never intended that they should'. The authors argue that this explains Tolkien's reluctance to link the Rohirrim to the Anglo-Saxons - namely he was wearing his lecturer's hat and did not want people to think they could learn about that period of history.

Looking through the book there are lots of quotes from various A29s and A30s which I kind of guess are the boxes in the library.

F&H gets a mention in a chapter on 'The Fight at Balin's Tomb' where the texts presented are 'The Fight at Finnsburg' and something called 'Cynewulf and Cyneheard' (from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).


Woz

[Child of the 7th Age]

Woz,

First, welcome to the Downs. I hope you'll stick around.

Secondly, thanks so much for that detailed information. It's very helpful and looks as if it would be worthwhile for me to pick up this book.

_______________

Summer is my time for extra reading. I recently purchased a book The Lord of the Rings, 1954-2004: Scholarship in Honor of Richard E. Blackwelder" published by Marquette University Press. These were papers given at a conference at Marquette in October 2004. I have only delved into the chapters here and there, but the contributors do look interesting: Douglas Anderson, Verlyn Flieger, John Garth, Wayne Hammond, Carl Hostetter, John Rateliffe, T.A. Shippey, Michael Drout and the list goes on.

Has anyone read this collection of essays? Hopefully, I'll let you know what I think after I get further into the book.

No, it's a new one on me. I've read the one from the Oxford symposium many years ago (did Mythlore publish that)? Which was hit and miss. I'll certainly look out for that, thanks.

Woz

[davem]

Now, I'm not sure I should be posting this as I found it on another message board, but its posted by a friend of ours in the Tolkien Society, Alan, who we met up with at Oxonmoot. It was passed to him by Douglas A Anderson & is a press release from Harper Collins

Press Release

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006
J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN TO BE PUBLISHED IN 2007

Houghton Mifflin has acquired US rights to publish the first complete
book by J.R.R. Tolkien since the posthumous Silmarillion in 1977 .
HarperCollins UK acquired the project from The Tolkien Estate in a
world rights deal. Presented for the first time as a fully
continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of
Húrin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, and the rich landscape and
characters unique to Tolkien.

The Children of Húrin , begun in 1918, was one of three "Great Tales"
J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never
realized his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many
fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has
long been assumed that the story would forever remain an "unfinished
tale". Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly
editing together the complete work from his father's many drafts,
this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavor by
him to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's vast body of unpublished work to a wide
audience.

Christopher Tolkien said: "It has seemed to me for a long time that
there was a good case for presenting my father?s long version of the
legend of the Children of Húrin as an independent work, between its
own covers, with a minimum of editorial presence, and above all in
continuous narrative without gaps or interruptions, if this could be
done without distortion or invention, despite the unfinished state in
which he left some parts of it."

Having drawn the distinctive maps for the original The Lord of the
Rings more than 50 years ago, Christopher has also created a detailed
new map for this book. In addition, it will include a jacket and
color paintings by Alan Lee , illustrator of The Hobbit and The Lord
of the Rings Centenary Edition and Oscar ® -winning designer of the
film trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings was already acclaimed worldwide as the most
popular book of the 20th Century before the blockbuster films in
2001-3 broke new ground and inspired millions more to read J.R.R.
Tolkien's books -- an additional 50 million copies were sold, leaving
new fans wanting more. The Children of Húrin will be published by
HarperCollins UK in April 2007, and on the same day in the United
States by Houghton Mifflin.

Victoria Barnsley , CEO and Publisher of HarperCollins Publishers UK
said: "This epic story of adventure, tragedy, fellowship and heroism
stands as one of the finest expressions of J.R.R. Tolkien?s skills as
a storyteller. With a narrative as dramatic and powerful as anything
contained within The Lord of the Rings , it can now be read and
enjoyed as Tolkien originally intended, and will doubtless be a
revelation for millions of fans around the world."
Janet Silver , Vice President and Publisher of Houghton Mifflin,
said, "As J.R.R. Tolkien's original American publisher, dating back
to The Hobbit , we are extremely proud to be bringing this project
to Tolkien's devoted readership in the United States. Christopher
Tolkien has done a great service in realizing his father's vision for
The Children of Hurin."

[Formendacil]

Saw the two threads in Books before I got here... so I'm crossposting my reply:

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I... hardly know what to think here.

First of all, there is a certain incredulity. I mean, this almost feels as if it goes against the grain of everything Christopher Tolkien has done or said in the entire HoME. But, on the other hand, it seems to harken back to the earlier days of publishing the Silmarillion, when he took a bit more artistic license, and filled out some scrappy texts.

But still... after all these years?

As near as I can tell, assuming the story is true, we're basically just looking at a published version of the Narn I Chín Húrin- with the middle chunk that was missing in Unfinished Tales filled in.

Personally, I'm inclined to think this a good thing, if it's true, but hardly a necessary one. And I'm really, really confused as to... Why?

[narfforc]

Personally I would like Christopher to have done a re-edit of both The Silmarillion and parts of Unfinished Tales combining both with any further work he could have found. If all we are to get is what we already have, I would feel slightly cheated.

I am not saying this is the case, but between The Sil/UT/HoMe what else can he possibly be doing?

[davem]

My assumption on what it is likely to contain is, apart from the new map CT has created for it & the Alan Lee cover & illustrations, the whole Narn as we have it in The Sil & UT, a Prologue setting out the context of the story & hopefully the Wanderings of Hurin, either incorporated into the main text or as an Appendix.

I expect it to find its way to the top of the best seller lists - & it will be nice to see one of Tolkien's 'darker' works easily available to the general reader.

First of all, there is a certain incredulity. I mean, this almost feels as if it goes against the grain of everything Christopher Tolkien has done or said in the entire HoME. But, on the other hand, it seems to harken back to the earlier days of publishing the Silmarillion, when he took a bit more artistic license, and filled out some scrappy texts.

Well, CT has carte blanche as regards his father's work. Lalwende has given us the relevant part of Tolkien's will:

’Upon Trust to allow my son Christopher full access to the same* in order that he may act as my Literary Executor with full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto’

*unpublished works

The amount of work CT has put in over the years, culminating in this volume, is something we should all be grateful for. Hopefully it won't be too expensive - we've got Rateliff's 'Mr Baggins' out the following month...