Christopher Tolkien to finish lost Middle Earth novel

[davem]

And

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ent...2?OpenDocument

&

http://tolkien-studies.com/blog/inde...page=1&paged=1

[Mithalwen]

I have now started to read it properly and I am enjoying it though I haven't examined the relevant bits of HoME enough to comment on the editorial. In fact I have avoided the relevant parts of the Silmarillion and UT since I knew this volume was being issued to let me give it at least one reading without the memroy of the other versions too fresh in the mind.

The temptation to look is strong though - I knew Sador was lame but I thought his foot was maimed not lost and now wish to look and see if it is one of those wrong ideas you get in your head (such as my enduring idea that the soles of hobbits feet were hairy ) or an actual change. But I do thing it is a healthy thing, for me at least to read it alone first - I have got so used to treating the books as reference materials and it is a real pleasure to let the story take over.

Also the book itself is delightful - makes a change from my usual dog eared paperbacks - and I find the line drawings are particularly charming. I fear that Amazon's reccomendations may turn me into a destitute junkie for hardbacked books

[Lalaith]

Have you got the deluxe or ordinary version, Mith? Can anyone tell me what the difference is? (I've got the ordinary one)

Do you think we should have a thread purely for literary discussion, for those who have read/are reading it?

I'm still in the early stages of reading but I'm already excited by what Christopher has to say in the introduction, about Tolkien's views on the consequences of Hurin defying Morgoth. The child-like conversations between Turin and Sador about the relationship between men and elves are something I don't remember having read before, but I've only read the Narn in the Sil and UT versions, I don't have HoME.


Back to the reviews - the Guardian today had a round-up of what the reviews on CoH said. Reviewers seem to either totally love it or absolutely hate it.
I can actually quite sympathise with reviewers who hate it, because if you don't like or "get" this sort of thing in the first place, then the literary devices Tolkien uses - reams of place names, characters changing their names constantly, and so on - would drive you mad.
I of course *do* like that sort of thing, very much, but I can accept that there are lots of perfectly intelligent literary people who have different tastes. In the same way that my neighbour, who works in the music industry and would therefore, one assumes, know his stuff, is obsessed with Bruce Springsteen. I just don't get it. *shrugs*

[Mithalwen]

I have the deluxe which is slipcased - covered with the same scabious blue cloth as the half bindings of the book. It has the dragon helm and the JRRT monogram embossed in gold. Teh slipcover of the ordinary versionis the frontispiece.

I don't know if the ordo has the same illustrations - various colour landscapes and the pencil drawings in the text . The deluxe is a larger format and has high grade paper as well as a more substantial binding. It is a "serious" book - I mean I received a hard copy of UT in the same post and while it is nice it is not in the same league. I am reading Hurin with tissue paper around the cover to prevent finger marks even .. and it certainly won't be read with a glass of wine/cup of tea/ crumpet itn the other mitt....

[davem]

I have the standard ed., as Lal bought the de-luxe. The only difference (apart from slightly higher quality materials) is that the DL has the cover illustration from the standard as a colour plate inside. There are no 'extras' in the DL. Certainly the DL looks nice alongside the matching DL Hobbit & LotR. I hear Harper Collins are considering a matching Sil DL for the 30th anniversary this year.


More stuff

http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/C...=1024322418133

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/.../1010/FEATURES

& \ report on Alan Lee's signing sesh in Oxford

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headl...lkien_book.php

[Maédhros]

- As expected, the text is mostly the same as the ‘Narn’ found in UT. Moreover, it appears that CT restricted himself to ‘Narn-tradition’ texts (i.e. texts dating from and associated with Tolkien’s 1950s work on the Turin saga) in compiling the narrative. There is nothing (as far as I could tell) interpolated from independent versions of the story nor from independent essays or notes. This is quite consistent with, and good in light of, CT’s apparent goal of making CoH primarily a coherent piece of literature.

That is a real shame.

- There are, however, a few short passages here and there that do not appear in UT nor in the ’77 Silmarillion, nor HoMe, yet which are apparently from the body of ‘Narn’ texts. One of these, occuring in the first chapter, tells in very general terms that Hurin and Huor from time to time accompanied the men of Brethil in raids against the Orcs. This is notable in that it passes entirely over the Dagor Bragollach, which in other texts provides the motive for their being involved in fighting against the Orcs. But this is probably just an omission (no doubt on JRRT’s part rather than CT’s) for the sake of keeping the narrative’s focus from wandering.

I was wondering Aiwendil, that since it may take me months to have my own copy to read, if you had found new details about the Nirnaeth, that were not included in previous versions of the story.
The omision of the last versiongenealogy of Orodreth's genealogy is a real shame to me. Why don't make it right?

It seems to me that with the little additions that are not found in any previous texts that have been added to the CoH, we would need to put them in our version.

[davem]

More

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/leisure/b...iced_18_99.php

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I have the deluxe which is slipcased - covered with the same scabious blue cloth as the half bindings of the book. It has the dragon helm and the JRRT monogram embossed in gold. Teh slipcover of the ordinary versionis the frontispiece.

I don't know if the ordo has the same illustrations - various colour landscapes and the pencil drawings in the text . The deluxe is a larger format and has high grade paper as well as a more substantial binding. It is a "serious" book - I mean I received a hard copy of UT in the same post and while it is nice it is not in the same league. I am reading Hurin with tissue paper around the cover to prevent finger marks even .. and it certainly won't be read with a glass of wine/cup of tea/ crumpet itn the other mitt....

I've kept the plastic wrapping around the slipcase on mine for now while it's not 'put away' on the bookshelves, lest something nasty get spilled on it!

I'm very pleased with the quality of the book itself as an object - the paper is very sturdy indeed and stands up well to reading, turning pages etc. It's also not too heavy to handle easily, something that always puts me off if a book is too cumbersome to say read in a reclined position! I ended up putting my hardback of Jonathan Strange away and ony look at the paperback now because it was too heavy for me to hold and read.

Anyway, it's also got a nice look - a nice retro grey and air force blue binding and looks marvellous next to the matching deluxe Hobbit and LotR. Don't know what colour they will use if they do one of the Sil though - they've already used green, blue and a dull red for these editions.

[Thinlómien]

I've read most of the book and I must say I love it. I'm so fascinated by some character portrayals (Andróg is not the idiot we used to see, but an intriguing character both good and bad, Mîm's more sympathic, Aerin has an edge and Brandir and Gwindor are even more tragic...) and by some passages I've never read before. That book is a little treasure.

[Lalaith]

I've gone back to UT and the Sil to see what is new and what is not, and in fact there's not as much original stuff as I'd first thought, it's been a while since I read the UT version.
One sentence, which was in a UT footnote, is sadly missing from CoH.
"Always he sought in all faces of women the face of Lalaith".

Shame, because it is such a universal truth.