The Gest of Beren and Lúthien

[Pitchwife]

PS to my last:

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

All I can say is that the good stuff is from later, when he undertook to revise the Gest after LotR was published.

Well, yes, in a way - a completely revised Gest would be great to have. Still - and I say this with some reserve, as I haven't re-read either the original Lay or the revision lately - I tend to find that with Tolkien revising earlier stages of his Legendarium, we often lose in freshness, innocence and spontaneous imagination what we gain in depth and complexity *coughMythsTransformedcough*. I'm glad to have both versions, and I wouldn't want to miss the glimpse of the Legendarium in a still liquid state, so to speak, that we get from the early Lays (even the first drafts, where Lúthien, horribile dictu!, still had the same name as Merry Brandybuck's cousin in the Nth degree Melilot!).

And Lommy, be sure to read CS Lewis's comments on the Gest (included in HoME III) - they're almost as entertaining as the Lay itself!