
JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years - happy-go-lucky
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396
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grabcocque
I’m always wary of posthumously published books. I mean, the author didn’t
publish them for a reason. Normally that reason is because they were bad.

Also, I tried to read the Silmarillion once. THAT was a struggle.

Christopher Tolkien calls himself an “editor” but I’m not sure he understands
what the word means.

~~~
sillyquiet
I love the Silmarillion. It's the Old Testament Bible of an alternate
universe. It's not a novel so much as a collection of mythological stories and
a narrative history, very much in the style of medieval literature.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I don't understand how people can even find the Silmarillion but somehow don't
understand what it is. Its just pieced together mythology. Its not some lost
LOTR sequel. Its a bit like saying, "So I ran out and bought Infinite Jest. No
one told me it was long and ponderous!"

Uh, who is recommending these books to these people and why aren't they at
least reading the descriptions?

~~~
Steuard
I used to sometimes see random volumes from the middle of The History of
Middle-earth series sitting in airport bookstores. I'd look at that and just
feel sorry for anyone who thought "Oh, I loved _The Hobbit_! I'm looking for
something to read on the plane: maybe this book _The Shaping of Middle-earth_
will be fun." Even _Unfinished Tales_ or _The Silmarillion_ could be more or
less reasonable there, but this felt like tricking people into buying a
specialized third-year college textbook.

~~~
duskwuff
Part of the problem -- in my opinion -- was that the publisher treated _The
History of Middle-Earth_ like a typical fantasy series. Mass market paperback
edition, cover art, the works. A different presentation might have made it
more clear that it was a scholarly work, not a novel.

(Or perhaps that was the intent. Sigh...)

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Jun8
From a letter Talkien wrote after her death
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tolkien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tolkien)):

"I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story that in
time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a
small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was
for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and
she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven,
her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing
– and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead
before the inexorable Mandos."

It's sad that although she was his Muse (at least in the younger days) they
did not seem to share any of the lore he created in real life. She was not an
intellectual and was not interested, he was a man's man (and also religious).

"I never called Edith Luthien". What a missed opportunity!

~~~
libria
> they did not seem to share any of the lore he created in real life. She was
> not an intellectual and was not interested

Seems odd he was enamoured of her. They were of different religions, she
didn't like C.S. Lewis, and didn't fit in with his work buddies wives. Maybe
she was hot.

~~~
bykovich2
Yeah, dude, it's bizarre that a man could love a woman who doesn't share his
extremely niche interests.

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erikb
This is awesome as a marketing story. But I think everybody is aware that this
is not really a Tolkien book but a summary of his notes written down by his
son. I don't know if it's good to really present this in such an unrealistic
way.

~~~
Iv
IIRC this is also a way to reset the timer to entry in the public domain in
some jurisdiction. They should be ashamed of using such a dirty trick.

~~~
tephra
Given that much of this content has already been published I'm not sure this
is the reason. Also the complete draft in this book is different from the one
published in the Silmarillion so not sure that it would reset the copyright
then?

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Aaargh20318
288 pages according to Amazon. So enough material for six 3-hour-long movies.

~~~
ruc0la
Literally my first thought. The way they made three long movies from the
Hobbit just killed the original story.

~~~
endemic
Maybe try the "Tolkien Edit?" Although even cut down to four hours, I still
couldn't stomach it.

[https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/](https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/)

~~~
ruc0la
The book is a short story compare to the LOTR book trilogy. As a result, the
movie cannot be that diverse and fast-pased, so it inevitable becomes boring
after a while.

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aglavine
Not much related, but Túrin Turambar is my favorite Tolkien work.

As someone who struggled against a bad environment, I related to Túrin
Turambar misadventures a lot and connected to the character much more than any
other of the whole Tolkien's ouvre.

~~~
ende
My favorite fact about Turin is that despite being the son of a son of the
Second Born, and a cursed one at that, for the fire of his spirit and the
injustice of his mortal fate alone was he awarded the command of all the host
of the West in the prophesied Last Battle.

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garou
The little I know about Tolkien sometimes I think if he wanted to his stories
to became alive.

Its said he created The Lord of The Rings world to his language be alive. I
guess he loved tales. Could he be intend to his work evolve in such way as the
tales he studied and taught?

~~~
ianai
I prefer your take on it absolutely.

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ctdonath
Now available on iBooks:

Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien
[https://itun.es/us/knBOfb.l](https://itun.es/us/knBOfb.l)

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garou
I loved to read this story on Silmarillion.

It is a fantasy story about love but still being deeply inspired by Tolkien
feelings from his wife. I did not knew about it when was reading and how they
(Beren and Lúthien) started loving one another can be a bit fantastic but all
their adventure and how they 'are' with themselves feels real and veritable.

~~~
sevensor
Absolutely, it's one of his better stories. But it's not as if Christopher
Tolkein has suddenly unearthed new material. He's gone and polished up some
work that was published decades ago. The Tolkein literary estate is a money
machine -- they've already published pretty much anything Tolkein ever wrote,
no matter how disjointed or fragmentary. The tale of Beren and Luthien is
well-known and memorable, and all the bits of it are in other books already.

------
Steuard
Tolkien's writings have been one of my chief hobbies for years
([http://tolkien.slimy.com/](http://tolkien.slimy.com/)), so I've been really
curious about what this new book would be and how it would be received. Having
read a fair bit about it and skimmed through the 30-ish pages available for
preview on Amazon... I'm still not sure. To explain that, I'll start with some
background.

The previously available books by Tolkien (many edited by his son Christopher)
took different forms: _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ are traditional
narrative stories; _The Silmarillion_ blurs together the styles of the Bible,
a history textbook, and historical fiction; _Unfinished Tales_ is a collection
of isolated or incomplete stories and essays along with framing commentary for
each; and the twelve History of Middle-earth books are a thoroughly scholarly
analysis of the complete textual history of Tolkien's invented world (which
happen to include quite a lot of fascinating and enjoyable stories and
fragments along the way). Christopher Tolkien has done a really admirable job
of sharing his father's broader vision (at his father's request!) with as wide
an audience as possible.

When _The Children of Húrin_ appeared (around 10 years ago), it was the first
self-contained narrative story about Middle-earth published since Tolkien's
death. Most or all of the actual text had been published before (it's a very
close match to the first story in _Unfinished Tales_ ), but it was framed in a
way to be much more accessible: it's quite readable by someone who hasn't read
anything beyond _The Lord of the Rings_ , with no _Silmarillion_ necessary. (I
wrote a short "bridge" of backstory to help with that, for people intimidated
by the book's 15 pages of introductory information:
[http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/HurinBridge.html](http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/HurinBridge.html))
My sense is that this book did a great job of opening some of Tolkien's
broader vision to a wider audience. (And people who enjoy it might go on to
read _Unfinished Tales_ or _The Silmarillion_ with a bit more interest.)

From what I can tell so far, _Beren and Lúthien_ is a very different beast.
It's not a single, coherent narrative, but rather a focused "slice" of textual
history from throughout the whole History of Middle-earth series. The style of
Christopher Tolkien's commentary seems to be more conversational and less
scholarly, but it starts with the earliest version of the story (which feels
_very_ foreign to readers of _The Silmarillion_ ) and talks through its stages
of evolution, evidently including its lengthy rendition as an epic poem.

So I'm not really sure what audience this is for. My sense is that it's
written to be accessible to people who have only read _The Lord of the Rings_
, and it tells what is perhaps the most central story of the First Age of
Middle-earth. That's very appealing! But the way in which it's presented here
means that it will primarily be enjoyable to people who have a fair amount of
interest in Tolkien's writing process and in keeping track of the many, many
shifting names and plot lines in the story as it evolved over five decades or
so. (And how many people with that interest haven't already read all of this
material in its full context in the History of Middle-earth books anyway?)
Maybe it can serve a useful role as a bridge between the
Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales reading experience and the History of Middle-
earth reading experience? Or maybe there really is a community of textual
history fans who don't have the patience or interest to read a book like _The
Silmarillion_? I'm very interested to hear what experiences different people
have with the book, and I should probably read it myself to get a better sense
of what it can be.

~~~
leejoramo
Thanks for linking to your site. What an amazing resource!

