New Tolkien Story To be Published

vingilot writes "CNN reports that Christopher Tolkien has edited and will release a new book by his father. From the article: 'Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Hurin," which includes the elves and dwarfs of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before.'"

Just a money grab?

[TopShelf]

From TFA:

Excerpts of "The Children of Hurin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before.

"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 Hurin' as an independent work, between its own covers,"

So the question is, will there actually be anything new in here that readers haven't seen before, or is it merely pulling bits from various texts and stitching them together in a fresh binding? Sounds like the latter to me...

expected criticism

[acvh]

and yes, Chris Tolkien has fed off the teat of his late father's creativity for a long time now. still, the literary joy of reading The Silmarillion, The Narn i Hin Hurun, The Lay of Leithian, and more, far outweighs whatever motives young Tolkien may have in editing and publishing these many works.

Prof. Tolkien, while living, tried and failed to publish the Silmarillion. The other works were never even close to publishable. yet he often talked and wrote of these tales having a life of their own, and I don't think he would object to their being shared with millions of fans.

I, for one, am grateful for the opportunity to have read of the First and Second ages of Tolkien's world.

Motives in Question

[moore.dustin]

While I would love to believe that this is not a ploy for more money, I find it hard to swallow. He had abandoned the book and his son decided to abandon, edit, and release it for sale. Now I do not know his son obviously, but one must ask themselves, "If he respected his father, he would not being doing this would he?"

I will read it though, that is for sure. I will however, credit the subject material to Tolkien while the rest will go to his son and his 30 years of editing. I doubt anything could be tampered with so much and still hold the same value as the original. Then again, maybe because it was not "finished" he fleshed it out - either way it is not a book authored by Tolkien to me.

Whatever happened to his Beowulf?

[Alfred, Lord Tennyso]

Slashdot had a story some time ago [slashdot.org] that they'd found a copy of Beowulf translated by Tolkien at the bottom of a box of his papers in the Oxford library. Supposedly they were going to publish them as soon as they'd deciphered his terrible handwriting. But I haven't heard of it since.

Re:Well! I stand corrected.

[vancondo]

Hmm.. Maybe there's a reason the story was tossed aside in the first place?

-
http://vancouvercondo.info [vancouvercondo.info]

Re:Dwarfs

[Hamilton Lovecraft]

What a gross oversimplification of the actual situation! [upenn.edu]

"The OED cites a bewildering variety of spellings from various periods:

duerð, dweorð, dweorh, dwæruh, dweru3, dwer3, dwer3e, dwergh, dwargh, dwarghe, duergh, dwerk, duerch, duerche, dorche, droich, dweruf, dwerf, dwerfe, dwerff, dwerffe, dwrfe, dwarfe, dwarff, dwarffe, dwearf, dwarf, duerwe, durwe, dwarw, dwerwh, dwerwhe, dwerwe, dwerowe, duorow, dwery, duery, dueri

I don't know enough about the history of English spelling to be able to figure out what range of sound patterns lie behind that list."

Re:Dwarfs

[Yaksha42]

Maybe it is in this world, but not Tolkien's. He actually wanted to make the plural be "Dwarrows."

"The real 'historical' plural of dwarf (like teeth of tooth) is dwarrows anyway: rather a nice word, but a bit too archaic. Still I rather wish I had used the word dwarrow." - The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #17

Re:Abandoned?

[bcat24]

I know what you mean, the Sil is not an easy book to read. Actually, it's a really hard one to read the first time around. Then I finally realized that it didn't really matter if I forgot what I'd just read, or just which elf was which (why do half their names have to start with "f" anyway?). Once that happened, I was able to read the whole thing without too much trouble. It still wasn't (and still isn't) an easy read, but it's definitely worth it. It's just so beautiful, and profoundly sad, and gives a nice perspective for the Lord of the Rings.

incredible! i wish slashdot wasn't so jaded though

[radarsat1]

"Wow, that's great," I thought, as I read the title of the article. Then I made the mistake of clicking on "Read more..."

Man are you lot ever a bunch of depressed, jaded people. Almost every single comment has been attacking Mr. Tolkien for doing homage to his father's work. How sad...

(Please, no "You must be new here" comments.. :)

Re:Greedy Children

[MightyMartian]

Tolkien very much wanted these works published, but unfortunately was, after LotR, never able to get the Silmarillion (that includes the hugely expanded works like the Children of Hurin) to any form of completion. Christopher Tolkien, who had long worked closely with his father (CJRT drew the first Middle Earth map) was entrusted with creating a finished work. To make a long story short, he had to do certain things such as writing one of the stories in the book, and then published the History of Middle Earth series, to show the nature of his father's incomplete works.

Now if only Brian Herbert would do that with his own father's unfinished work on the Dune series, rather than writing absolutely awful novels based on them.

Re:Greedy Children

[Cheapy]

On the otherhand, the time spent could also mean he didn't have motivation, not that he wanted it to be "perfect."

Re:Is this it?

[Alfred, Lord Tennyso]

According to the sellers, that book is in German. I suppose Beowulf may well translate into German better than English.

As I understand it, Tolkein's contribution to Beowulf wasn't so much the translation but an essay called The Monsters And The Critics, back in the 30s. Apparently it was the first time anybody had looked at Beowulf as a thing with literary merit, rather than just a piece of linguistic evidence.

Tearing arms off and beating people to death it?

[sir_montag]

Personally, any epic tale that has the main character tearing someone's arm off and beating them to death with it has got some serious literary merit in my book!

The story really does have a lot going for it, once you get past the language barrier - Old English really does read a lot more like German than modern English. It was one of the coolest books I'd ever read - full of adventure with tons of gruesome details (like the whole 'tearing someone's arm off and beating them to death with it' bit) that you'd never seen in any other piece of classical literature aside from Dante's Inferno.

The end kind of sucked, as I recall, but as far as adventure and ass-kicking go, Beowulf was one of the best, if not *the* best.

Re:Greedy Children

[1u3hr]

And as for "usual standard" -- Chis Tolkien is going to be able to match or exceed his father's writing in every technical way. Being able to write full time and not having to create the mythology will do that.

No. Have you actually read any of their respective writing? JRRT was a professor of English language and literature at Oxford University. His technical command of the language was pretty damn high.

Re:expected criticism

[professorfalcon]

Nicomachus published his father's (Aristotle's) notes into a book, Nicomachean Ethics, that is part of the foundation of the western world.

Re:Greedy Children

[DrJimbo]

I've only read the Silmarilion, ... However sometime after that, the seemingly endless stream of variant versions of the same stories seems to have crossed over the line of honouring his legacy to ruthlessly exploiting, and diluting, it.

I realize this is Slashdot and we have a glorious history here of commenting on articles without reading them but I must ask you how you can reach the conclusion that the volumes that followed the Silmarillion were exploitative and a dilution of the earlier works when you haven't even read them?

I've read most, but not all, of the volumes of Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth and I've enjoyed them greatly. I felt no hint of exploitation or dilution. I'm very grateful to Christopher for taking the time and effort (and flack) to make all these parts of his father's work available to the rest of us.

If you are interested in exploring these other works, you might want to start with "Unfinished Tales" which provides a nice bridge between what happened in the Lord of the Rings and the larger world of the Silmarillion.

Re:Greedy Children

[berj]

I don't know about all that. I've always found the Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle Earth series to be a wonderful look behind the scenes -- much like the extras on most DVDs. They're not necessary.. and they're certainly not up to the same standard as the main works.. but I've always found them entertaining and insightful. The depth of analysis and commentary certainly doesn't make it seem like exploitation.. but rather exploration.

Berj

Re:Just a money grab?

[Anonymous Coward]

Chris Tolkien is 81. His father was 81 when he passed in 1973. Don't think this isn't a factor. Having read almost every "Unfinished Tale" I have no problem whatsoever with Christopher's scholarship or motives. Thanks, Christopher. Very much.

Re:Well! I stand corrected.

[Arancaytar]

If you read The Lord of the Rings again (the book, not the summary of the movie), it will become apparent that Tolkien's style - long scenical descriptions, drifting off into explanations and even vague biblical motives - is present there too. It is less heavy than in the Silmarillion because Lord of the Rings was a book he published, and I'm rather sure Allen & Unwin wouldn't have published a book written in that dry a style, simply because no one would have read it.

But the style is still there in parts. Take this passage:

So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dunedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.

And then read this:

But Túrin they laid in a high mound where he had fallen, and the shards of Gurthang were set beside him. And when all was done, and the minstrels of Elves and Men had made lament, telling of the valour of Turambar and the beauty of Níniel, a great grey stone was brought and set upon the mound; and the Men of Brethil call it Talbor, the Standing Stone, and thereon the Elves carved in the Runes of Doriath: Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga.

And then say again that these are not by the same author. If anything, Tolkien's creative genius shines through more strongly in his posthumous work, which didn't need to be heavily edited to appeal to a popular audience.