JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years

A new book by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien is going on sale - 100 years after it was first conceived.

Beren and Lúthien has been described as a "very personal story" that the Oxford professor thought up after returning from the Battle of the Somme.

It was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and contains versions of a tale that became part of The Silmarillion.

The book features illustrations by Alan Lee, who won an Academy Award for his work on Peter Jackson's film trilogy

It is being published on Thursday by HarperCollins on the 10th anniversary of the last Middle Earth book, The Children of Húrin.

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The story is about the fate of lovers Beren and Lúthien, a mortal man and an immortal elf who together try to steal from the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor.

For the new book Christopher Tolkien, now aged 92, has kept his father's story in the original form in which it was written and has also shown how the narrative changed to become part of The Silmarillion.

Source: BBC.com, news, June 1, 2017 - JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years.

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Wikipedia: Battle of the Somme.

eta: BBC.co.uk - The Somme and Tolkien.

Being a nerd and all, heck yeah I'm buying a copy! I made it through The Silmarillion but it was so long ago that I am having problems remembering all the details. May give that a re-read as well. LOTR is a must for any computer scientist! How many times have servers been named after one of the characters in the novels? It is the "Hello World!" rite of passage.

A human, an elf, attempted theft from The Evil One... what could go wrong?

Lovers of JRR Tolkien rejoice!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Curious to see how much different it is than the story published in The Silmarillion. Christopher Tolkien has published quite a few versions of his father's stories so I am going to assume the end will be the same but other parts may be different as this is obviously a tragic story.

Wow. I knew this "book" existed in the Tolkein archives, and also knew that a section of The Silmarillion was based upon it, but I never thought we'd see it in total.

Great news!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

The extra link I added is the harrowing details of WWI and the Somme. Worth the read if you have the time!

The article points out that he leaves the original as his father wrote it and adds commentary of how it differs in the latter version.

It will be nice to revisit a voice from the past!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I get the impression that it'll be a mix of the early stuff in Book of Lost Tales V1 where Beren is a "gnome"/Noldo and Sauron is a cat etc that has heaps of narrative with the shorter but more cannonical Silmarillion tale. I guess the Lay of Leithan or w/e is part to as the new work is partly verse.

I think the version in The Silmarillion is possibly his best prose. I love the much longer earlier versions though, his early versions of Tur and Turin are breathtaking.

originally posted by: skalla
I think the version in The Silmarillion is possibly his best prose. I love the much longer earlier versions though, his early versions of Tur and Turin are breathtaking.

I agree that it is, I am very partial to the entire compellation, the construction of the mythos is fascinating.