New Tolkien work on the way!

[annathepiper]

Why am I only finding out just now about the forthcoming work The Children of Húrin? The things I learn checking out my Coming Soon list of recommendations on Amazon! Wikipedia has a page on it, too.

So apparently Christopher Tolkien has edited together, out of his father's many drafts, a longer version of the tale of Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor--which we see in The Silmarillion--and this is about to come out next week in fancy hardback versions. Half of me is quite excited by this prospect because holy crap new Tolkien material, and the other half of me is all but why did they have to pick the angstiest angst in Angstland to expand into a full book?

Not that I'm not going to buy this or anything, though I'm waffling about whether I want to shell out for a hardback or wait for a paperback version. The tale of Túrin never did really fly with me, at least not remotely the same way that the tale of Beren and Lúthien did.

Now, if Christopher Tolkien wants to do a novel-length treatment of Beren and Lúthien, I am there.

Comments

[suzene.livejournal.com]

I'll be waiting for the paperback as well, if you'd like solidarity for one of those options. ;) The history of Men doesn't do all that much for me, really.

[annathepiper]

I'm interested in the history of Men only in the context of Numenor, I think. Aside from that, yeah, way more interested in the Elves fighting over the shiny holy rocks. ;)

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

The thing that interests me most about this is that it comes with original artwork by Alan Lee. The story, not so much, though if it really were a full narrative working by JRR himself I think it could be cool. Cobbled together from the professor's notes, I just don't see it being any better than the Unfinished Tales, except for the new artwork.

[annathepiper]

I guess much will depend on how many drafts of the story we're talking about here and how well an editing job has been done. The art might be very pretty, though. I shall have to at least flip through a copy of the book in the store and see if I must have it.