I got an email today, that I can pre-order the latest book written by the ghost of JRR Tolkien through the mediumship of Christopher Tolkien — The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.
It collects translations of “The Saga of the Völsungs” written while Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford in the 1920s and ‘30s. In other words, it’s more like an academic text than a novel.
I don’t care — I just pre-ordered. This is the kind of thing I read anyway. Right now, I’m rereading Puhvel’s Comparative Mythology.
See my previous post.
Link to Amazon.
According to the Telegraph, the new Tolkien book is already one of Britain’s most pre-ordered titles, stating that fans of Tolkien’s book will seek clues to the characters and events in his later novels, “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings”. The new Tolkien book is however something ‘completely different’, but nonetheless incredibly fascinating.
In the introduction of the book, Christopher Tolkien dates this work to the earlier 30s, so just before he wrote “The Hobbit” and while he was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. The text was hidden away for many years but will be released worldwide on Tuesday, 5th of May 2009, by the writer’s reclusive 84-year-old son Christopher, who has edited the book from his home in France.
The new book consists of two closely associated poems, to which Tolkien gave the titles “The New Lay of the Volsungs” and “The New Lay of Gudrun”, based on the legends of Völsung and Nibelung. The two poems are written in modern English fitted to the Old Norse metre, and now appear for the first time as “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun.”
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/884-Review_The_Legend_of_Sigurd_and_Gudrun.php
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun Release Party is an online event to celebrate the publication of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, the new book by J.R.R. Tolkien, first released worldwide on Tuesday 5th of May 2009. It will be released in the UK by Tolkien publisher HarperCollins and in the US by Houghton Mifflin.
The release event will take place online on May the 5th, 2009 and is being organized by TolkienLibrary.com. Here is all info:
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/882-Legend_of_Sigurd_and_Gudrun_Release_Event.php
Next to chatting and celebrating the release of the new Tolkien book there will be giveaways and a Q&A with special guest Tom Shippey.