Beren and Lúthien: Difference between revisions

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| title=Beren and Lúthien
| title=Beren and Lúthien
| image=[[File:Beren and Lúthien.jpg|225px]]
| image=[[File:Beren and Lúthien.jpg|225px]]
| author=[[J.R.R. Tolkien]]
| au''Italic text''thor=[[J.R.R. Tolkien]]
| editor=[[Christopher Tolkien]]
| editor=[[Christopher Tolkien]]
| illustrator=[[Alan Lee]]
| illustrator=[[Alan Lee]]
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| isbn=978-0008214197
| isbn=978-0008214197
}}
}}
'''''Beren and Lúthien''''' is a fortcoming book edited by [[Christopher Tolkien]]. The book will collect [[J.R.R. Tolkien]]'s different versions of the tale of [[Beren]] and [[Lúthien]].
'''''Beren and Lúthien''''' is a forthcoming book edited by [[Christopher Tolkien]]. The book will draw from different versions of [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] tale of [[Beren]] and [[Lúthien]].


==From the publisher==
==From the publisher==
{{blockquote|HarperCollins will publish a new J R R Tolkien title in May 2017. Edited by his son Christopher Tolkien, ''Beren and Lúthien'' will be published simultaneously in the US (by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and in other territories by Tolkien publishers worldwide.
{{blockquote|Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
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Christpher Tolkien extracted the tale of lovers Beren and Lúthien from [[The History of Middle-earth]], a 12-volume series that collected and analysed material relating to the fiction of J R R Tolkien. The story of Beren and Lúthien has evolved since it was first written in 1917, and has been reworked in various forms, including poetry. To reflect this, the new book opens with Tolkien's original text, before including passages from later texts that rework the tale. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story hitherto discarded.
''The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.
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''Beren and Lúthien'' will be published on the 10th anniversary of the last [[Middle-earth]] title, ''[[The Children of Húrin]]'', with the volume to include illustrations by [[Alan Lee]].}}
''Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.
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''In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.}}


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 13:19, 20 October 2016

Beren and Lúthien
File:Beren and Lúthien.jpg
EditorChristopher Tolkien
IllustratorAlan Lee
PublisherHarperCollins (UK)
Houghton Mifflin (US)
Released4 May 2017
FormatHardcover, E-book, Deluxe edition
Pages304
ISBN978-0008214197

Beren and Lúthien is a forthcoming book edited by Christopher Tolkien. The book will draw from different versions of J.R.R. Tolkien tale of Beren and Lúthien.

From the publisher

Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.



The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.

Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.

In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.

External links