The Lays of Beleriand

The lays are… lays! They’re written as long poems. For some reason, I was not expecting that. I also wasn't expecting it to be so pleasant to read; I usually hate poetry. It reminds me of a fanfic drabble: every word chosen carefully, lots of rich details but nothing extraneous. Maybe when I have the house to myself I will read them aloud. (I did, and it was amazing.)

"The Lay of Leithian" is the familiar story of Beren and Lúthien. The rhyming couplets are perfect for this story; I prefer it over all the other prose versions. It also has a lot more detail. "The Lay of the Children of Húrin" is in alliterative verse, and I enjoyed it, although maybe not as much. I don’t know a lot about poetry, but alliterative verse was a much show more better choice than rhyming couplets, since it’s a much darker story.

Favorites: Lúthien faces down Morgoth. She is brilliant as always, but it’s the characterization of Morgoth himself that gets to me: you can feel his hatred of the Valar, how convincing he can be, and how twisted his view of the world.

Least favorites: None of it is finished! Luckily we know how the stories end, but I would love to read them all the way through in verse. show less

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This is the third volume of the History of Middle Earth; it contains two unfinished poems tackling the two key narratives of the Silmarillion. The first, a version of the tale of Turin told in alliterative blank verse, did not really appeal to me, and while I can see why Tolkien, with his background, wanted to give it a try, it's not very surprising that the effort did not come off. The Lay of Leithian, however, is a different matter - telling the story of Beren and Luthien in rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter, it has a tremendous energy that Tolkien never quite managed in the prose versions of the story, despite its strong personal significance for him. Also I had forgotten, or had never show more realised, just how kickass a heroine Luthien actually is. The couplets are occasionally a little unpolished, but Christopher Tolkien reproduces a mock source-critical analysis by none other than C.S. Lewis suggesting that the least good bits are obvious interpolations by later scribes. J.R.R. Tolkien then revised the poem in line with Lewis' suggestions, but typically started expanding it from the middle again and never got around to finishing it.

Years later, it was part of the disorganised bundle of papers submitted to Unwin as material for a potential sequel to The Hobbit. Unwin's reader, who clearly had not been given much background, found the poem indigestible and urged instead an expansion of the prose summary of the rest of The Silmarillion. Tolkien wasn't up for this at that point, and wrote The Lord of the Rings instead. And thus was history made. show less

A combination of a study of the craft of writing and the poetic origins of Tolkien's massive world of Middle Earth. Two of these poem groups have since been published as standalone novels, thus reaching a wider audience.

This book is divided into 3 chapters, "The Lay of the Children of Hurin," "Poems Early Abandoned," and "The Lay of Leithian." Each chapter contains the poem sequences that Tolkien first wrote in all their Edda-esque glory. There are characters who take shape and include details that Tolkien uses in later writings even when the name, such as Orgof, Turin's tormenter in the halls of Thingol, do not survive the world-building. And then there are elements, such as the friendship between Turin Turambar and Beleg the Bowman, show more that are created in this poem and continue into the published [Silmarillion].

In "The Lay of Leithian," the longest section, Tolkien started in the summer of 1925 and finished later in 1931. It is the earliest telling of the love between Beren and Luthien, Beren's life story, and the forces that drove them to seek the Silmaril from Morgoth's crown. Also included at the end of this poem are C.S. Lewis' notes on the copy Tolkien gave him for review, and Christopher Tolkien's commentary on what Tolkien did (and did not) change once he received his friends notes.

Throughout each section are Christopher Tolkien's notes on names, commentary, and comparison of later emendations to the original. And he also includes the correspondence between Tolkien and the publishers of Allen & Unwin, and the mis-communication that resulted in the heroic poems as well as "Silmarillion" being turned down for publication, when, in fact, Unwin's reader never read the pages Tolkien provided for "Silmarillion" despite naming this work in his review. show less

Terceiro volume de A História da Terra-média, série editada por Christopher Tolkien que oferece uma visão detalhada da genialidade e do processo criativo em evolução de J.R.R. Tolkien.
Este livro oferece uma visão privilegiada da criação da mitologia da Terra-média por meio da composição poética de Tolkien. O livro contém os longos poemas heroicos A Balada dos Filhos de Húrin, que narra a trágica saga de Túrin Turambar, e A Balada de Leithian, principal fonte do conto Beren e Lúthien apresentado em O Silmarillion. Também são contém três poemas aliterativos inacabados: A Fuga dos Noldoli, A Balada de Eärendel e A Balada da Queda de Gondolin. A edição conta com comentários sobre a evolução da história dos Dias show more Antigos e a crítica feita por C.S Lewis de A Balada de Leithian. show less

I wonder whether Tolkien would have published materials dealing with the First Age in his lifetime, if he hadn't tried to write epics on the period? Still, they're not half bad epics, and C.S. Lewis' fictional German professors commenting on /The Lay of Leithien/ are not to be missed.

Authorship of this book, essentially a commentary on the evolution of a long poem by JRR Tolkien, with extensive analytical sections by his son Christopher is therefore tricky. The poems, the sad, sad tale of Turin, and the many versions of Beren and Luthien, are chopped up and dissected by the young heir. Sometimes readable for middling sections is the best I can say, here.

The best love story/poem/epic of all time is enclosed in these pages. Do not miss it. Please skip Christopher Tolkien's dry editorial comments. It will kill the mood, trust me.