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. ( )

Christopher Tolkien systematizes his father's papers. ( )

One of these days . . . I really want to read this full tale of Luthien and Beren.

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 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. ( )

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.