beren and LÚTHIEN
A love story through the ages
RELEASED OUT NOW! 288 pages | Hardback/ebook
Author Jrr Tolkien
Publisher HarperCollins
JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece The Silmarillion contains a chapter about a human named Beren and an Elf maiden named Lúthien, and Beren’s quest to find a Silmaril to prove his love for her. This story went through an extraordinary number of versions as Tolkien – ever the tinkerer – played with it across almost his entire lifetime, including several attempts to turn it into an epic, Beowulf-style poem, The Lay Of Leithian (previously published as part of The History Of Middle-earth).
In Beren And Lúthien, Christopher Tolkien (now 92!), has collated every manuscript, note and scribble from his father’s archive into an all-encompassing collection that charts the story’s evolution. He’s annotated it for the real Tolkien geeks out there, so at times you feel as though you’re reading someone’s thesis, but once you get swept into the different versions you can’t help but appreciate the insight, as things can get pretty confusing.
Tolkien tried out so many prose styles that even though you’re essentially reading the same story over and over, you don’t get bored – in fact, some of the earlier versions are more entertaining than the one that ended up as the “official” telling. It’s fascinating seeing how the tale changed: there’s a dumped subplot about an evil band of cats and their animosity towards dogs, for instance, while everything from names to characters switch around willy-nilly.
If you’re looking to complete your Tolkien library, this is an absolutely essential purchase. Needless to say, however, if you’re a newbie you’ll find it a baffling experience. The fact Beren And Lúthien doesn’t stand alone as a short story collection is sad, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. Our tip is to make sure you read the poetry out loud, rather than in your head. You’ll baffle your neighbours, but it really comes to life that way.
The ring Aragorn wears was Beren’s dad’s; in the extended Fellowship Of The Ring movie, he sings from The Lay Of Leithian.
There’s a subplot about evil cats