http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/857 ... Gudrun.phpHarperCollins is to publish a new book by the late Lord of the Rings author J R R Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, edited and introduced by Tolkien’s son Christopher, will be published in hardback in May 2009.
The previously unpublished work was written while Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University during the 1920s and '30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The publication will make available for the first time Tolkien’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs.
David Brawn, the publishing director of HarperCollins UK, said: "It is an entirely unpublished work, dates from around the early 1930s, and will be published - all being well - in May this year. Otherwise the clue as to what the book will contain is in the title - THE LEGEND OF SIGURD AND GUDRUN. You will surmise from this that it is not a Middle-earth book, but we are confident that Tolkien fans will be fascinated by it."
For those who are wondering about it, I can already tell that this new edition will not be illustrated by Alan Lee; but have not been confirmed who will be the illustrator.
No word yet as to whether it will also be published in the U.S by Houghton Mifflin.
Carl Hostetter (Aelfwine), who has read the whole work in draft, posted some additional information over at TORN:
linkThe book comprises two poems (each in several parts), the first concerning the life and death of Sigurd, the second the subsequent life of Gudrún and the fall of the Niflungs. Both are substantial: the first has 339 stanzas, the second 166 stanzas.