New Tolkien Book Coming Soon: Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Apparently, Scottish actor Brian Cox is doing the audio recording.

Here is a short promotional video:

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

I think the audiobook might be the way to go for this one.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

For those who may be interested, Amazon.co.uk has posted the first part of Christopher Tolkien's Foreword to this book:

FOREWORD

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A very interesting review, by John Garth (author of Tolkien and the Great War), in the Times Online:

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

[solicitr]

Very positive review by Elizabeth Hand in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03462.html

(she was also very favorable to Children of Húrin)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A Q&A with Christopher himself about the book, from the Guardian:

Christopher Tolkien answers questions about Sigurd and Gudrún

There is also a very interesting answer to a question that relates indirectly to my own book (as well as another public refutation of the "Wild Boar" story).

[solicitr]

There is also a very interesting answer to a question that relates indirectly to my own book

I'm not sure what you're referring to: it seems he's merely repeating what is well-known (indeed quoting his own preface).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm referring to this statement:

After its publication in 1977 I began on what at first was a purely private study, a History of The Silmarillion, an exhaustive investigation and analysis of every page and passage in all my father's writings, leaving no stone unturned; and as this evolved over the years it became, greatly enlarged in scope, The History of Middle-Earth in 12 books, finally completed in 1996. In this the relationship is revealed between the published Silmarillion and the vast mass of writing from which it was derived – but not of course all the reasons and justifications for the way in which the work was carried out.

This contradicts any claim that it is not possible to trace the relationship between the published Silmarillion and its sources using HoMe.

[solicitr]

Well, I wouldn't put it that flatly. As you would know better than anyone else, there are details and particulars that can't be traced- HME doesn't include every text, and often those that are printed don't include every 'state' of the manuscripts as they underwent layers of emendation.

Working with Tolkien mss has taught me, very forcefully, that neat, orderly transcriptions create a rather misleading impression of clarity and finality.

More to the point, the "reasons and justifications" are in general not to be found in HME, and remain largely speculative.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, I wouldn't put it that flatly. As you would know better than anyone else, there are details and particulars that can't be traced- HME doesn't include every text, and often those that are printed don't include every 'state' of the manuscripts as they underwent layers of emendation.

Yes, of course. But I will point out that it was not me who put it that flatly but Christopher himself. And, of course, he is really the one that knows better than anyone else!

Still, I think that I have shown that Christopher's statement in this interview is "true enough". That is to say, enough of the sources of the published text can be traced using HoMe to allow for a meaningful analysis of that relationship.

More to the point, the "reasons and justifications" are in general not to be found in HME, and remain largely speculative.

Sadly, I expect that that will always remain true.

[solicitr]

New Sigurd & Gudrun section at the official Estate website!

http://www.tolkienestate.com/sigurd-and-gudrun/

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Another short positive review:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6655942.html

This one contains the classic statement, in pointing out that some of the work is difficult to follow, "Beowulf is Dr. Seuss compared to some of this."

[Andreth]

Mine has shipped!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Mine hasn't.

(And I was in a bookstore today, saying "why did I order this from Amazon?")

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A very meaty review in the Times Literary Supplement by one T.A. Shippey.

Tolkien out-Wagners Wagner

[solicitr]

Finally! A well-informed and informative review!

[Andreth]

I also ordered a collection edited by Jane Chance as well to get the free shipping.

[solicitr]

This is from JRRT's own notes on the poems (p.53):

[... Odin's] chosen warriors, and one, Sigurd son of Sigmund, is to be the chief of all, their leader in the Last Day; for Odin hopes that by his hand the Serpent shall in the end be slain, and a new world made possible. None of the Gods can accomplish this, but only one who has lived on Earth first as a mortal, and died. (This motive of the special function of Sigurd is an invention of the present poet [i.e. JRRT]).

I find it improbable in the extreme that this idea is unconnected with the Second Prophecy of Mandos, when at the Dagor Dagorath "Melko and his drakes shall curse the sword" of Túrin Turambar, to whom a place will be "given among the sons of the Valar;" or in different formulations Túrin will slay Ancalagon the Black greatest of dragons, or deal Morgoth himself "his death and final end;" and then Arda Remade shall come to pass.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In fact, as I discuss in Arda Reconstructed, Verlyn Flieger makes this very point (in a more general way, of course) in Splintered Light where she says (talking about the portion of the letter to Milton Waldman that Christopher used as a preface to the second edition of The Silmarillion), "Tolkien wrote that the legendarium 'ends with a vision of the end of the world, its breaking and remaking, and the recovery of the Silmarilli and the "light before the sun."' It would be strange if he had not envisioned such an end, for the mythologies on which he draws most heavely, Judeo-Christian and Norse, both included remaking and renewal in suprisingly similar terms." (See Splintered Light, pp. 160-61 and Arda Reconstructed, pp. 238-39.)

[solicitr]

Well, certainly: but I was talking about the specific element of a human dragon-slayer, redivivus, fated to destroy the Greatest Serpent at the Last Battle.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, I did say that it was on a much more general level.

It is worth noting however, that the specific element of a human dragon-slayer fated to destroy the Greatest Serpent at the Last Battle is present in the very last iteration of the Second Prophecy, where it is explicitly a Mannish myth, where it is actually a prophecy of Andreth the Wise-woman that Túrin will return from the Dead and destroy Ancalagon the Black at the Last Battle, before he leaves the Circles of the World forever. This comes from a note to The Problem of Ros which Christopher dates around 1968, so it is pretty clear that Tolkien was influenced by this idea pretty much to the end of his life.