Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
New York Times Bestseller "A good introduction to LOTR fans nervous about taking on The Silmarillion, and also gives longtime fans a fascinating look at the Tolkiens' myth-making process."--EntertainmentWeekly.com
"A beautiful book."--San Antonio Express-News
"With eloquence and diligence and care, the son reconstructs and retraces the father's journey, pursuing the tale through draft after draft as Tolkien pursued his vision of Middle-earth."--NPR.org
The epic tale of Beren and L thien became an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of J.R.R. Tolkien's First Age of the World. Always key to the story is the fate that shadowed their love: Beren was a mortal man, L thien an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, imposed on Beren an impossible task before he might wed L thien: to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, of a Silmaril.
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, Beren and L thien reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, along with the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien's Middle-earth. Christopher Tolkien tells the story in his father's own words by giving its original form as well as prose and verse passages from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed.
Synopsis
The New York Times Bestseller
J.R.R. Tolkien's Beren And L thien is one of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days. The epic tale of Beren and L thien became an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of Tolkien's First Age of the World.
Always key to the story is the fate that shadowed their love: Beren was a mortal man, L thien an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, imposed on Beren an impossible task before he might wed L thien: to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, of a Silmaril.
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, Beren and L thien reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, along with the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien's Middle-earth. Christopher Tolkien tells the story in his father's own words by giving its original form as well as prose and verse passages from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed.
"A good introduction to LOTR fans nervous about taking on The Silmarillion, and also gives longtime fans a fascinating look at the Tolkiens' myth-making process."--EntertainmentWeekly.com
"With eloquence and diligence and care, the son reconstructs and retraces the father's journey, pursuing the tale through draft after draft as Tolkien pursued his vision of Middle-earth."--NPR.org
Synopsis
Painstakingly restored from J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and L thien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien's Middle-earth.
The tale of Beren and L thien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.
Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and L thien: for Beren was a mortal man, but L thien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed L thien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and L thien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.
In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and L thien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.