Tolkien readers would have to be living under a stone not to be aware that Beren and Lúthien was published on 1 June 2017.
What follows is a round-up of some of the reviews, interviews, films, and media attention, which has appeared in the last week or so. Most of it is about the new book, but some of it is about other aspects of Tolkien.
Over the next six months we are going to hear a lot more about Beren and Lúthien as the world gears up towards the publication of the book on the 4th May. But, for those unfamiliar with the story, who are Beren and Lúthien? (more…)
In the 18 days leading up to the publication of A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages yesterday, co-editors Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins tweeted sneak previews from the book. Here are just some of the reason why you should read the new critical edition of one of Tolkien’s most important essays.
Professor Tolkien, until the end of the 20th century, was not recognized (or even known) as a great writer in Brazil. His works were generally read by people who had a good routine of reading and among youngsters who used to play RPG.
Tolkien is not exactly known for his brevity: The Lord of the Ring ranks with War and Peace, The Count of Monte Cristo and Gone With The Wind as the butt of jokes for its length; whilst Tolkien beats the Bard in terms of word-count. Without even including The History of Middle-earth or academic texts, the works of the Professor surpass over one million words. It may seem strange that I would wish for some more, but I do. (more…)
The publication of Scull and Hammond’s expanded edition of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil basically completes the set of publications of drafts and associated papers, and annotated editions, of all of Tolkien’s books published during his lifetime. (What’s come out posthumously is all “drafts” in a sense.) Omitting his purely technical publications, only “Leaf by Niggle” and a few miscellaneous poems remain unpublished in this format. I thought it might be useful to have a bibliography of these items, so here are all the ones published in book form, with The Silmarillion also treated in this format.