Christopher Tolkien to finish lost Middle Earth novel

[Aiwendil]

I'm not necessarily up on my 'writeing of Middle Earth mythology' lore. Does this mean we're getting a whole new tale, or just a revition/recompilation of an older tale?

Most likely it'll be exactly the same text as is found in Unfinished Tales, except with a few passages added in from the '77 Silmarillion. So, nothing new if you've read UT/HoMe.

Still, I think anything that makes this wonderful story more widely accessible is worth something.

[Alchisiel]

At first I suspected that CRT had taken the story in the Silm and story in UT and combined them together but not having read HoME due to no monies in my pocketses and having read the comments here I'm not so sure now. Is there much more to the story than what is in the Silm and UT?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Most likely it'll be exactly the same text as is found in Unfinished Tales, except with a few passages added in from the '77 Silmarillion. So, nothing new if you've read UT/HoMe.

Still, I think anything that makes this wonderful story more widely accessible is worth something.

Of course, but many readers of Tolkien will not have read UT (The Narn) & HoM-e 11. CT has scattered the fragments across 3 books. This was not Tolkien's intention, & the narrative is coherent enough to work as a single story. Neither can we assume that there is no unpublished material left - CT did not include all the M-e writings in HoM-e & it is still appearing in Vinyar Tengwar. If a major text such as Osanwe Kenta could be excluded from HoM-e I wouldn't be surprised if other bits & pieces are around. Even if this isn't the case, the Narn should be made available to the general reader (as opposed to the Tolkien scholar).

I see a very beautiful edition forthcoming, the culmination (as the press release has it, of CT's work on his father's work. It is a fitting culmination too. We will have Tolkien's final great novel.

I'm sure that many of the critics who have dismissed Tolkien's work as 'trivial' will be shocked by the themes he deals with & amazed by the way he handles them.

[Lalwendë]

What I want to know is if we'll get a Potter style experience of bookshops opening at midnight and queues of salivating Tolkienistas being interviewed for News at Ten.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

What I want to know is if we'll get a Potter style experience of bookshops opening at midnight and queues of salivating Tolkienistas being interviewed for News at Ten.

With Harper Collins record on hitting publication dates it'll probably be a week late anyway.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

With Harper Collins record on hitting publication dates it'll probably be a week late anyway.

I'd better take the Portapotti along with the tent then so I'll not be getting into discomfort in the queue.

[Maédhros]

I think that it will be fantastic, but I was hoping that it would have been the Tale of the Fall of Gondolin, insted of the Narn.
I guess that CT chose the Narn because of the available material, but I hope that it could also include the Wanderings of Húrin. I don't think it will be, but I have estel.

[ninja91]

Hey Lal, dont forget that iron knuckle, since the release of the movies and the relatively new fervor stemming from the release of the movies, I wouldnt be surprised if it is as big as a Harry Potter release (excluding the future release of the 7th book, I cant wait!).
Also, I wonder if there is more than one work that Chris T. has been working on over the past 30 YEARS...