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The Lays of Beleriand (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 3)
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.912
EAN: 9780395394298
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0395394295
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: November 20, 1985
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
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Editorial Review:
This is the third volume of the History of Middle-earth, which comprises here-tofore unpublished manuscripts that were written over a period of many years before Tolkien's Simlarillion was published. Volumes 1 and 2 were the Book of Lost Tales, Part One and The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two. Together, these volumes encompass an extraordinarily extensive body of material ornamenting and buttressing what must be the most fully realized world ever to spring from a single author's imagination.
"I write alliterative verse with pleasure," wrote J.R.R. Tolkien in 1955, "though I have published little beyond the fragments in The Lord of the Rings, except The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth." The first of the poems in The Lays of Beleriand is the previously unpublished Lay of the Children of Hurin, his early but most sustained work in the ancient English meter, intended to narrate on a grand scale the tragedy of Turin Turambar. It was account of the killing by Turin of his friend Beleg, as well as a unique description of the great redoubt of Nargothrond.
The Lay of the Children of Hurin was supplanted by the Lay of Leithian, "Release from Bondage", in which another major legend of the Elder Days received poetic form, in this case in rhyme. The chief source of the short prose tale of Beren and Luthien is The Silmarillion.
This, too, was not completed, but the whole Quest of the Silmaril is told, and the poem breaks off only after the encounter with Morgoth in his subterranean fortress. Many years later, when The Lord of the rings was finished, J.R.R. Tolkien returned to the Lay of Leithian and started on a new version, which is also given in this book.
Accompanying the poems are commentaries on the evolution of the history of the Elder Days, which was much developed during the years of the composition of the two Lays. Also included is the notable criticism in detail of the Lay of Lethian by C.S. Lewis, Tolkien's friend and colleague, who read the poem in 1929. By assuming that this poem is actually a fragment from a past lost in history, Lewis underlined the remarkable power of its author's imaginative talents and academic competence.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not Free SF Reader
More dull Tolkienness. Fairly obvious attempt at publishing
commercialism. However, the author put a ton of work into his
background, history, languages, songs, poetry, and other works to do
with his books, so if any of those worlds are deserving of having their
backstory detailed in excruciating detail and 400 volumes, this is
probably one.
Rating:  - Not just poetry, but an epic saga
When I read LotR, or The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Tolkien's poetry didn't seem to me good enough. That is, I liked those verses, but I thought them too plain for those from an epic saga. Now this book is quite another. The Lay of Leithian is a most romantic story of love-and-adventure (the corresponding chapter in the Silmarillion describes the same events much simpler), and in the poem about Thurin, we get to know some missing details of his story. So, if you're interested in the First Age events ... Read More
Rating: - Reviewer said nothing new....... Well i got news for him, everything in this is new.
If you are a tolkien lover, poetry lover, or both like me then you will get the awesome experience of reading some of the origins of turin, beren, etc. There are not a lot of poems and they are all unfinished. But there are things in this book which you will treasure forever like the hate filled words spoken to eachother by morgoth and hurin. Just like tolkiens original writings in book 1 and 2, # 3 will show you more of the origins of where his silmarillion derived from. Christopher explains later ... Read More
Rating: - Nothing new
Hi
If you have read silmarrilion you won't find much new in this book.Most content is by christopher analysing the his father's writings.Good book to complete the collection
Rating:  - Fantasy for Adults! Poetry Corner.
`The Lays of Beleriand' by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by son, Christopher Tolkien is by far the most obscure and difficult yet of the postumous volumes starting with `The Silmarillion' and continuing with `Unfinished Stories' and `The Book of Lost Tales'. This is Volume III of `The History of Middle Earth' which will grow to twelve (12) volumes, to be completed by the editor, after almost twenty years, just before the release of the first of the three `The Lord of the Rings' movies in 2001.
From ... Read More
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