Posted 23 July 2018 - 03:34 PM
Finished BEREN AND LÚTHIEN this morning.
It's...fine. Here's my issue though. In the SILMARILLION, the tale is clean, concise, and well told. What I expected in this new volume was an expanded version of that like THE CHILDREN OF HURIN...but instead Christopher has essentially cobbled together his fathers notes and manuscripts that were abandoned (and have already been collected elsewhere; Book of Lost Tales, HoME) before he finally revamped the story into what we know it as. So this is kind of a concerted presentation of the various stages this tale went through in Tolkien's mind on its way to becoming the one we know. A kind of forensics of the Lay of Lethian. And in that vein it's weird. We get the original tale (only about half told; this is the one with the giant cats RetiredBridgeburner spoke of above), in which all the names are different, and Beren is actually a "gnome" (elf from a different place, and begrudged by the Noldor)...and then we get repeated cuts into the tale to hear Christopher wax about his father's choices, and the various bits and bobs that make up the volume. In there is the story we know of these two...but also all the bones of what got them there, and I feel kind of poorer for it? If that makes sense? Like I feel like I was opened a window into Tolkien's machinations that I didn't care to see? Basically we are seeing his "mistakes". The things the writer chose (rightly) to change in the telling of his tale.
So unless you want a CSI dip into the story that became Beren and Luthien, this may not be for you. I have higher hopes for THE FALL OF GONDOR to resemble the expanded HURIN volume than this.
Anyways, onto finishing DEATH OF DULGATH and then a first read of THE DISAPPEARANCE OF WINTER'S DAUGHTER by Michael J. Sullivan up next!
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
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Andorion, on 22 July 2018 - 04:46 PM, said:
