Kevin's Watch

NEW YORK (AP) -- An unfinished tale by J.R.R. Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the U.S. and British publishers announced Monday.

Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Hurin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before.

"It has seemed to me for a long time that there was a good case for presenting my father's long version of the legend of the 'Children of Hurin' as an independent work, between its own covers," Christopher Tolkien said in a statement.

The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England.

[Competition for SRD when Fatal Revenant is published! ]

I'm under no illusions about which work will sell better. I'm sure FR will have respectable numbers, but I doubt it'll sell anywhere near as well as Tolkien's book. In fact, I'll be surprised if Tolkien's opus doesn't hit #1 on the NY Times Bestseller List. I mean, we're talking TOLKIEN here.

I hope urgently for the success of FR, but we all know that saleswise SRD can't hope to compete with the likes of Tolkien or Rowling.

Of course you're right MM (about SRD)! Actually, when's the new Harry Potter novel due out (next year?). It would be interesting to see Tolkien vs Rowling on best seller lists. My initial thoughts is that Tolkien would win easily...but after I sat down and thought about it for a while I decided that perhaps I was wrong.

But I'm glad for some new Tolkien. I hope it's as good as they're saying it is. I read in a news item elsewhere that it's written like The Lord of the Rings (as opposed to being like, for example, the Simillarion--sp?). I've been reading The History of Middle Earth (currently reading The Return of the Shadow which deals with the multiple drafts of Fellowship of the Ring). It's an interesting read if you want to see how stories develop and change (it's amazing what the first draft of FOTR was actually like--far removed from what was eventually published).

man. best news i've had in a long time. new Tolkien. i mean. damn. i mean, really. who'dve thought? in my lifetime, new Tolkien? i wouldn't have thought. but i'll tell ya. i'm glad i didn't miss it.

whoa.

Damn...for a second there, I thought it said Christopher Walken was finishing the book.

I just hope Christopher does his father justice...

dANdeLION wrote:Damn...for a second there, I thought it said Christopher Walken was finishing the book.

Walken's foreword: "You will like this book. Or I'll kill you."

Matrixman wrote:

dANdeLION wrote:Damn...for a second there, I thought it said Christopher Walken was finishing the book.

Walken's foreword: "You will like this book. Or I'll kill you."

No it will be:

"The Book needs something.....MORE COWBELL!"

Mmmm more Tolkien table scraps. I just wish that Tolkien translation of Beowulf would come out. Crikey!

Menolly wrote:I just hope Christopher does his father justice...

In another press release I read, it explained that Christoper has pieced it together from multiple drafts of his father's work. I have no doubt that he will do it justice. Reading The History of Middle Earth, I have full confidence in his abilities. He's so meticulous it doesn't matter!

I don't know if Christopher is an author that is capable of finishing his father's work. Having a certain last name doesn't exactly make you an expert writer. How about we get SRD to change his last name to Tolkien and convince him to finish J.R.R.'s book instead? Aw shucks. All kidding aside I'm sure The Children of Hurin will be a fine book.

Makes me think. I've sat for hours telling my daughter about my unwritten ideas for stories. It would be interesting if she took all that and published a book.

I likely won't be reading the new Tolkien book, but I do hope Christopher Tolkien will rise to the occasion for the sake of Middle-Earth fans and give them something to savor.

aTOMiC wrote:I don't know if Christopher is an author that is capable of finishing his father's work. Having a certain last name doesn't exactly make you an expert writer.

Makes me think of Frank Herbert's son, Brian, who can't seem to stop churning out one Dune book after another, based on his father's "notes." I have not read any of Brian Herbert's Dune prequels myself, but based on the negative opinions I've heard from fellow Watchers, it would seem Frank's son is definitely not an expert writer.

I wonder which author left more "notes" behind, J.R.R. Tolkien or Frank Herbert?

Also makes me wonder if this is exactly the sort of thing that horrifies SRD: the thought of the Covenant universe being wrecked by inept writers pouncing on any "unfinished" notes left by him. Thus, his desire to end the Chrons once and for all, so that no one - not even his children - will ever be able to tamper with that universe.

I can picture SRD finishing the last page of the last book of the Last Chronicles...then burning all his notes in a bonfire behind his house!

Been a while since I've read Silmarillion - who were the children of Hurin? Was that Turin and Glaurung and all that ?

Should make a damn good story!

(Edit - Obviously I'm not saying Glaurung was a child of Hurin here!)

Hurin's children were Lalaith (who died young) Turin and Nienor.

Thanks vs.

Was it nienor who lost her memory?

At a first glance I thought it was about native Americans (children of the Huron?)

aTOMiC wrote:Having a certain last name doesn't exactly make you an expert writer.

Damn. I was gonna change my last name to Asimov, but now, forget it.

Is Christopher actually writing any of this? I expected it to be like the Silmarillion: pieced together from his father's drafts (not notes). His father had multiple versions of all this stuff, some of it not merely because he'd abandoned an earlier version, but rather because he was seeking a narrative form in which it would all fit together--a form with the same tone, style, etc. So it's not like this stuff is "unfinished," as in incomplete, but rather unfinished in that his father was still trying to decide which of the many versions he was going to choose for the final version.

Remember, the Silmarillion was never intended by his father to be published in that form. That is an example of his "notes." I imagine the problem isn't a scarcity of stuff to use, but rather the opposite. I expect Chris has just been editing it, stitching it together.

I'll definatley read it, looks good.

Malik23 wrote:Is Christopher actually writing any of this?

As far as I understand, he is just "piecing it together" from drafts.