The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún review

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún is an eminent addition to J.R.R. Tolkien’s preeminent body of work. Here we have two marvelous tales from Norse mythology, the Lay of the Völsungs and the Lay of Gudrún, retold by a renowned philologist. These are no mere translations; indeed translation is not possible when the extant sources are piecemeal variants and prose summaries. Tolkien painstakingly recreated these tremendous poems much like Regin reforged Gram, the sword Sigurd used to slay the dragon Fáfnir. Written in the old eight-line fornyrðislag stanza, these lays are illuminating. A hero who was more highly anticipated for his prowess in the after-life than in mortal life, Sigurd is thus descried by a sibyl:

“On his head shall be helm,

in his hand lightning,

afire his spirit,

in his face splendor.

The Serpent shall shiver

and Surt waver,

the Wolf be vanquished

and the world rescued.”

Reading Tolkien’s poetry is like reading him for the first time again. His son and faithful editor Christopher Tolkien once again provides foreword, midword, and afterword. Yet unlike the insightful commentary he provided for The Children of Húrin (see review posted 02/08), here his notes are overly thorough and clutter up the work. These may be the very challenges that his father overcame in writing the lays, but he performed that feat in order to spare others from the ordeal. The exhaustive notes point more to a need to add length to the book than they do to an understanding of the story being told. I read them all and gleaned some gold from the dross, but I wouldn’t do it again. I would gladly read the lays many times over and I’d be a better storyteller for it.

Review of Children of Hurin

While it is possible for an author’s unfinished works to be published posthumously, is it necessary? Even with an implicitly trusted editor, can the later works take their place alongside the former? These questions apply particularly to The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee (Houghton Mifflin, $26.00). With The Children of Húrin, Christopher Tolkien presents a stand-alone version of a story already reproduced in the previous posthumous publications Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. Is a third recounting actually necessary? In all of the languages of Middle-earth, the answer is yes.

Húrin and his wife Morwen have three children: Túrin, Urwen, and Nïenor. Urwen succumbs to a pestilence and dies in childhood; of the three children, she is the most fortunate. Because Húrin, a prisoner of war, resists the will of his captor Morgoth, his children are cursed and he is compelled to watch them suffer. Túrin is sent to live with the elves, but Morwen, who is with child, does not accompany him. Thus Túrin does not meet his sister Nïenor until later in life, under dubious circumstances. Túrin grows into a mighty hero, but he is ill-fated nonetheless and those around him, be they friend or foe, man or elf, male or female, suffer for it. Túrin fails by succeeding. He single-handedly slays the great dragon Glaurung, which has long plagued and pursued him, but his vengeance is merely a Cadmeian victory. When the dragon meets its demise, so does its horde of lies, and the terrible truth that remains destroys both Túrin and Nïenor. Húrin is released by Morgoth in time to find Morwen dying on the same spot.

The Children of Húrin is a great tree of a tale grown from the seed of the story of Kullervo found in The Kalevala, and nourished by the deep soil of Middle-earth. Along with The Tale of Beren and Lúthien and The Fall of Gondolin, it is one of the ‘Great Tales’ of the Elder Days, tales that are integral to the history of Middle-earth yet sufficiently self-contained to exist independently, as indicated in a letter the author wrote in 1951. Five-and-a-half decades later, Tolkien’s intent has been fulfilled.

Christopher Tolkien has proven himself a dedicated editor of his father’s writings as well as a faithful executor of his father’s wishes. The task of editing Tolkien’s compilations is complicated by the fact that he was his own greatest revisionist, setting aside incomplete manuscripts only to begin new versions years later. After careful consideration of multiple extant but undated versions of the story, Christopher Tolkien has produced this authoritative book, greatly enhanced by the lustrous, grand-yet-subtle illustrations of Alan Lee, which was always meant to stand on the shelf next to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Top Ten Books

There are many ways to slant a top ten list, but this is my straight up Top Ten Books list (arranged alphabetically by author):

1. Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto

2. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

3. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

4. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. On Writing by Stephen King

7. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

8. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

9. Mila 18 by Leon Uris

10. Trinity by Leon Uris

While no individual title by C.S. Lewis has cracked the list (I have yet to acquire Allegory of Love, so it may still happen), his collected works are certainly among my favorites.