The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien

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The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien
Editors Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond
Authors J. R. R. Tolkien
LanguageEnglish
Publisher HarperCollins, William Morrow
Publication date
12 September 2024 (UK)
17 September 2024 (US)
Pages1620
ISBN 978-0063422711

The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien is a 2024 book of poetry of the English philologist, poet, and author J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Tolkien scholars, wife and husband Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond. Its three volumes contain 195 poems, among them around 70 previously unpublished.

Contents

History and contents

In 2016, Christopher Tolkien invited two Tolkien scholars, wife and husband Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, to work with his father's poetry. Though J. R. R. Tolkien wrote poems starting from childhood, his poetry was less successful than his books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . The first poem in the collection is from 1910, addressed it to Tolkien's future wife Edith Bratt. Christopher Tolkien shared drafts of poetry, and received several edited poems as an ouline of the suggested collection. He died in 2020; the book was approved for publication by HarperCollins and by the Tolkien Estate trustees. Besides previously shared drafts, editors worked with Tolkien's manuscripts from the Bodleian Library of Oxford, Marquette University, and at the University of Leeds. [1]

The editors note that the book is the "collected poems", not "complete poems" of Tolkien. Three volumes contain more than 1500 pages, and the editors decided not to include all of around hundred poems from better known The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but only a selection. Long poems that were published separately are included as excerpts ( The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún , The Fall of Arthur , and The Lays of Beleriand ), as well as his poetic translations of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Some poems that were written in other languages than English are also not included, though the collection contain several poems in Old and Middle English, Latin, Gothic, Quenya, and Sindarin. All poems from 1936 collection, Songs for the Philologists , are also included. [1] Poems are shown is different versions, gathered from Tolkien's manuscripts, and have commentaries by the editors. The collection is structured chronologically. [2] The book contains 195 entries; 73 of them were previously unpublished. Some poems have multiple versions, that show their evolution; one poem has 22 different versions. Overall, there are almost 700 poems in the volumes. [3]

Reception

The book received positive reviews. [4] [2] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

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J. R. R. Tolkien included many elements in his Middle-earth writings, especially The Lord of the Rings, other than narrative text. These include artwork, calligraphy, chronologies, family trees, heraldry, languages, maps, poetry, proverbs, scripts, glossaries, prologues, and annotations. Much of this material is collected in the many appendices. Scholars have stated that the use of these elements places Tolkien in the tradition of English antiquarianism.

References

  1. 1 2 "Tolkien's Collected Poems". Too Many Books and Never Enough. 12 March 2024. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  2. 1 2 Cooper, Shawn Phillip (11 October 2024). "Worlds of Delight: The Poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien". europeanconservative.com. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  3. ↑ Bratman, David. "Some statistical thoughts about The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien". The Tolkien Society.
  4. ↑ Alberge, Dalya (24 August 2024). "Beyond Bilbo: JRR Tolkien's long-lost poetry to be published". The Observer. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  5. ↑ "The Poetic Origins of Middle-earth". Los Angeles Review of Books. 16 October 2024. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  6. ↑ "The Collected Poems of J. R. R. Tolkien | Book review". TLS. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  7. ↑ Emanuel, Tom (10 September 2024). "First publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's collected poems offers new insights into the Lord of the Rings author's personality". The Conversation. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  8. ↑ Edmonds, Jeremy. "TCG Review - The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond". Tolkien Collector's Guide. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
  9. ↑ Ordway, Holly (30 September 2024). "A First Look at 'The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien'". Word on Fire. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
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