Book description
The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J. R.R.
Tolkien, which tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the
dragon-slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrún, and the Fall of the Nibelungs.
“Many years ago, J. R.R. Tolkien composed his own version, now
published for the first time, of the great legend of Northern antiquity,
in two closely related poems to which he gave the titles The New Lay of
the Völsungs and The New Lay of Gudrún.
“In the Lay of the Völsungs is told the ancestry of the great hero
Sigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir most celebrated of dragons, whose treasure
he took for his own; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild who slept
surrounded by a wall of fire, and of their betrothal; and of his coming
to the court of the great princes who were named the Niflungs (or
Nibelungs), with whom he entered into blood-brotherhood. In that court
there sprang great love but also great hate, brought about by the power
of the enchantress, mother of the Niflungs, skilled in the arts of
magic, of shape-changing and potions of forgetfulness.
“In scenes of dramatic intensity, of confusion of identity, thwarted
passion, jealousy and bitter strife, the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild,
of Gunnar the Niflung and Gudrún his sister, mounts to its end in the
murder of Sigurd at the hands of his blood-brothers, the suicide of
Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún. In the Lay of Gudrún her fate after
the death of Sigurd is told, her marriage against her will to the mighty
Atli, ruler of the Huns (the Attila of history), his murder of her
brothers the Niflung lords, and her hideous revenge.
“Deriving his version primarily from his close study of the ancient
poetry of Norway and Iceland known as the Poetic Edda (and where no old
poetry exists, from the later prose work the Völsunga Saga), J. R.R.
Tolkien employed a verse-form of short stanzas whose lines embody in
English the exacting alliterative rhythms and the concentrated energy of
the poems of the Edda.”
- Christopher Tolkien J. R.R. Tolkien was born on 3rd January 1892.
After serving in the First World War, he became best known for The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, selling 150 million copies in more
than 40 languages worldwide. Awarded the CBE and an honorary Doctorate
of Letters from Oxford University, he died in 1973 at the age of 81.
Christopher Tolkien is the third son of J. R.R. Tolkien. Appointed by J.
R.R. Tolkien to be his literary executor, he has devoted himself to the
publication of his father's unpublished writings, notably The
Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth. He lives in France with
his wife Baillie.
