Gratuitous Tolkien Geek Posting

Christopher Tolkien is set to publish a newly-finished book of his father's, The Children of Hurin:

An unfinished book by JRR Tolkien will be published in April after being completed by the late author's son. Christopher Tolkien has spent 30 years working on The Children of Hurin, which The Lord of the Rings author started in 1918 and later abandoned.

Extracts from the novel, which is set before the events of the Rings trilogy, have been published before.

It has been illustrated by Alan Lee, who won an Oscar for his artwork on The Return Of The King film in 2004.

It is not the first time Christopher Tolkien has completed one of his father's projects.

He compiled various drafts to produce The Silmarillion in 1977, four years after JRR Tolkien died, aged 81.

The book was followed by Unfinished Tales in 1980 and the 12-volume History Of Middle Earth, which was published between 1983 and 1996.

Fresh meat for Gary. As I recollect from the other books of the Elder Days, this saga covers the particularly gloomy, tragic and nasty fates of Turin Turambar and his sister Nienor. I had thought the tale was pretty much told, so it will be interesting to see how it is expanded here.

Yips! to Vinnie, who sent a nooz link to the Tasty Bits Mail Sack which I couldn't get open but used as the basis for a google search.

Yips! from Gary:
Between "The Silmarillion", "Unfinished Tales" and "History of Middle-Earth" which each covers this tale to death, I don't know how much more blood can be squeezed from this stone. I think C. Tolkien might be beating a dead warg here.

The official FAQ at tolkienlibary.com basically says that a lot of the previously published material is included in this "stand-alone" volume with some additional stuff. The difference that would interest me is if there is more dialogue and less narration. But there's no indication that this is the case.

It would be nice to see Alan Lee's illustrations, but the type of fan who'd rush out and buy this is probably the same kind who speaks fluent Quenya to their cats.

More Yips! from Robbo: Speaking of Quenya-spouting felines, did you ever do a post about the cats of Queen Beruthiel?