The Fall of Arthur: Difference between revisions
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The world first publication of a previously unknown work by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England’s legendary hero, King Arthur. | The world first publication of a previously unknown work by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England’s legendary hero, King Arthur. | ||
''The Fall of Arthur'' | ''The Fall of Arthur'', the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the [[Old English]] alliterative metre, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, of the great sea-battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle. | ||
Unhappily, ''The Fall of Arthur'' was one of several long narrative poems that he abandoned in that period. In this case he evidently began it in the earlier nineteen-thirties, and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of [[1934]] and urgently pressed him ‘You simply must finish it!’ But in vain: he abandoned it, at some date unknown, though there is some evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of the publication of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and the first stirrings of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Years later, in a [[Letter 165|letter of 1955]], he said that ‘he hoped to finish a long poem on ''The Fall of Arthur''’; but that day never came. | |||
Associated with the text of the poem, however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse, in which the strange evolution of the poem’s structure is revealed, together with narrative synopses and very significant if tantalising notes. In these latter can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*{{WP|Le Morte d'Arthur}} | *{{WP|Le Morte d'Arthur}} | ||
*[[Letter 165]] | |||
{{ | {{references}} | ||
{{title|italics}} | {{title|italics}} | ||
Revision as of 18:31, 17 May 2013
| The Fall of Arthur | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Editor | Christopher Tolkien |
| Publisher | HarperCollins (UK) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US) |
| Released | 23 May 2013 |
| Format | Hardback |
| Pages | 240[1] |
| ISBN | 978-0-00-748994-7 |
The Fall of Arthur is the title of an poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, concerned with the legend of King Arthur. It will be published 23 May 2013.[2]
According to Humphrey Carpenter, who published a few brief extracts from the poem in his biography about Tolkien, the poem "has alliteration but no rhyme [and] did not touch on the Grail but began an individual rendering of the Morte d'Arthur, in which the king and Gawain go to war in 'Saxon lands' but are summoned home by news of Mordred's treachery". "The Fall of Arthur" was read by E.V. Gordon and R.W. Chambers, who both approved of the poem.[3][4]
The writing of the poem was abandoned in the mid 1930s,[3] but in a 1955 letter to Houghton Mifflin, his American publishers, Tolkien mentioned that he hoped to finish the "long poem".[5] Although the state of the manuscript(s) is unknown, there is a rumour that the poem has 954 lines.[6]
Carl F. Hostetter mentions the transcription of a manuscript by Tolkien which seems to be a fragment of his The Fall of Arthur.[7]
From the publisher
The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England’s legendary hero, King Arthur.
The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, of the great sea-battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle.
Unhappily, The Fall of Arthur was one of several long narrative poems that he abandoned in that period. In this case he evidently began it in the earlier nineteen-thirties, and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of 1934 and urgently pressed him ‘You simply must finish it!’ But in vain: he abandoned it, at some date unknown, though there is some evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of the publication of The Hobbit and the first stirrings of The Lord of the Rings. Years later, in a letter of 1955, he said that ‘he hoped to finish a long poem on The Fall of Arthur’; but that day never came.
Associated with the text of the poem, however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse, in which the strange evolution of the poem’s structure is revealed, together with narrative synopses and very significant if tantalising notes. In these latter can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion, and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written.
See also
External links
References
- ↑ "The Fall of Arthur", Amazon.co.uk (accessed 10 October 2012)
- ↑ "The Fall of Arthur: J.R.R. Tolkien, Edited by Christopher Tolkien", HarperCollins (accessed 10 October 2012)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977 ed.), pp. 168-8
- ↑ Verlyn Flieger, "Arthurian Romance", in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, pp. 34-5
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)
- ↑ N.E. Brigand, "Comment to the blog post 'Lewis's Lost Aeneid [Updated]'" dated 5 March 2011, Lingwë (accessed 8 March 2011)
- ↑ Carl F. Hostetter, "Tolkien's handwriting scans" dated 20 December 2009, The Fountain Pen Network (accessed 4 May 2011)
