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, and the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, upon the Niflungs, called The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, will be released as a Limited Signed Slipcased Edition.
This super deluxe edition will be limited to 500 copies worldwide and signed by Christopher Tolkien. It will contain five reproductions of original mansucript pages, it is hand-bound in full goat-skin and features raised spine ribs; the pages are edged in gold. The book is housed in a matching leather traycase lined in real suede and protected in its own shipping carton.
As can be expected there is not much known yet about the new Tolkien book (announced here). But here you can at least find info on the signed limited edition and much more about the content of the book.
| Title:The Legend of Sigurd and GudrunType: Limited Signed Slipcased EditionPublisher: HarperCollinsPublication date: 05 May 2009 Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0-00-731972-XISBN-13: 978-0-00-731972-5 UK RRP: 250 GBP |
| The contents of the new Tolkien book: 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 Gudrun. The New Lay of the VölsungsIn 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 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, and Gudrun 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 Gudrun. The New Lay of GudrunIn the Lay of Gudrun 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, and her hideous revenge.Tolkien's sourcesDeriving his version primarily from his close study of the ancient poetry of Norway and Iceland known as the Poetic Edda (and from the later prose work the Völsunga Saga), Tolkien employed a verse-form whose lines embody in English the exacting alliterative rhythms and the concentrated energy of the poems of the Edda. |
As one can expext this limited signed edition will be available through Harper Collin's website Tolkien.co.uk only!
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