Arts

THE FIRST PROSE PIECE OF LORD OF THE RINGS AUTHOR JRR TOLKIEN PUBLISHED

A VERSION OF AN EPIC FINNISH POEM


Lord of the Rings
(Source: JRR Tolkien)
USPA NEWS - The first prose piece by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien was published in Britain end of August, a version of an epic Finnish poem that experts describe as "undeniably his darkest work". The Story of Kullervo is based on an epic Finnish poem and features murder, incest and revenge...

The first prose piece by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien was published in Britain end of August, a version of an epic Finnish poem that experts describe as "undeniably his darkest work". The Story of Kullervo is based on an epic Finnish poem and features murder, incest and revenge. The story was written between 1914 and 1915 while he was studying at Oxford University.

The story is 'the first time that J.R.R. Tolkien, who had been a poet until then, began writing prose,' Vincent Ferre, a Tolkien expert, told AFP.

Tolkien described The Story of Kullervo as the "germ of my attempt to write legends of my own" - and it is a foundation stone of Tolkien's invented world. The character of Kullervo is the ancestor of Túrin Turambar, an important character in Tolkien's legendarium who features as the protagonist in the fantasy novel 'The Children of Hurin' and who appears in Tolkien's collection of mythopoeic works, 'The Simarillion'. (IBTimes)
The Story of Kullervo was first published in 2010 in the academic journal Tolkien Studies by English professor Verlyn Flieger.

Kullervo is a precursor to Turin Turambar, an important character in Tolkien's works who is the protagonist of the novel The Children of Hurin and appears in mythological saga The Simarillion.

According to Verlyn Flieger, much unpublished writing by Tolkien is kept at the Bodleian, mainly "lectures and lecture notes, as well as shorter writings".

The author's son Christopher Tolkien had released the best material in the Tolkien archive, including middle-earth, Nordic and Arthurian texts, and the "extraordinary" lectures and translation of Old English poem Beowulf, English professor Verlyn Ferre said.
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