UK Press Release
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 recounts in verse the last campaign of King Arthur who, even as he stands at the threshold of Mirkwood is summoned back to Britain by news of the treachery of Mordred. Already weakened in spirit by Guinevere's infidelity with the now-exiled Lancelot, Arthur must rouse his knights to battle one last time against Mordred's rebels and foreign mercenaries.
Powerful, passionate and filled with vivid imagery, The Fall of Arthur reveals Tolkien's gift for storytelling at its brilliant best. Originally composed by J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1930s, this work was set aside for The Hobbit and has lain untouched for 80 years.
Now it has been edited for publication by Tolkien's son, Christopher, who contributes three illuminating essays that explore the literary world of King Arthur, reveal the deeper meaning of the verses and the painstaking work that his father applied to bring it to a finished form, and the intriguing links between The Fall of Arthur and his greatest creation, Middle-earth.
ISBN: 978-0-00-748994-7
Size: 143x222mm
Format: Hardback
Imprint: HarperCollins
Division: HarperFiction
UK: £ 14.99
Ireland: $ 14.99
UK: 23 May 2013
Australia: 01 May 2013
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ISBN: 978-0-00-748995-4
Format: Electronic book text
Imprint: HarperCollins
Division: HarperFiction
UK: £ 8.99
Ireland: $ 7.49
UK: 23 May 2013
Australia: 01 June 2013
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US Press Release
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to Publish J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur in 2013
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired the U.S. rights to publish a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien. Presented for the first time, the tale of The Fall of Arthur will transport readers to a time when the legendary King Arthur ruled Britain, and a dark and mythic world of ancient Europe, when the threat to the kingdom came from both without and within.
The Fall of Arthur, begun by J.R.R. Tolkien just a few years before The Hobbit, was inspired by tales of the iconic British hero contained within the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Thomas Malory and other English poets, but depicts drama and adventure in language only Tolkien could have written. It comprises a work of narrative verse telling of the last days of the King, which has been edited by Christopher Tolkien, who also provides detailed commentary and notes.
Christopher Tolkien said: “It is well known that a prominent strain in my father’s poetry was his abiding love for the old ‘Northern’ alliterative verse, which extended from the world of Middle-earth (notably in the long but unfinished Lay of the Children of Húrin) to the dramatic dialogue The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth (arising from the Old English poem The Battle of Maldon) and to his ‘Old Norse’ poems The New Lay of the Völsungs and The New Lay of Gudrún (to which he referred in a letter of 1967 as ‘a thing I did many years ago when trying to learn the art of writing alliterative poetry’). In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight he displayed his skill in his rendering of the alliterative verse of the fourteenth century into the same metre in modern English. To these is now added his unfinished and unpublished poem The Fall of Arthur.”
This is the first new book by J.R.R. Tolkien since the internationally bestselling The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún in 2009. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish The Fall of Arthur in hardcover in May 2013.
Ken Carpenter, VP Trade Paperbacks and Director of Tolkien Projects at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said: “We are delighted to publish this extraordinary work which breathes new life into the tale of King Arthur. Tolkien delivers a narrative every bit as compelling as his tales of Middle-earth that will enrich the legend of this complex hero while satisfying Tolkien’s many fans around the world.”
Edited by Garm, 10 October 2012 - 14:11.
