A review by roxanamalinachirila
The Fall of Arthur, by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
4.0
"Thus Arthur in arms eastward journeyed,
and war awoke in the wild regions.
Halls and temples of the heathen kings
his might assailed marching in conquest
from the mouths of the Rhine o'er many kingdoms.
[...]
Foes before them, flames behind them,
ever east and onward eager rode they,
and folk fled them as the face of God,
till earth was empty, and no eyes saw them,
and no ears heard them in the endless hills"
Like many other authors I've heard of, J.R.R. Tolkien had a lot of projects he never finished - "The Fall of Arthur" among them. An alliterative poem about king Arthur started before "The Lord of the Rings" and later abandoned, it's now been edited and published by his son, Christopher Tolkien, based on his father's notes and manuscripts.
"The Fall of Arthur" is nowhere near complete, and while the book itself is over 200 pages, the poem in itself only takes up 40 of them. 40 sonorous pages, with the ring of Anglo-Saxon saga to them, epic and a pleasure to read out loud (especially if you're in the sort of mood in which you'd want to read poetry out loud because it sounds cool).
Christopher Tolkien fills in the blanks: he devotes a fairly long essay to the early history of the Arthurian legend, starting from "Historia regum Britanniae", a pseudohistorical account of British kings written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136, in which King Arthur defeats the Roman Emperor and does other very unlikely feats of might (Apparently, making up stuff and claiming it really happened in history is a very old hobby.), and going through various texts called "The Death of Arthur", both prose and verse (apparently, writing about Arthur's death is also a very old hobby).
It's quite interesting, if you don't know much about the literary development of Arthur and his knights (which indeed I didn't).
He also delves into the connection that "The Fall of Arthur" has with the rest of Tolkien's works - like it being related to the Silmarillion in an early phase. Then there are also a bunch of older variations of the text, and notes J.R.R. Tolkien made for continuing it, as well as a bit of an explanation about alliterative poetry and how it works, in J.R.R. Tolkien's own words.
The poem itself is rather a teaser for a greater work that will never happen, so that can be frustrating, but the book itself is interesting, both for the info about king Arthur's literary evolution, and for the process of creating a poem such as this, which is pieced together by Christopher Tolkien.
and war awoke in the wild regions.
Halls and temples of the heathen kings
his might assailed marching in conquest
from the mouths of the Rhine o'er many kingdoms.
[...]
Foes before them, flames behind them,
ever east and onward eager rode they,
and folk fled them as the face of God,
till earth was empty, and no eyes saw them,
and no ears heard them in the endless hills"
Like many other authors I've heard of, J.R.R. Tolkien had a lot of projects he never finished - "The Fall of Arthur" among them. An alliterative poem about king Arthur started before "The Lord of the Rings" and later abandoned, it's now been edited and published by his son, Christopher Tolkien, based on his father's notes and manuscripts.
"The Fall of Arthur" is nowhere near complete, and while the book itself is over 200 pages, the poem in itself only takes up 40 of them. 40 sonorous pages, with the ring of Anglo-Saxon saga to them, epic and a pleasure to read out loud (especially if you're in the sort of mood in which you'd want to read poetry out loud because it sounds cool).
Christopher Tolkien fills in the blanks: he devotes a fairly long essay to the early history of the Arthurian legend, starting from "Historia regum Britanniae", a pseudohistorical account of British kings written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1136, in which King Arthur defeats the Roman Emperor and does other very unlikely feats of might (Apparently, making up stuff and claiming it really happened in history is a very old hobby.), and going through various texts called "The Death of Arthur", both prose and verse (apparently, writing about Arthur's death is also a very old hobby).
It's quite interesting, if you don't know much about the literary development of Arthur and his knights (which indeed I didn't).
He also delves into the connection that "The Fall of Arthur" has with the rest of Tolkien's works - like it being related to the Silmarillion in an early phase. Then there are also a bunch of older variations of the text, and notes J.R.R. Tolkien made for continuing it, as well as a bit of an explanation about alliterative poetry and how it works, in J.R.R. Tolkien's own words.
The poem itself is rather a teaser for a greater work that will never happen, so that can be frustrating, but the book itself is interesting, both for the info about king Arthur's literary evolution, and for the process of creating a poem such as this, which is pieced together by Christopher Tolkien.