The lay of Aotrou and Itroun : together with the Corrigan poems

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Title:

The lay of Aotrou and Itroun : together with the Corrigan poems

Author:

Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973 author.

ISBN:

9781328834546

Edition:

1st U.S. ed.

Physical Description:

xxi, 106 pages : illustrations, plates ; 22 cm

Genre:

Fantasy poetry.

Poetry

Fantasy fiction.

Added Author:

Flieger, Verlyn, 1933-

Tolkien, Christopher

Summary:

Coming from the darker side of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, this is an important non Middle-earth work to set alongside his other retellings of existing myth and legend, "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún," "The Fall of Arthur," and "The Story of Kullervo."

Set in Britain's land beyond the seas' during the age of chivalry, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun tells of a childless Breton lord and lady (the 'Aotrou' and 'Itroun' of the title) and the tragedy that befalls them when Aotrou seeks to remedy their situation with the aid of a magic potion obtained from a corrigan, or malevolent fairy. When the potion succeeds and Itroun bears twins, the corrigan returns seeking her fee, and Aotrou is forced to choose between betraying his marriage and losing his life. Coming from the darker side of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, together with the two shorter 'Corrigan' poems that lead up to it and are also included, was the outcome of a comparatively short but intense period in Tolkien's life when he was deeply engaged with Celtic, and particularly Breton, myth and legend. Originally written in 1930 and long out of print, this early but seminal work is an important addition to the non-Middle-Earth portion of his canon and should be set alongside Tolkien's other retellings of myth and legend: The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur, and The Story of Kullervo. Like these works, it belongs to a small but important corpus of his ventures into 'real-world' mythologies, each of which in its own way would be a formative influence on his own legendarium. --

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	SCI_FI FANTASY TOL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	SCI_FI FANTASY TOL	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Unavailable for more than seventy years, this early but important work is published for the first time with Tolkien's "Corrigan" poems and other supporting material, including a prefatory note by Christopher Tolkien.

Set 'In Britain's land beyond the seas' during the Age of Chivalry, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun tells of a childless Breton Lord and Lady (the 'Aotrou' and 'Itroun' of the title) and the tragedy that befalls them when Aotrou seeks to remedy their situation with the aid of a magic potion obtained from a corrigan, or malevolent fairy. When the potion succeeds and Itroun bears twins, the corrigan returns seeking her fee, and Aotrou is forced to choose between betraying his marriage and losing his life.

Coming from the darker side of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun , together with the two shorter 'Corrigan' poems (which lead up to it and are also included in this volume), were the outcome of a comparatively short but intense period in Tolkien's life when he was deeply engaged with Celtic, and particularly Breton, myth and legend.

Originally written in 1930 and long out of print, this early but seminal work is an important addition to the non-Middle-earth portion of his canon and should be set alongside The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún , The Fall of Arthur and The Story of Kullervo . Like these works, it belongs to a small but important corpus of his ventures into 'real-world' mythologies, each of which in its own way would be a formative influence on his own legendarium.

Edited with notes and commentary by Verlyn Flieger and a prefatory note on the text by Christopher Tolkien.

Author Notes

A writer of fantasies, Tolkien, a professor of language and literature at Oxford University, was always intrigued by early English and the imaginative use of language. In his greatest story, the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954--56), Tolkien invented a language with vocabulary, grammar, syntax, even poetry of its own. Though readers have created various possible allegorical interpretations, Tolkien has said: "It is not about anything but itself. (Certainly it has no allegorical intentions, general, particular or topical, moral, religious or political.)" In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962), Tolkien tells the story of the "master of wood, water, and hill," a jolly teller of tales and singer of songs, one of the multitude of characters in his romance, saga, epic, or fairy tales about his country of the Hobbits.

Tolkien was also a formidable medieval scholar, as evidenced by his work, Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics (1936) and his edition of Anciene Wisse: English Text of the Anciene Riwle.

Among his works published posthumously, are The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún and The Fall of Arthur, which was edited by his son, Christopher.

In 2013, his title, The\Hobbit (Movie Tie-In) made The New York Times Best Seller List.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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