Every once in a while, a new bit of Middle Earth history sees the light of day. As J.R.R. Tolkien passed away in 1973, Lord of the Rings fans don’t get a seemingly constant stream of new information that Harry Potter fans are treated to. Annotated maps are all well and good, but they only go so far. However, every once in a while, the Tolkien estate decides to release little gifts from the titan of fantasy’s archives.
According to Time, the rare poem “The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun” will be republished in November after being out of print for 70 years. The poem was published in 1945 in The Welsh Review, but the original manuscripts date back as far as 1930 and is described as showing a “darker side” of Tolkien’s work. The epic poem tells the tale of a desperate, childless couple who seeks the help of a witch to conceive, but they quickly learn that magic always has a price. This story will have a special significance to Lord of the Rings fans, though, as the Tolkien later developed that witch in the elf queen, Galadriel.
In addition to pages upon pages of Middle Earth history that has been compiled by Tolkien’s son, Christopher, a translation of Beowulf and his own poetic retelling of the King Arthur myth have also been posthumously released, so it will be thrilling to see how this new entry into Tolkien canon will compare.
(Via Time)
