J.R.R. Tolkien discussion

Hi, gals & guys! Just wanted to take a minute to weigh in as well.

I'm really looking forward to this group read as well. I don't have a copy yet myself, but I've been salivating over this one since it's release. Besides anything Tolkien, one of my other favorite things is Arthurian lore so this book really hits right in my wheelhouse. I can't wait to read and discuss with all of you!

As Anne Marie mentioned, Michael has named her and I as co-moderators for the group. I look forward to getting to know all of you better as we move along in our journey through Tolkien and his related works.

I requested a copy via Inter-Library Loan today. I'm sure that I'll still purchase a copy, but for now, this is the better option for me.

I'm very excited for this one! When will we start?

I'd say that now that it's July, whenever you're ready is a good time to start! I haven't received my copy yet, but I don't want that to stop anybody else.

So I just started to read this this morning..maybe I should have read the synopsis before I bought it, totally didn't realize it was a poem. :/ Also it's unfinished and most of the book is just notes from Christopher Tolkien. I read the introduction and tried to read the poem, and unfortunately I'm just not into it. I don't know why I find it so hard to understand what is going on when I read stuff like that. Well anyway, I hope you all enjoy it! I'll definitely check back to see how you all liked it :)

My copy just arrived at the library via Interlibrary Loan! I'll be picking it up this afternoon! Still have a week and a bit of class left, so won't get into it too much until after I'm done with that, but then no class til the end of August!

Started this today. Christopher has a nice brief intro to this one. I actually prefer that he do this more often, as I would rather read the work and then delve into the analysis. I feel that at times he gives away too much of the work that he's talking about in his introductory material and there's usually something that I wish I hadn't read before reading the material that he's referring to.

I also got through the first section of the poem itself. Took me a bit to get into the flow of the style and the change in language when there is dialogue, but once I sorted that out, it's moving along swimmingly! I'm excited to dive back in later!

Finished the poem itself(and subsequent notes.) I like it quite well, I just wish that there was more to it. I also wish that I had paid more attention and realized that the notes were there and read them AS I was reading the poem instead of after it.

I'm interested in what Christopher has to say in his essays on the piece, however, I almost feel that with the brevity of the work of JRRT included here, that this could have been included in a collection of works or paired with something else at the very least. As it is, the vast minority of the material that readers get is by the author himself.

I read this book a few weeks ago...I greatly enjoyed the poem, took a little getting used to (compared to The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun; different style and all) but there was some fantastic imagery used. I too wished it was longer or had been completed.

The essays were interesting enough but I wished Christopher had brought on some scholars from the field to add further context and information about the legends and where JRRT's poem fits in. I suppose the essays are good for those not so familiar with the tales but I would've enjoyed a more definitive analysis of the piece.

Stefan wrote: "I'm interested in what Christopher has to say in his essays on the piece, however, I almost feel that with the brevity of the work of JRRT included here, that this could have been included in a collection of works or paired with something else at the very least."

I agree! I was talking about this book with a fellow book blogger and we were thinking along the same lines...

I first read about The Fall of Arthur in the biography of J.R.R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter, which I read when it was first published in 1977, the same year that The Silmarillion was published. At the time I thought it was frustrating to hear about and read fragments from a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien which seemed would never be published. So I was very surprised and happy when the poem was finally published this year. I found the notes by Christopher Tolkien interesting, as ever. May he out live the Old Took is all I can say. And I really liked the poem. Of course, it is sad that it was left unfinished. It is even sadder that The Silmarillion was left unfinished, but the version put together by Christopher Tolkien is well worth the read. The Fall of Arthur can only be read slowly, with care, written as it is in a alliterative metre that has not been used since the Middle Ages. But Tolkien never did make things easy for himself. Though the poem deals with King Arthur and the traitor, Sir Mordred, and was written before Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, I read in its lines hints of what was to come in The Lord of the Rings. Mordred's thwarted lust for Guinever in the poem, for example, reminded me of Wormtongue's thwarted lust for Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings, and there were other passages that reminded me of Aragorn, the Riders of Rohan and the path to Mordor. The Fall of Arthur shows that Tolkien was a good poet, as he revealed in such poems as The Verse of The Rings, The Road Goes Ever On, I Sit Beside The Fire and Think, The Song of the Ent and the Entwife, and The Lay of Nimrodel in The Lord of the Rings. If The Fall of Arthur is read slowly, with care, it reveals many treasures from Tolkien's word hoard.

I finished the Fall of Arthur the other day and I have to say I was rather let down. I truly enjoyed the poem and heartily recommend it to be read a few times for the style to really sink in. All the essays afterwards were rather senseless and could profitably be left unread. There was some interest in the comparison with the Silmarillion and The Fall of Arthur but not much. The best of the additions and also the most incomplete because he only put in portions of it was J.R.R. Tolkien's lecture on Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. They would of been better off putting that in its entirety, it was at least very interesting.

I would just like to say congratulations to The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien for being voted the best book in the Poetry section of the Goodreads book awards for 2013.

Glad to hear this, too! Thanks for sharing, Philip!

Philip wrote: "I would just like to say congratulations to The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien for being voted the best book in the Poetry section of the Goodreads book awards for 2013."

Yea! Isn't it awesome that Tolkien has been dead for 40 years and he's still the best writer around? I'm glad he won.

Hooray!