According to The Guardian, HarperCollins will put out JRR Tolkien’s never-before-published epic poem, The Fall of Arthur, next year. Coming in at over 200 pages, this work will explore the last few days of the reign of King Arthur as he goes to battle against Mordred.
Tolkien began working on this poem before he even wrote The Hobbit, so this piece will give us a glimpse at some of the author’s earliest writing. Despite having died in 1973, new Tolkien work does pop up often, most recently in 2007 with The Children of Húrin and in 2009 with The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún.
Chris Smith, the book's editor at HarperCollins, said, "Though its title had been known from Humphrey Carpenter's Biography and JRR Tolkien's own letters, we never supposed that it would see the light of day." He then went on to say that The Fall of Arthur, "breathes new life into one of our greatest heroes, liberating him from the clutches of Malory's romantic treatment, and revealing Arthur as a complex, all-too human individual who must rise above the greatest of betrayals to liberate his beloved kingdom."
The Fall of Arthur will hit shelves in May of next year.
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[via The Guardian]
