Buy this book on-line TOLKIEN**, J. R. R: : THE FALL OF ARTHUR. - Edited by Christopher Tolkien**LONDON.HarperCollinsPublishers,2013. ISBN 9780007489947.
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1.] FINE+/FINE+.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt,wrap-around colour photographic illustrated dw/dj (detail of sarcophagus of Palais family,Musee de Augustins.) with white+gilt lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight, clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright, crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp, blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain grey endpapers.UK,slim 8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,9-233pp [paginated] includes editor's foreword,The Fall of Arthur in poem form,notes on on the text,The Poem in Arthurian Tradition,The Unwritten Poem and its Relation to 'The Silmarillion',The Evolution of the Poem,an appendix (Old English Verse); plus [unpaginated] verso blank with facsimile monochrome reproduction extract of J. R. R.Tolkien's handwritten text of the story to reverse half-title+title pages,contents list/table individual b/w vignette (circular detail from Palais family's sarcophagus) illustrated individual separator pages for each section of the book, blank recto of last page and 6pp blanks at the rear.
'The Fall of Arthur',the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur,king of Britain,may well be regarded as his finest and most skillful achievement in the use of Old English alliterative meter,in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur's expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere's flight from Camelot,of the great sea battle on Arthur's return to Britain,in the portrait of the traitor Mordred,in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle. Unhappily,'The Fall of Arthur' was one of several long narrative poems that Tolkien abandoned.In this case he evidently began it in the earlier 1930s,and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of 1934 and urgently pressed him,"You simply must finish it!" But in vain: he abandoned it, at some date unknown,though there is evidence that it may have been in 1937,the year of publication of 'The Hobbit' and the first stirrings of 'The Lord of the Rings'. Years later,in a letter of 1955,he said that he "hoped to finish a long poem on 'The Fall of Arthur'"; but that day never came.
Associated with the text of the poem,however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse,in which the strange evolution of the poem's structure is revealed,together with narrative synopses and significant if tantalizing notes.In these latter can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion,and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere,which was never written.
J.R.R. TOLKIEN was born on January 3, 1892,in Bloemfontein.After serving in the First World War,Tolkien embarked on a distinguished academic career and was recognized as one of the finest philologists in the world.He is,however best known as the creator of Middle-earth and the author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as 'The Hobbit','The Lord of the Rings',and 'The Silmarillion'.His books have been translated into more than 60 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.He was awarded a CBE,and an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Oxford University in 1972.He died in 1973 at the age of 81.
Christopher Tolkien,born on 21st November 1924, is the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien.Appointed by Tolkien to be his literary executor,he has devoted himself since his father's death in 1973 to the editing and publication of unpublished writings,notably 'The Silmarillion' - see my book ID's rja637916 and rja646816 for UK,8vo HB +dw/dj,1st edn examples of this title,and the collections entitled 'Unfinished Tales' and 'The History of Middle-earth'.
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