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    The Fall of Arthur
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    The Fall of Arthur
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    The Fall of Arthur
    Ebook222 pages2 hours

    The Fall of Arthur

    By J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 23, 2013
    ISBN9780007489954
    Unavailable
    The Fall of Arthur
    Author

    J. R. R. Tolkien

    J.R.R.Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into over 80 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

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    Reviews for The Fall of Arthur

    4/5

    138 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I've been waiting for this book - finally got it and was not disappointed. I like both the text of the father and the notes of the son.
    • 3/5
      As many others have pointed out Tolkien's poetry makes up a small portion of the book. The rest is made up of Christopher Tolkien's notes and thoughts on the poem and how it compares to the history of the Arthurian legend.

      I really enjoyed the poem and I think it would sound lovely read aloud.

      Note, I have the Easton Press leather version. There is no illustrations other than the symbol of the knight on the horse on the cover repeated a few times in the book.
    • 5/5
      Like the other books that Christopher Tolkien has edited, this consists of his father's writing with Christopher's commentary and reflection on how the writing was completed. Tolkien composed a poetic narrative about King Arthur that was never completed. Christopher has pieced together the work and given us this treasure, plus a glimpse of his father's writing process. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing itself, and while some of the commentary was tedious, written in Middle and Old English, I enjoyed none the less. It reminded me of my days in college as an English major.
    • 3/5
      It's a shame J.R.R. Tolkien never finished "The Fall of Arthur," which was meant to be an epic poem. The small fragment that exists is really great, even though it definitely appears to be a rough draft of sorts.The poem is just a short part of this book-- most of it is Christopher Tolkien's analysis of his father's poem and how it fits in with the legend of Arthur. I found the analysis to be okay.... it more or less felt like padding to turn this posthumous publication into something that was book length.
    • 4/5
      Who wrote this blurb? Seriously?"The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain" -- What's his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Chopped liver?"...his finest and most skillful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre..." -- Old English metre? Not from what I've seen. Where're the half-lines? Not sure the stresses work either. I'm sure it is a wonderful, skillful work, but more likely in Middle English alliterative metre -- like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- which is rather more relaxed.I've been looking forward to this since I found out this poem existed, and once swore I could write my PhD on it. Guess we'll find out soon.--Okay, I admit I seem to have been wrong -- it is Old English metre, the sample I looked at didn't reproduce the formatting. I'm still not sure the alliteration is right, though: I'll need to look it up to be sure, but I think there's too much alliteration. I could, however, be remembering the rules for Skaldic verse, which are not dissimilar, but more strict.I have my copy in hand and a dental appointment later, so I shall stick my nose into these pages studiously until I am dragged to the dentist's chair...-- Finished the poem itself, now to the additional matter. But why has he written a poem about the fall of the British (Celtic) Arthur in battle against the Saxons... in Saxon metre? Conquerors have certainly claimed Arthur before now, but... I wish he'd published this in his lifetime, with his own notes, with his attentiveness to every detail, his concern with the provenance of texts and his invented histories for them. Perhaps he would have recognised the irony in his choice of metre, even explained it.Onward, anyway, to Christopher Tolkien's bit....Which I found less than enlightening, really, since I wasn't interested in a play-by-play of the evolution of the poem and I don't need a primer on the Arthurian legends.Anyway, in summary: fascinating to me as an academic, but I'm not sure how it'll strike non-academics. I wish I could write a PhD on this, but there doesn't seem to be enough material.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the J.R.R. Tolkien portions of this book. Not to say that Christopher Tolkien is a bad writer, on the contrary, his analysis is very well thought out and interesting. It's just that when you are reading the pieces written by the master, you certainly know it. Fair warning to the casual reader out there, this offering is a poem purposely written to emulate the meter an feel of an old piece of English literature. Only about a quarter or less of the book is actually material produced by J.R.R. Tolkien, the rest is an in-depth analysis of the poem and it's fit with other classic Arthurian literature by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Unless you get into the inner workings of literature and poetry and enjoy reading excerpts of Olde English, I wouldn't recommend this book to just anybody.Overall, I found this to be a fairly fascinating book. I think that Christopher does a very admirable job of breaking down and analyzing his father's work and tying it into the other classic literature. I also appreciate the connections that he makes to his fathers penultimate masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Even thought this is a seemingly unrelated work, Christopher has managed to find some interesting similarities between it and his father's writings of Middle Earth.Where this truly shines is in allowing the Tolkien fan to read a previously unpublished piece of Tolkien literature that we may not have otherwise seen. Make no mistake, this is a piece of what would have been a larger work but was for one reason or another abandoned by the author. What we are offered is a fragment and may not have ever looked even remotely like the piece we are presented with in its final form, but we will never actually know. A huge thank you to Christopher Tolkien for bringing us what he could of this work. My only real complaint in the layout that Christopher presented is that I would have put the second study directly after the poem as it deals more with the notes of things that were to come and I think would have provided a more satisfying feel to read while the actual work was still fresh to my mind.On a side note one thing that I did find interesting is that, even though Christopher is a great analyst and very detailed in his research, he presents a small excerpt of a lecture that his father gave at some point. This small excerpt of lecture illustrates just how talented his father is as it literally jumps off the page. He's not talking about anything of particular interest unto itself, but the nuances and the wording make the excerpt come alive. Not to take anything away from his son, but this piece really made me realize what the difference is between someone who is an expert and very good at what he does and a true master of the written word.
    • 4/5
      Christopher Tolkien presents the best version of his father's unfinished and previously unpublished alliterative verse poem The Fall of Arthur then discusses the poem in relation to Arthurian tradition, the poem's relevance to JRRT's other work (particularly The Silmarillion), and the poem's development from draft to draft. Fascinating stuff and should be thrilling to Tolkien fans and scholars interested in either Tolkien or representations of Arthurian legend in the twentieth century.
    • 4/5
      The Fall of Arthur is the story of how the Knights of the Round Table disintegrated, ending the legend of King Arthur and closing a chapter in British history. In this poem, Tolkien writes of Mordred's usurping and Lancelot and Gwenivere's affair. What this poem lacked was the romantic aspects of Arthurian legend such as the Holy Grail. Interestingly, it is written in Saxton metre-- the very people who ended Arthur's reign. We are-- once again-- reminded of J.R.R. Tolkien's brilliance. It is ironic that the poem was written in Saxton metre (the Saxton's brought about Arthur's downfall as mentioned above), until we remember that Tolkien was a professor of Saxton language. His poetic voice is similar to his retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or The Salmarillion (both of which Tolkien's son, Christopher address in an analysis after the poem). For those of us who fell in love with Tolkien's prose in Lord of the Rings, this is just another reminder of the man we love. For those just getting into Tolkien, congratulations on reading high-class literature.
    • 4/5
      Not only did I very much enjoy the poem about King Arthur, but the follow up by Christopher Tolkien was informative and interesting. I had never read much of the legend of Arthur as written by the early English writers. It is quite different from the chivalrous stories written by the French. This is a warrior king, not a gallant who sits at the Round Table quaffing mead and listening to tall tales of his other knights.
    • 4/5
      I love Arthurian literature, and and I love Tolkien, so I was excited when this was released. Like other reviews have mentioned, the poem is only a small part of the book, and the rest is commentary by Christopher Tolkien. I found the poem to be interesting, and fun to read out loud. I was confused by his choice of making Guinevere a little manipulating of Lancelot, because I think in most other texts their tryst is a mutual thing. I liked Christopher's section placing his father's poem in the Arthurian tradition, of where he is getting his material from, and how he changed it to make it his own. I also enjoyed the section about the poem's relation to the Silmarillion, but I did not enjoy the section about the Evolution of the Poem, as it was confusing and dull. I was confused at why he would have so many drafts of the poem, but then when I read the final section where J.R.R. Tolkien is talking about alliterative verse I realized there are a lot more rules to follow than just "string words that start with the same letter together" Some of his discussion of the metre was a little dense for me, and I didn't understand exactly what he was talking about with "head rhymes" "staves" and the emphasis on different syllables.
    • 3/5
      Few literary figures have been explored so thoroughly as J.R.R. Tolkien. The vein is perhaps running a little thin by now, but we have Tolkien's original Arthur poem, sadly only a fragment, but bolstered considerably in bulk by the critical apparatus marshalled by his son, Christopher. We have the text, and an essay by the original writer himself about the Anglo Saxon poetic form he employs. In addition the volume contains as many footnotes as the text will support, and an extensive analysis of what was completed, along with Christopher's concept of where JRR was going when he was interrupted by the publisher asking for "Another book about hobbits" at the beginning of WWII. The actual poem is quite good, replete with new titles for other plowers in the field of Arthuriana, and the rest of it is perhaps useful for the advanced student.
    • 3/5
      When I heard about a previously unpublished story by J.R.R. Tolkien, I could not wait to read it. Of course, most readers know something of Tolkien’s masterpieces, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit – if not directly from the books, then from at least the films. I first encountered Tolkien while an undergraduate in the late 60s. I stumbled upon a copy of Diplomat Magazine. According to its website, “Diplomat is a foreign affairs magazine that provokes intelligent discussion from the heart of the Diplomatic community in London. This 65 year old magazine provides a unique insight into the minds of the most prominent world leaders and governments.” The October 1966 issue – which I still have -- features a picture of a Hobbit on the cover. It has been quite a while since I looked at the magazine, and it seems like a version of The New Yorker for those interested in world politics and diplomacy. A large portion of the magazine is devoted to Tolkien, and what it called “Hobbitmania.” I immediately went to a bookstore and purchased the four books. Yes, my book addiction is at least that old.I devoured the four volumes and fell in love with Tolkien and the amazing worlds he created. I also loved the films, which are as close to the books as any films I have ever seen. Right now, I am anxiously awaiting parts two and three of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.The Fall of Arthur combines several interests of mine: Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon, alliterative literature, and the legends surrounding King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The provenance of this unfinished tale is covered in great detail in an introduction by Christopher Tolkien, third son of J.R.R. He found scant mention of the manuscript in his father’s letters, and only a mention or two about wanting to finish the story. The poem itself is rather short, and a great deal of space is reserved for discussions of the history of Arthurian literature, the parts of the poem which Tolkien never finished, the evolution of the existing manuscript, and an extended appendix on Anglo-Saxon verse. Christopher places all this after the introduction and the essay, and freely admits that specialists can dig into the appended material, while casual readers can limit themselves to the poem. I found this material fascinating.Unfortunately, not so much the poem itself. Parts of the narrative seemed forced and pasted together. I read several passages and encountered a stumble or two over attempts at alliteration that were nothing less than awkward. I believe Tolkien abandoned the manuscript for a reason. In much of his work, he was a perfectionist, and in my humble opinion, he had a difficult time making the entire poem flow as smoothly as does Beowulf, “The Wanderer,” or “The Battle of Maldon.” For example, he wrote, “Grief knew Arthur / in his heart’s secret, … and his house him seemed / in mirth diminished” (40). I also gritted my teeth when he blamed Lancelot for the fall of the “Table Rounde.” Tolkien wrote, “Strong oaths they broke” (37). But that is a tangled subject for another time. Anglo-Saxon alliteration and King Arthur do not feel right to me. This poem was interesting but only worth 3 stars.--Jim, 7/16/13
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed the background. Wished he had completed it.