J. R. R. Tolkien fans everywhere will be very excited to hear that the world of Middle Earth will have fresh pages to read.
The legendary author's son, Christopher Tolkien, has been
carefully editing his manuscripts and "The Fall of Gondolin" _will be
ready for our eyes later this year.
But this tale occurs way before The Lord of the Rings.
The Fall of Gondolin harks back to the battle between Tuor and Morgoth's army and how the elvish city was founded and built.
Tuor is a big deal in the elvish community and is
one of Aragon's ancestors. He, along with Aragon, are two of only three
mortal men to marry an elf.
Morgot is the bad dude, and bloody Sauron was his principal lieutenant.
He
was formally known as Melkor and was one of the most powerful immortal
spirits that existed before Middle Earth was created but he turned to
the dark side then basically became the root of all evil in the Tolkien
universe.
According to Tolkien biographer John Garth, the battle
that takes place at Gondolin is the author's 'biggest battle narrative
outside of The Lord of the Rings'.
Tolkien once called the fable about Gondolin’s downfall at the hands of dark forces the first “real story” in his Lord of the Rings universe. He wrote it while in hospital recovering from wounds suffered in World War I’s Battle of Somme, in 1916.
A
statement on Harper Collins' website read: "In the words of J.R.R.
Tolkien, it was the first 'real story of this imaginary world' and,
together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Hrin, he regarded it as one of the three 'Great Tales' of the Elder Days."
This new book apparently came as a surprise considering Christopher Tolkien, who's 93, made it seem as though Beren and Lúthien would be the last of his father's manuscripts that he would personally oversee.
In that novel, which was published last year, the preface
read: "[This will be] my last book in the long series of editions of my
father's writings."
It will be on sale on August 30.
