A n ever-prolific J.R.R. Tolkien published two new books in 2016. The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun: T... more A n ever-prolific J.R.R. Tolkien published two new books in 2016. The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun: Together with the Corrigan Poems reprints a long Breton-influenced narrative poem, which previously had appeared only in The Welsh Review 4 (Dec. 1945): 254-66, together with drafts, supplementary poetry, and commentary by editor Verlyn Flieger. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages reprints a fuller text of the now-renowned essay on linguistic sub-creation from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983), also with supplementary material and commentary by the editors, Dimitra Fimi and Andrew Higgins. The major anthology of the year in Tolkien studies was the twovolume The Return of the Ring:
The story of Beren and Lúthien is called by J. R. R. Tolkien “the chief of the stories of the Sil... more The story of Beren and Lúthien is called by J. R. R. Tolkien “the chief of the stories of the Silmarillion.” But while Lúthien of the published Silmarillion is arguably one of the most powerful characters in that history, her original incarnation, little Tinúviel, was a very different Elfmaiden. My thesis is, in essence, a biography of Lúthien Tinúviel, from her 1917 appearance in The Book of Lost Tales, through 1931, when his final notes on the Lay of Leithian declare “Lúthien became mortal.” This chronological study examines the different elements of Tolkien’s life that bring her character to this crucial point: his other creative writing, his scholarly interests, and events in his personal life. The Lay of Leithian was the first work Tolkien turned to after he finished The Lord of the Rings, and he continued to write on the problem of the differing fate of Men and Elves late into his life (cf. “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth”). A fuller understanding of the leaf that is Lúthien Tinúviel will deepen our understanding of the tree that is Tolkien’s legendarium.
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Papers by Kate Neville