Tolkien's The Story of Kullervo due for release in August.

[Neil]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Story-Kul...

[Stefan]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing this!

[Paul]

Excellent News!

Apparently The Manuscript (or at least part of it) was previously published in the academic journal 'Tolkien Studies: Volume Seven) also edited by Verlyn Flieger.

This new book seems to be much expanded from the previous publication.

I wonder why...

[Michael]

For anybody not aware (amongst this group, probably not very many!), Kullervo comes from the Finnish national epic, Kalevala: The Land of the Heroes by Elias Lönnrot. Tolkien greatly admired this book and Kullervo's story was a big influence on the story of Túrin, which we now have in The Children of Húrin.

The Silmarillion is heavily influenced by the cosmogeny of the Kalevala and Tolkien's names for Eru Iluvatar and many of the Valar derive from Finnish. Similarly, the languages he invented for the Elves have many Finnish roots.

I've got my copy of The Story of Kullervo reserved at my local bookshop and am really looking forward to this addition to the Tolkiens' published works (plural, as it's been a family enterprise for some while now :-) )