mrswidgeryslodger:

A compilation of all versions of Tolkien’s tale of Beren and Lúthien will be published next year, HarperCollins has announced.

Edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee, Beren and Lúthien will bring together material scattered throughout the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series.

The earliest version of the tale of Beren and Lúthien was written in 1917, when Beren was an Elf not a Man and the equivalent of Sauron was a large evil cat.

The story underwent considerable revision throughout Tolkien’s life, and was reworked in both prose and poetry. The new book will demonstrate this evolution in full.

Beren and Lúthien will be published 100 years since Tolkien’s wife Edith danced for him in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks in East Yorkshire, an event he later acknowledged was the inspiration for the meeting of the immortal Lúthien Tinúviel and the mortal Beren in the glades beside Esgalduin.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien will be published on 4 May 2017.

New Tolkien book: Beren and Lúthien