Expanding the canon

[serai]

News on the Tolkien front:

Christopher Tolkien has completed the Narn i Hin Hurin

A quiet huzzah. Reading that story in Unfinished Tales was one of the most supremely frustrating literary experiences of my life, because the expanded version of Turin's tale - intense, tragic, downright operatic - was so well-written, and yet there was this big chunk of empty right in the middle of it.

Now Tolkien's son has filled in the gap, using the version in the Silmarillion, drafts and notes written by the Professor, and his own long experience in annotating and reconstituting his father's writings. If anybody could do this, he's the guy to do it.

I'm really looking forward to reading it. I love that story to pieces. It's so star-crossed and tragic, it's positively Greek. That whole puppets-in-the-hands-of-the-gods feel is rife throughout the story, and I just love that kind of thing. So yay.

And of course, being as cinematically minded as I am, I immediately think that, what with LOTR having been such a huge franchise, there would be a lot of interest in optioning the book. (Not that that's going to bear fruit, the Tolkiens being as opposed to film projects as they are.) Having seen and been enthralled by the recent Malick film The New World, I can attest that the perfect actor these days to play Turin is Colin Farrell.

Really. Rent that film and behold just how damn profound he can be. It's a stunning performance. And most important of all for Turin, not only can Farell exhibit that dark, doom-laden drama, but he is wonderful at emoting without words; his eyes can take on a fathomless, emotive quality that at times gives him the feel of something wild, a wolf or hawk. And that's perfect for Turin. I could see him spending the majority of the film without speaking, with those operatic explosions that mark the character, and I can also see him going through that softening and melting of heart that happens when Niniel appears in his life again.

Eh, I could go on! But hey, New Tolkien! Now that's a lovely gift from the Professor on this Hobbits' Day, woudln't you say?

Comments

[ex-rogerpit.livejournal.com]

This one will definitely be going in my collection - right alongside my copies of Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna end up with a whole set of bookshelves filled with Tolkieniana!

[illyria-novia.livejournal.com]

I beg to differ. I think Joaquin Phoenix will make a very good Turin. And somehow when I think about that man who sort of married his mom, the Easterling (?), I think Oded Fehr. And Saeros...um...Jude Law? Who do you think should play Beleg? :)

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Oh geez. Joaquin Phoenix I would not pick, simply because he gives me the creeps. Maybe it's the roles he's chosen, but there's something slimy about the guy that sets my teeth on edge. For me, although Turin is dark and overly obsessed with his own history, there's a core of goodness in him that is overwhelmed by fate, and that makes him a character that I sympathize with despite his tendency to shoot himself in the foot on a regular basis. And I just don't get that from Joaquin.

Oded Fehr is wonderful, and I'd love to see him in any Tolkien film. Jude Law? Eh. Overrated, in my opinion. Beleg I'd have a hard time casting. It should be someone unknown, I think. Elves having that veneer of perfection (at least compared with Men), I think it would be distracting to cast someone that's too familiar.

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Now that's a mathom! :)

[serai1.livejournal.com]

But we have no intentions of giving it away!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Eh, I could go on! But hey, New Tolkien! Now that's a lovely gift from the Professor on this Hobbits' Day, woudln't you say?

Yes, yes it is.

*bounces quietly*

[serai1.livejournal.com]

*bounces with you*

By the way, I did read that Five Characters thing you wrote. It was lovely! I was trying to figure who the Bad Guy was - the syntax felt too formal for an Orc, but I can't imagine a Nazgul wanting to eat anybody.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

You read it! Yay!

*rereads* *bonks head on wall* #4 was meant to be an Orc. Maybe he's an Orc who's getting a degree from Lugburz College. At any rate, I'm glad you liked that Five Things! It was fun.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

It's basically the whole middle third of the story. The version in Unfinished Tales is expanded from the terse scriptural style of the Sil into the novelistic style of LOTR. But since Tolkien wasn't up against any deadlines for it, he was writing as he felt like writing, and the middle section just never got finished. So that's what he's filled in.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful, isn't it? Is there any info about when it might be published? I'm sure it'll be a huge success.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to come out in 2007, but aside from that I don't know. I'm sure it'll be a huge success in Tolkien terms, meaning all the Tolkien fans will buy it and the general public will ignore it. Although, what with the movies being so big, there may be more interest. I think folks who've come to Tolkien from the films might be disappointed at the lack of hobbits, though.

[goldberry-b.livejournal.com]

thanks for sharing that!

:)

[serai1.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, honey!

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

I am excited about it, too. But cautious. Tis my nature but it cheered me reading your argument for being hopeful! Thanks!

*waits*

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Well, I know a lot of people don't like it, but I really love the Silmarillion. And seeing as how a lot of that one was Christopher's reconstruction and writing, as opposed to a straight publication of the Professor's finished work, I don't foresee any problems with this book.

I don't understand the trepidation that some people are showing, frankly. It's not like this is some director's interpretation, after all - it's a story Tolkien himself wrote, we're already familiar with it, and the only full version we already have was put together by the same guy doing this book. He's been publishing the canon for thirty years now, so I think he knows what he's doing.