Celtic/Irish fairy tales

[GOLLUM]

I would highly recommend The History of Middle-earth (yes, all twelve volumes) to anyone interested in Tolkien's work in detail, Moontravler. Not only do they provide a great deal of fascinating background on his creation of Middle-earth and the thought which lies behind it, but (even with the "dry" areas mentioned by Clansman) there are large amounts of some of Tolkien's most beautiful prose as well.

....As Knivesout has mentioned there is also his translation of "Pearl", "Sir Orfeo", and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. You may also find of interest his collection of essays, The Monster and the Critics, which provides some interesting insights into the aesthetic behind his fictional work.

Agreed on The History but for some obstinate reason or other I'm not choosing to purchase those.

I've added Monsters and Critics to my original list....unfortunately my memory failed me on that point.

My copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also contains Pearl, Sir Orefo and Gawain's Leave Taking (poem).

I probably should have expanded upon the contents as I know I've got everything by Tolkien (fiction) other than the History Of collection following my research on the topic. Just didn't have the books in front of me LOL!

 

[Moontravler]

Hmm, I already had "Pearl", "Sir Orfeo", and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, though not compiled under Tolkien, so I guess I'll move it there.

Thanks for the other recommendations, History OME is now in my official "to-order" shortlist; I want to hunt a round a bit first at my leisure and see if I cannot pick it up for a bargain, as well as the Tolkien Reader, which I remember now having eyed before. Have noted down the other works mentioned as well. (I carry a list with me that I peek at at or makes notes on for when I visit 2nd hand book stores/book sales/flea markets and the like. )

I think I wanted to fill my complement of actual works directly written by JRR Tolkien first, before moving on to the ancillary works, and it seems that I am close enough now to actively start buying the ancillaries as well.

Thank you for all the very informative input, everybody!

 

[GOLLUM]

Just don't forget my box of cigars....

You'll do well to find the complete OME second hand but even a mix of second-hand and new editions could prove cost effective.

Follow my list on fiction and you'll have what you're after and NONE of them are hard to find thanks to recent editions over the past few years. I shall watch your progress with interest...

Happy hunting.

 

[GOLLUM]

Hmm, I already had "Pearl", "Sir Orfeo", and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, though not compiled under Tolkien, so I guess I'll move it there.

That's because they are translations of Medieval English Poems, so not actually works of fiction originated by Tolkien per se. That would, I assume, explain why you presumably have another translator's edition if that is what you are suggesting?

Sorry, I should have made that clearer but was rushed for time.

 

[Moontravler]

Yes, I remember having bought these translated works a few years ago (Sir Gawain, etc) (don't have them in front of me right now, so I'll need to dig them up and have a look) and I'd put them amongst my medieval classics. So you are right, the ones I have may have been done by another translator.

On the other hand, since I am a sucker for anything Arthurian, that is not too strange, even if it was the translation done by Tolkien, after all..

In any case, whatever the case may be, my point was that these are not core works directly written by JRR Tolkien, if you see what I mean, since I don't count translations as the creations of the translator, just like you say.

 

[j d worthington]

One caution, though, when it comes to the earlier volumes of HoMe especially: go for the hardbound copies. There are reproductions of some of JRRT's mss pages, to which pages Christopher refers for certain fine points; in the paperback editions these are often too small to make out what he is talking about. In the hardbound edition they are sometimes quite faded and take some doing (much of this was written in pencil, as I recall, and has not stood up well over the years), but in the smaller format it is frankly impossible.

 

[Moontravler]

Interesting point, J.D. That sounds exceedingly scholarly, btw. *cough*

 

[Clansman]

At least in getting hardbound copies of HoME, the earlier volumes are easier to find, and less dear. I collected the series from its inception, but missed nos. 9 to 11 (Sauron Defeated, Morgoth's Ring, and The War of the Jewels), which had a very limited press run and are quite rare. I am trying to collect them now, but it is very, very expensive to do so in the British editions.

The American editions are quite inexpensive. For some reason, American publishers do a bigger run of hardbacks than do UK publishers.

 

[j d worthington]

Yep. Though, for a while there, when I was trying to track down the latter half of the series (my original copies got ruined when we had a leak in my apartment), all of them were quite expensive. Now they seem to be back to a very reasonable to downright cheap range... even for copies in VG to fine condition....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

On the other hand, since I am a sucker for anything Arthurian, that is not too strange

(Emphasis mine)

So I suppose you'll not be interested in Patricia Kenealy-Morrison's Arthur-in-space series, The Keltiad? (As a matter of fact Kenealy-Morrison does seem to have a real regard for Celtic myth and does weave a lot of authentic mythic motifs into her somewhat unusual choice of setting, but still...Celts in space!?)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Better watch out there, JP. Someone criticized her work here before, and she joined up just to ... um, strongly disagree with their views on the matter. So strongly, in fact, that Brian banned her.

I read the first book and liked it, possibly because it was good, possibly because there wasn't that much Celtic SFF to choose from at the time. It was so long ago, I really don't remember much about it. But for some reason I wasn't engaged enough to continue with the series.


Gollum -- £62 !!! About twenty years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was supposed to know about these things whether such a book existed, and she didn't think so. If I had known then that there was, I might have saved up my lunch money to buy it by now. (Sigh) Considering the current state of my finances, it will probably have to be another twenty years.


As for Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, although I do admire Tolkien's translation, I first encountered that story in this book (I'm really beginning to think that someone has been sneaking into my house and scanning in volumes from my personal library): http://books.google.com/books?id=cR...resnum=1&ved=0CAcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false . I found Zimmer's retelling (as translated by Campbell) oddly moving -- maybe it was where I was emotionally at the time -- but I still think his explanation of the tale is extremely good.

 

[GOLLUM]

Gollum -- £62 !!! About twenty years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was supposed to know about these things whether such a book existed, and she didn't think so. If I had known then that there was, I might have saved up my lunch money to buy it by now. (Sigh) Considering the current state of my finances, it will probably have to be another twenty years.

Yeh well....if you had taken me on as your research assistant none of that would have happened....

I may have some other resources for you but you'll have to give me a little time to organise....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Better watch out there, JP. Someone criticized her work here before, and she joined up just to ... um, strongly disagree with their views on the matter. So strongly, in fact, that Brian banned her.

I read the first book and liked it, possibly because it was good, possibly because there wasn't that much Celtic SFF to choose from at the time. It was so long ago, I really don't remember much about it. But for some reason I wasn't engaged enough to continue with the series.

I've read one volume. It wasn't bad at all, but I didn't follow through, partly because I don't really follow book series.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Have you read The Coming Of The King by Nikolai Tolstoy? It was to be the first volume of a trilogy about Merlin, but the author never carried on. It was full of fascinating elements from Celtic myth, right down to the narrator (Merlin, of course) spending some time as a salmon, if I remember correctly. A strange mix of historical realism and mythic re-creation.

And on this recommendation, I bought it today.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'm very interested to know what you think of it.