I have started on August 8 with The Story of Kullervo, ed. Verlyn Flieger, which I finished just now.
I meant I finished it on August 8 and started the whole thing on August 1!
I tried reading Lost Tales 35 years ago and never finished.
I think what is off-putting is the endless commentary of Christopher Tolkien in between. He sometimes has interesting things to say but it certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
I wondered if you had any kind of a tentative to schedule -- like a book a month or whatever.
As it’s the summer holiday at the moment, there is more time to spend. I haven’t set a time path but I guess if people are requesting to read alongside me, I could do that.
So maybe it’s time for some tentative remarks on
Kullervo? There are several reasons why this is a tricky read. First of all, it is the first prose work that Tolkien tried his hands on. Prior to this he only wrote poetry and therefore you see he isn't as skilled a writer as the one we know to have written
The Lord of the Rings. Secondly, the source of the work, the
Kalevala, is also very strange with its crazy magic and whatnots, that it's hard at times to enjoy for a modern reader (though this is actually what attracted Tolkien to the work!). There is an example that in one line a man kills a gigantic elk and in the next line it is mentioned the beast was a bear. That sounds too inconsistent for us nowadays. Thirdly, there's a lot of poetry that simply isn't for everyone. And lastly, it doesn't end! It's quite frustrating that one of the first peeks into his
legendarium remained unfinished.
But there are also reasons to read this book. First of all these pretty much are Tolkien's first steps into Middle-earth, even though the story isn't set in that world.
Kullervo has the same feel as ME with its woods, magics, overcoming evil and unlikely heroes. The strange names found in the tale sound as if they were taken from the Finnish original but most of them are made up and this might be the first venture into the Elvish Tolkien constructed. Now after finishing the tale, it begs to continue with
The Children of Húrin of course
.
Besides the prose tale, there is also an essay (+ a revised one) about the source the
Kalevala and why Tolkien enjoyed it. The commentary of editor Verlyn Flieger can easily be ignored if that doesn't float your boat. It isn't incorporated in the text, notes follow after the work, et cetera. The book is less than 200 pp. so you read through it rather quickly. And it's always worth to listen to Flieger as she's one of the best-known Tolkien scholars.