The Story of Kullervo - Hardcover

Tolkien, J.R.R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544706269 ISBN 13: 9780544706262

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

Synopsis

The first publication of a previously unknown work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien

Kullervo, son of Kalervo, is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. "Hapless Kullervo," as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.   Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and tried three times to kill him when he was still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and the magical powers of the black dog Musti, who guards him. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruelest of fates.   Tolkien himself said that The Story of Kullervo was "the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own," and was "a major matter in the legends of the First Age." Tolkien’s Kullervo is the clear ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. Published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes, and lecture essays on its source work, the Kalevala, The Story of Kullervo is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Kullervo son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. “Hapless Kullervo,” as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.
 
Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery, he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruelest of fates.
 
Tolkien wrote that The Story of Kullervo was “the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own,” and was “a major matter in the legends of the First Age”; his Kullervo was the ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Children of Húrin. In addition to being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of Kullervo, published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes, and lecture-essay on its source-work, the Kalevala, is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.

About the Author

J.R.R. TOLKIEN (1892–1973) is the creator of Middle-earth and author of such classic and extraordinary works of fiction as The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. His books have been translated into more than fifty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0544706269
• ISBN 13: 9780544706262
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Flieger Verlyn