The Papa of Modern Epic Fantasy returns yet again from beyond the grave. This time with a book written before The Hobbit. May 5th will see the Oxford don’s release of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, the Anglicized telling of the Norse epics in narrative verse. Seventy years old, never-before quoted, introduced by one of the man’s own lectures on Norse literature…the Tolkien Library sums it up best. Considering that many attribute JRRT’s more well-known successes (LotR) to his enamor with these legends, I think I just may check it out. Especially since it just so happens I’ve been reading (now and again) Song of the Volsungs and the Nibelungs as translated by William Morris – though I understood that to originate as the German national verse.

My one hesitation: 384 pages of English narrative verse written in the 1920’s might be a bit tough on the brain matter these days…