The Story of Kullervo
 Front cover of the 2015 hardback edition, titled "The Land of Pohja". | |
| Editor | Verlyn Flieger |
|---|---|
| Author | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Cover artist | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Finnish mythology |
| Genre | Epic poetry |
| Published | 27 August 2015 (U.K.) |
| Publisher |
HarperCollins Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| ISBN | 978-0008131364 |
| Preceded by | Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary |
| Followed by | A Secret Vice |
The Story of Kullervo is a prose version of the Kullervo cycle in the Karelian and Finnish epic poem Kalevala. Written by J. R. R. Tolkien when he was an undergraduate at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1914 to 1915, it was an unsettled period for the author and this is thought to be reflected in the story's dark subject matter.[1] It also marks "the first time that JRR Tolkien, who had been a poet until then, began writing prose".[2] Known as a source (among others) for Túrin Turambar, Kullervo was the center of Tolkien's efforts in 1914, as he was "trying to turn one of the stories [of the Kalevala] — which is really a very great story and most tragic – into a short story" (Letters, October 1914, #1). It was edited by Verlyn Flieger in 2010 in Tolkien Studies and republished in August 2015 by HarperCollins.[3]
References
- Citations
- ↑ "The Story of Kullervo | Quadrapheme". www.quadrapheme.com. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
- ↑ Telegraph Reporters (26 August 2015). "JRR Tolkien's first story is 'undeniably his darkest work' say experts". The Telegraph.
- ↑ http://www.tolkiensociety.org/blog/2015/07/the-story-of-kullervo-and-the-brazilian-contribution-to-its-publication/ Tolkien Society website
- Works cited
- Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-31555-7