Nicely put! There's something of a philosopher in you, Khamul!

"While the fantasy worlds in those works were drawn from Tolkien's knowledge of language and folklore, The Fall of Arthur used contemporary English, but was written in a style derived from 11th-century verse.

HarperCollins, which will publish the poem next May, was taken aback when Tolkien's son contacted the company about publishing the work.

Christopher Tolkien has devoted years of research to deciphering his father's manuscript fragments. The poem's existence was known only from the briefest of mentions in two letters and six lines that Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, was allowed to publish.

Chris Smith, editorial director at HarperCollins, said: “We'd never seen it until a manuscript was delivered to us. It's completely unpublished, apart from the handful of lines in the Carpenter biography. In the two letters, you have these scant but tantalising references to it. That's the reason it's known about, but no one has had access.”

Christopher Tolkien has been unable to establish exactly when the poem was written. The author made a single reference to it in a 1955 letter and kept a 1934 letter from his friend, RW Chambers, professor of English at University College London, who wrote: “It is very great indeed ... really heroic ... You really must finish it.”

There are no film rights available for The Fall of Arthur."

I don't see what relevance film rights has to this book, but looking forward to it.

You have to register to use the link below but if search Google for the article, then you can read it without registering.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ ... ry-e6frg6so-1226490111696

It's now on amazon.co.uk -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fall-Arth ... TF8&qid=1349604009&sr=8-1

- wellinghall

Just a plain standard hardback, I take it? (No deluxe?)
Ordered anyway --cheers wellinghall.

I see they're still peddling this rubbish about nobody knowing of its existence & only a handful of folk having seen it. What a pile of nonsense.

BH

Today's Sunday Times also has an article about this and prints the first thirty-eight lines of the poem as well.