The completed Tale of Gondolin was published 13 years ago?!

Holy crap! Take a look at this, now!

http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/review...ofgondolin.htm

*regains some measure of decorum*

I'm sorry if this is common knowledge, but when I saw it I knew I had to bring it up. Yes, I know all 50 copies have been sold, but my point is this: if the Tolkien family has been sitting on top of a completed (if not technically "finished;" but few of Tolkien's posthumously published works can claim that status, anyway) version of one of the great tales of the First Age for the past 13 years, WHY THE FLYING WIGGLY HELL HAVEN'T THEY GIVEN IT A WIDER RELEASE?!

While this Alexander Lewis guy is the one that put the pieces together (with Priscilla Tolkien's blessing), the Estate owns the actual text, so couldn't they publish it as-is? The best thing about such a venture would be that CRT won't have to work his hands to bone editing it, meaning that he could focus his effort on the Lay of Leithian .

[davem]

'cos its basically a cut 'n' paste effort, though Lewis has 'modernised' the BoLT text to make it 'fit' with the rest of the stuff he used. Priscilla gave the nod for the project, but CT & the Estate, as far as I'm aware, did not. In fact, if you check the Tolkien Estate Website FAQ page http://www.tolkienestate.com/faq/p_2/

Can I / someone else write / complete / develop my / their own version of one of these unfinished tales ? (or any others)
The simple answer is NO.
You are of course free to do whatever you like for your own private enjoyment, but there is no question of any commercial exploitation of this form of "fan-fiction".
Also, in these days of the Internet, and privately produced collectors’ items for sale on eBay, we must make it as clear as possible that the Tolkien Estate never has, and never will authorize the commercialisation or distribution of any works of this type.
The Estate exists to defend the integrity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings. Christopher Tolkien's work as his father’s literary executor has always been to publish as faithfully and honestly as possible his father's completed and uncompleted works, without adaptation or embellishment.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

There is no 'unknown text' Lewis published. It is, as Davem alluded, the "Long Tuor" from Unfinished Tales grafted onto the old Tale of the Fall of Gondolin; both of which have been available for over two decades.

[Lalwendë]

Yes, no need to get excited about this text - it's not authorised by the estate at all, just given the go-ahead by Priscilla as an exercise in (expensive) fan fic. And its creator meets with quite a lot of soap-opera level controversy amongst Tolkien Society circles too.

I seem to have a bad habit of not making myself clear . I know that this is just the two longest Tuor-related texts grafted together. By a "completed" tale, I meant an enlarged account of the Fall of Gondolin with all the necessary editorial corrections (updating of names for the BoLT sections, etc.) that can stand alone as a published work, a la The Children of Húrin, just not edited by CRT.

What I was wondering was why the powers-that-be hasn't snatched it up for a wider release. Even though Lewis was the one that pieced it together (on an unrelated note, this guy isn't related to C. S. Lewis, is he?), the Estate holds the rights to the text itself. So why don't they just release it? Most of the job is done, already. I mean, Priscilla Tolkien has a copy, and editorial work will be reduced from the normally massive job of bringing the texts into line with each other to the correction of spelling and other mere tidy-up jobs. It would be the easiest Middle-earth-related book CRT has ever had to churn out, that's for sure.

If they can avoid being as overly lush and elaborate with the book design as Lewis was (obviously done to justify the $1,000+ price tag), there could be a potential profit in this.

[davem]

Originally Posted by johnboy3434

What I was wondering was why CRT hasn't snatched it up for a wider release.

'cos its not a genuine work by JRR Tolkien. Lewis has simply taken different versions of Tolkien's work & stuck them together. Its fanfic of the worst kind, because it purports to be Tolkien's work. (And from the accounts of people who have read it it isn't all that good. Lewis did not have the authorisation to produce this work & it was done without supervision by CT. This is not something that can be done if the editor wants his work to be accepted, let alone taken seriously.

Even though Lewis was the one that pieced it together (on an unrelated note, this guy isn't related to C. S. Lewis, is he?), the Estate holds the rights to the text itself (apart from any forwards, afterwards, or indexes, of course). So why don't they just release it? Most of the job is done, already. I mean, Priscilla Tolkien has a copy, and editorial work will be reduced from the normally massive job of bringing the texts into line with each other to the correction of spelling and other mere tidy-up jobs. It would be the easiest Middle-earth-related book CRT has ever had to churn out, that's for sure.

See above. This work is neither one thing or another. Its not Tolkien's work, its a collection of different bits stuck together on a whim to produce a work that Mr Lewis could put his name to in order, one assumes, to associate himself with Tolkien. CT is the authorised editor of his father's work. He has, in turn, authorised others to edit & prepare some works of his father's for publication. The fact that Lewis asked permission of Priscilla rather than Christopher for this work to be published speaks volumes. The idea that simply because a (very average, judging by the one book of Tolkien criticism of his I've read) Tolkien scholar knocks up his own version of of one of Tolkien's stories it should simply be accepted & put out as an 'officially authorised' Tolkien novel is just silly. Anyone who owns a copy of The Sil & UT could knock up their own version of the Tale of Gondolin or any other 'unfinished' work - is the Estate supposed to publish them simply because someone knocked them up on Microsoft Word? You seem to be arguing just that - because Lewis has knocked this thing up it should be published with the blessing of the Estate. Where does it stop? At best Lewis' work is an interesting curio. Personally I have no interest in reading this thing.

If they can avoid being as overly lush and elaborate as Lewis himself (obviously done to justify the $1,000+ price tag), there could be a potential profit in this.

Yes, well, vanity publishing is a term which would seem to fit Mr Lewis very well, but, (as you put it) 'churning out' books for 'potential profit' would seem to be the last thing on Christopher Tolkien's mind, thank goodness.