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A review by octavia_cade
The Lays of Beleriand by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
3.0
I am reminded of that old saying of law and sausages, and not wanting to see how either is made. I felt that way periodically while reading this. While I was interested to see how the different narratives developed, and while I did enjoy those narratives, some of the commentary was a little too detailed and abstract for me - I really do not care to read endless notes on minor spelling changes, for instance - and it's hard to deny that there's a lot of repetition here.
As always, the sheer depth of Tolkien's imagination is a delight. I am forced to conclude, however, that he's just not that great a poet. Yes, come at me with your pitchforks, but I genuinely think his prose is better. He does enjoy the rhyming form, and in order to force the rhymes his sentences are twisted to fit and the results aren't fantastic - for this reason I much preferred the alliterative Children of Hurin parts to that of rhyming Beren and Luthien. Still, on a macro level if not a micro, this is an interesting read if perhaps one more directed towards academics than people who just want to read a good story without being interrupted by sausage-making.
As always, the sheer depth of Tolkien's imagination is a delight. I am forced to conclude, however, that he's just not that great a poet. Yes, come at me with your pitchforks, but I genuinely think his prose is better. He does enjoy the rhyming form, and in order to force the rhymes his sentences are twisted to fit and the results aren't fantastic - for this reason I much preferred the alliterative Children of Hurin parts to that of rhyming Beren and Luthien. Still, on a macro level if not a micro, this is an interesting read if perhaps one more directed towards academics than people who just want to read a good story without being interrupted by sausage-making.