The story of Kullervo

The Story of Kullervo , original title The Story of Kullervo , is a book that waseditedby Verlyn Flieger and was published by HarperCollins in August 2015. It is based on the draft of JRR Tolkien's version of The Story of Kullervo and was supplemented by the author with her own articles and comments.

background

The Story of Kullervo was written by Tolkien in 1915 while he was studying at Oxford University . It is an unfinished manuscript that is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford . It was published on August 27, 2015 as a scientific paper by Tolkien expert Verlyn Flieger.

Kullervo "the lucky one" is the son of Kalervo, of whom songs 31 to 36 of the Finnish Kalevala tell. Kullervo's family was exterminated by his uncle Untamo before he was born. Only his mother seemed to have escaped. When he was born, several attempts were made to kill Kullervo, but this failed because he possessed supernatural powers. Instead, he was sold as a slave by Untamo and later vowed to take revenge. When Kullervo managed to escape from bondage, he learned that both his parents and his sister are still alive. However, the sister is considered missing. The siblings run into each other by chance without realizing that they are related. This leads to a love affair between the two. When his sister learns that Kullervo is her brother, she takes her own life in a river. Kullervo then throws himself into his own sword. Tolkien described this scene with the words:

“The sword says if it had joy in the death of Untamo how much in death of even wickeder Kullervoinen. And it had slaid many an innocent person, even his mother, so it would not boggle over Kullervo. He kills himself and finds the death he sought for. "

“The sword spoke if it enjoyed the death of Untamos, how much would the death of the even worse Kullervo mean to him? And it had already killed many innocent people, including his mother, so that Kullervo would not refuse. He kills himself and finds the death he was looking for. "

- Alison Flood after JRR Tolkien : In: The Guardian

In the story I Narn i chîn Húrin ( The story about the children of Húrin ), which is also reproduced in the Silmarillion or in The History of Middle-earth Volume 3 and belongs to the so-called Lays of Beleriand , there are some parallels to Kullervo. Here it is the protagonist Túrin , whose father Húrin was apparently killed in the battle of the uncounted tears (Nírnaeth Arnoediad) against the evil Vala Morgoth . Túrin was forced to abandon his pregnant mother, who sent him away from Dor Lómin to protect him from death or enslavement. She sends him to the Elves in Doriath , where he was received and raised by King Thingol like his own son. After a quarrel in which Túrin accidentally killed an Elf, he fled into the woods. His sister had now been born and had long since grown into a young woman. So it happened that Túrin happened upon his unknown sister and took her to wife. She became pregnant by him and finally learned from the dragon Glaurung that Túrin, who had tried to kill the dragon and now lay apparently dead next to it on the ground, was her biological brother. Desperate and dismayed, she threw herself into the waters of the Taiglin, whose gorge the dragon had previously tried to cross. When Túrin woke up from his swoon and learned what had happened, he threw himself like Kullervo into his own sword. Here it is described in the following words:

"And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: 'Yea, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of voucher my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly. ' Then Túrin set the hilts upon the ground, and cast himself upon the point of Guthrang, and the black blade took his life. "

“And from the blade spoke a cold voice that answered him: 'Truly, I will drink your blood with joy, so that I may forget the blood of my lord, and Brandir, the one slain wrongly. I want to kill you quickly. ' Then Túrin put the hilt on the floor and plunged into Guthrang's point and the black blade took his life. "

- Alison Flood after JRR Tolkien : In: The Guardian

expenditure

• JRR Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger: "The Story of Kullervo" and Essays on Kalevala. In: Tolkien Studies. Volume 7, No. 1, 2010, doi: 10.1353 / tks.0.0073 , ISSN  1547-3163 , pp. 211-278.
• JR R Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger: The story of Kullervo. HarperCollins Publishers, London 2015, ISBN 978-0-00-813136-4 .

JR R Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger: The Story of Kullervo. Translated into German by Joachim Kalka . Hobbit Presse / Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-608-96090-7 .

Web links

• The Story of Kullervo. on tolkiengateway.net
• Eduardo Oliveira Ferreira: The Story of Kullervo and the Brazilian contribution to its publication. ( tolkiensociety.org July 28, 2015)
• "The Story of Kullervo" Tolkien's first prose work is published in Great Britain ( rp-online.de )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Story of Kullervo - Verlyn Flieger. In: HarperCollins UK. Retrieved December 25, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} J. RR Tolkien, Verlyn Flieger: "The Story of Kullervo" and Essays on Kalevala . In: Tolkien Studies . tape 7 , no. 1 , 2010, ISSN  1547-3163 , p. 211-278 , doi : 10.1353 / tks.0.0073 .
3. ↑ Emily Watson explores the meaning of an early and dark Tolkien short story. ( Memento from December 25, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
4. ↑ ^{a b} Alison Flood: JRR Tolkien's first fantasy story to be published this month. In: The Guardian. August 12, 2015. ( theguardian.com ).
5. ↑ ^{a b} J. R. R Tolkien, Wolfgang Krege: The Silmarillion. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-93245-4 , p. 306.