After more than 70 years, a J.R.R. Tolkien poem from the “darker side” of the author’s imagination will be republished.
“The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun,” out of print since its original 1945 release in the literary journal The Welsh Review, will be re-released this November, according to the Guardian.
The lengthy poem tells of a desperate couple wishing to have a child, who seek the help of a witch. The witch gives them a potion allowing them to have children, but of course it comes at a cost.
Tolkien scholars describe the poem as coming from the morbid side of the “Lord of the Rings” author’s works, according to the Guardian.
The story’s witch may be familiar to LOTR fans, as Tolkien eventually turned the character into the Elven queen Galadriel in his later works, as the earliest manuscript for the poem dates back to September 1930.
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