The Great Tales
the three great tales of the legendarium and their 2007, 2017, 2018 standalone editions
Nature
The three great stories of the First Age that the legendarium sets apart — the tale of Beren and Lúthien, the Children of Húrin (the matter of Túrin Turambar), and the Fall of Gondolin — and, in the editions of 2007-2018, the three standalone books by which Christopher Tolkien at last published each as a readable continuous narrative: The Children of Húrin (2007), Beren and Lúthien (2017), and The Fall of Gondolin (2018).
Contents
Each book takes the fullest and latest prose version of its tale and restores it to a connected form. The Children of Húrin presents the Narn i Chîn Húrin as a single narrative, the great lay laid in prose. Beren and Lúthien sets the tale through its versions — from the Book of Lost Tales “Tale of Tinúviel” through the Lay of Leithian and the late prose — with its poems. The Fall of Gondolin runs from the 1917 original, the birth-stone of the legendarium, through the Tuor-matter of Unfinished Tales and the last writings. All three draw on the corresponding History of Middle-earth volumes, and all three were assembled and framed by Christopher Tolkien.
Composition
The trilogy was not one project but a succession: the Children of Húrin volume grew from the Narn of Unfinished Tales and HoME, and its success prompted the two companion volumes, built the same way — extract the chosen versions, restore the latest, and bridge with editorial prose drawn from the sources. Together they give the general reader the three great tales whole, where previously they were scattered across HoME and the published Silmarillion.