eBook - The lay of Aotrou and Itroun

eBook - The lay of Aotrou and Itroun

By: J.R.R Tolkien, 

Also : Verlyn Flieger (edit and comments) ;

Christopher Tolkien (note on the text)

Score: 10/10

Year: 2016

Publisher: Harper Collins

eISBN 978-1-328-83451-5 (v2.1018) 

Based on Physical copies: 

ISBN 978-1-328-83454-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-328-55752-0 (pbk.)

Pages : 106 (kindle count *) ; 140 (Libby app) 

Language: English

Just like the 2015 The Story of Kullervo, This Tolkien lay is commented and edited by Verlyn Flieger. 

We find The lay of Aotrou and Itroun in part I (p.2) ; followed, in part II (p.28), by ‘The Corrigan’ I & II,  treated together as a composite by Christopher Tolkien (as explained in the note on the text)  ;

Part III (p.58) comprises a transcription of the fair manuscript, facsimile pages from the emended typescript which was the base text for the finished poem ; and lastly, Part IV (p.94-104) compares Tolkien’s poems with verses from the original Breton text and its contemporary French and English translations. 

In the ebook in Kindle format that I borrowed, part I is preceded by the Cover, title page, copyright, list of plates, epigraph, note on the text, introduction, & acknowledgements, with no page numbers, not even in roman italics... 

However, foonotes, works cited, about the author and editor, works by J.R.R Tolkien, all come after part IV, in p. 104-106. 

The lay of Aotrou and Itroun, seen in part I tells of a childless Breton Lord (Aotrou) and Lady (Itroun) and the tragedy that befalls them when Aotrou seeks to remedy their situation with the aid of a magic potion obtained from a corrigan, which is a malevolent fairy. In disguise, evidently. She refuses payment and tribute, to 'avoid bad reputation' as to her potion, telling him that they'll meet again, and upon success, she'll claim her dues...

This non Middle-earth work should be read alongside his other retellings of existing myth and legend, of which I've read The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, and recently also The Story of Kullervo. They show the influences and links from these tales to Tolkien's main Legendarium and the only other retelling left on my TBR list for the near future is The Fall of Arthur, composed in 1934. 

As for this review's topic, the lay, the two corrigan poems and everything else present in the book, I add that the Lay was finished in late September 1930 ; it was first published in December 1945, in The Welsh Review and had been unavailable for more than 70 years, until this current one from 2016. 

We learn that this composition was during a break of Canto X in the Lay of Leithian (present in the Lays of Beleriand, aka History of Middle Earth, vol 3), as Christopher explains his father's date noted by line 3031 is November 1929, whilst line 3220 shows 25 September 1930 and the end of Aotrou and Itroun's fair copy shows 23 September 1930. 

Since elements in The lay of Aotrou and Itroun are seen in earlier, shorter forms in the Corrigan (I & II) poems, we can imagine they'd been composed some time between November 1929 and September of the following year - though no trace of more precise dates have been found.

Interestingly, Beleriand is directly linked to the the Broceliand forest in Aotrou and previously uses in Corrigan II. This forest and others from Breton sources all had similar uses within such fictions, and directly links to Tolkien's many magical forests as well! 

The power and danger of the Corrigan eventually transformed into Galadriel, and the the moment she's tested can show us a Corrigan form with all its possible risks, so all the various elements seen in this book, and the Lays of Beleriand, which would become such integral parts of the Legendarium are fascinating to read about. 

Corrigan I's a story of a changeling, whilst ‘Corrigan’ II, subtitled ‘A Breton Lay – after “Aotrou Nann Hag ar Gorrigan” a lay of Leon’ follows closely its Breton source, but is missing the elements mentioned by Christopher : the couple’s childlessness, the Lord’s first visit to the witch, and that she is the fairy of the fountain. 

But, aside from changing the narrative, adding a motive ( the couple is childless), Tolkien's darker imagination shifted away from the Breton source, its French and two English translations, into a new, long, coherent story. He departed from his sources in more than one way:

First, instead of a folktale, we have a tragedy, in which a man becomes an instrument of destiny. 

Secondly, from a Breton ballad he shifted to a Lay, this particular poem is in octosyllabic couplets, in style closely related to The Lay of Leithian, on which he'd been working ; the term Lay coming from French Lai. Although there is alliteration in Aotrou and Itroun , it's more decorative than structural - as pointed out in Verlyn Flieger's commentary (p. 87). 

Thirdly, in the last word, the 'winner' of sorts, changes between these versions. 

Because all the poems included here interconnect and overlap in their treatment of shared material, Verlyn Flieger's edition separated them into shorter sections, each poem followed by notes and commentary. Reading each version does include some repetition, but very quickly we notice also the various alterations and evolutions in the texts.