The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún presents two fictional, medieval poems by J.R.R. Tolkien written likely in the 1930s. They were edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, long later, into a publication by HarperCollins released in May 2009, with his own extensive commentary.
The poems are in an alliterative verse inspired by that of the Old Norse collection Poetic Edda, and were for Tolkien a project in learning "the art of writing alliterative poetry"The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 295 (to W.H. Auden). The first tells a tale of the Völsungs, including the dragon-slayer Sigurd along with many familiar figures of Norse mythology. The second tells of Gudrún, daughter of an evil queen of the Niflungs, Grímhild, and Gudrún's interactions with Sigurd. These poems, about which Christopher Tolkien rarely heard his father speak, incorporate matters and stories from the German Nibelungenlied, the Icelandic Völsunga saga, and the Norse Poetic Edda, overlapping with the speculated Elder Edda.
This publication is similar to The Fall of Arthur (2013), The Story of Kullervo (2015), and The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, together with The Corrigan Poems (2016): editions presenting Tolkien's poetic projects that involved different languages and mythologies of the Middle Ages.
==Contents==
* Forward
* Introduction
** The "Elder Edda" by J.R.R. Tolkien
** Introductory notes
* Völsungakviða en nýja ("The New Lay of the Völsungs")
** Upphaf (Beginning)
** I. Andvara-gull (Andvari's Gold)
** II. Signý
** III. Dauði Sinfjötla (The Death of Sinfjötli)
** IV. Fæddr Sigurðr (Sigurd Born)
** V. Regin (Reign)
** VI. Brynhildr (Brynhild)
** VII. Guðrún (Gudrún)
** VIII. Svikin Brynhildr (Brynhild Betrayed)
** IX. Deild (Strife)
* Commentary on Völsungakviða en nýja
* Guðrúnarkviða en nýja ("The New Lay of Gudrún")
* Commentary on Guðrúnarkviða en nýja
* Appendices
** (A) A Short Account of the Origins of the Legend
** (B) The Prophecy of the Sibyl
** (C) Fragments of a Heroic Poem of Attila in Old English
==External links==
*Goodreads page
*Promotional trailer
*Review by Tom Shippey in Tolkien Studies, vol. 7
*Barnes & Noble
*Amazon.com
==References==
Category:Books
Category:Official posthumous J.R.R. Tolkien editions
Category:Books on Medieval texts
Category:2009 publications
Category:Primary literature
Category:Publications by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category:Primary lit. published by HarperCollins
Category:Houghton Mifflin publications
Category:Tolkien's Medieval works