A book Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien conceived 100 years ago is now on sale in several countries around the world, BBC reported on Thursday. However, an official release date for Beren and Lúthien in India has not been confirmed yet, though it is expected to be available in July.
The novel will be published by HarperCollins. June 1 also marks the 10th anniversary of Tolkien’s last Middle Earth Book – The Children of Hurin.
Tolkein came up with the idea for the book while returning from the Battle of the Somme during the First World War. It is about two lovers – a mortal man and an immortal elf – who try to steal from Melkor, called the ‘greatest of all evil beings’.
Tolkien specialist John Garth told BBC that the late author used his writing to “exorcise the horrors” he saw in World War 1. When Tolkien’s wife Edith danced in a glade filled with white flowers during a walk in an East Yorkshire forest, it became the key scene in Beren and Lúthien, Garth told BBC.
The names Beren and Lúthien are also carved on the gravestone shared by Tolkien and his wife at Oxford.
The Lord of the Rings, for which Tolkien is most famous, was published in 1954 and has sold over 150 million copies since.
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