书名：The Fall of Arthur 亚瑟王的陨落

作者：J. R. R. Tolkien托尔金（作者）,Christopher Tolkien克里斯托弗·托尔金（编者）

出版社名称：HarperCollins

出版时间：2015

语种：英文

ISBN：9780007557301

商品尺寸：12.9 x1.7 x 19.8 cm

包装：平装

页数：240

亚瑟王（King Arthur）是传说中的古不列颠非常富有传奇色彩的伟大国王。关于亚瑟王的传奇故事，起初如何诞生，源自何处，皆无从查考。究竟亚瑟王是不是以某位历史人物作为基础塑造出来的虚构角色也不得而知。人们对他的认识更多来自凯尔特神话传说和中世纪的野史文献。传说他是圆桌骑士的首领，一位近乎神话般的传奇人物，被称为“永恒之王”（the Once and Future King）。流传至今的亚瑟王传说，石中剑、圣杯传奇、梅林（Merlin）、桂妮维亚（Guinevere）、摩根勒菲（Morgan le Fay）等等，大多是出自托马斯·马洛礼（Sir Thomas Malory 1395-1471?）的奇幻小说《亚瑟王之死》（Le Morte d’Arthur）。 J.R.R.托尔金从小就了解了亚瑟王的故事，受其影响很深。The Fall of Arthur《亚瑟王的陨落》他并未写完，是他对亚瑟王传奇仅有的一次大胆尝试，也可能被认为是他运用古英语押头韵特别完美和娴熟的成就。这篇未完成的诗富有力量，有激情，充满了生动的意象，展现了托尔金精彩的叙事天赋。他的儿子克里斯托弗·托尔金（Christopher Tolkien）在编辑时加入三篇启发性的文章，探讨了《亚瑟王》的文学世界，揭示了诗歌的深层含义，探索了这首诗与托尔金中土世界之间的有趣联系。 The world first publication of a previously unknown work by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England’s legendary hero, King Arthur. The Fall of Arthur, the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre, in which he brought to his transforming perceptions of the old narratives a pervasive sense of the grave and fateful nature of all that is told: of Arthur’s expedition overseas into distant heathen lands, of Guinevere’s flight from Camelot, of the great sea-battle on Arthur’s return to Britain, in the portrait of the traitor Mordred, in the tormented doubts of Lancelot in his French castle. Unhappily,The Fall of Arthur was one of several long narrative poems that he abandoned in that period. In this case he evidently began it in the earlier nineteen-thirties, and it was sufficiently advanced for him to send it to a very perceptive friend who read it with great enthusiasm at the end of 1934 and urgently pressed him “You simply must finish it!” But in vain: he abandoned it, at some date unknown, though there is some evidence that it may have been in 1937, the year of the publication ofThe Hobbit and the first stirrings ofThe Lord of the Rings. Years later, in a letter of 1955, he said that “he hoped to finish a long poem onThe Fall of Arthur”; but that day never came. Associated with the text of the poem, however, are many manuscript pages: a great quantity of drafting and experimentation in verse, in which the strange evolution of the poem’s structure is revealed, together with narrative synopses and very significant if tantalising notes. In these latter can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion withThe Silmarillion, and the bitter ending of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was never written. Review Praise forThe Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún: “This is the most unexpected of Tolkien’s many posthumous publications; his son’s ‘Commentary’ is a model of informed accessibility; the poems stand comparison with their Eddic models, and there is little poetry in the world like those.”  — Times Literary Supplement “The compact verse form is ideally suited to describing impact… elsewhere it achieves a stark beauty.”  —Telegraph An incomplete but highly compelling retelling... An action-packed, doom-haunted saga, full of vivid natural description. ”  —New York Times Book Review 

The Fall of Arthur《亚瑟王的陨落》全书包含七个部分：前言、诗作的历史背景，诗作未完稿（遗弃）部分与精灵宝钻的联系，诗作的版本进化史，附录：诗作的古代英语版本。故事讲述了英格兰的传奇英雄人物亚瑟王的zui后岁月。以往人们普遍认为亚瑟王的一切都是命中注定的：亚瑟王远征海外到异教徒的遥远土地，皇后桂妮维亚逃离卡梅洛特，亚瑟王回到英国的大海战，在叛徒莫德雷德的画像中，在法国城堡时痛苦地怀疑着兰斯洛特。托尔金在书中转变了对这些老故事的看法。 The Fall of Arthur recounts in verse the last campaign of King Arthur, who, even as he stands at the threshold of Mirkwood, is summoned back to Britain by news of the treachery of Mordred. Already weakened in spirit by Guinevere’s infidelity with the now-exiled Lancelot, Arthur must rouse his knights to battle one last time against Mordred’s rebels and foreign mercenaries. Powerful, passionate, and filled with vivid imagery, this unfinished poem reveals Tolkien’s gift for storytelling at its brilliant best. Christopher Tolkien, editor, contributes three illuminating essays that explore the literary world of King Arthur, reveal the deeper meaning of the verses and the painstaking work that his father applied to bring it to a finished form, and explore the intriguing links between the poem and Tolkien’s Middle-earth. 

约翰·罗纳德·瑞尔·托尔金，（John Ronald Reuel Tolkien，1892年1月3日－1973年9月2日），笔名J.R.R.托尔金，英国作家、诗人、语言学家及大学教授，以创作经典严肃奇幻作品《霍比特人》《魔戒》与《精灵宝钻》而闻名于世。 托尔金曾于1925年至1945年间，在牛津大学彭布罗克学院担任盎格鲁-撒克逊语的劳林森与博斯沃思教授，并于1945年至1959年间转至牛津大学默顿学院任英国语言与文学的默顿教授。 1951至1955年间，托尔金用“传说故事集”（legendarium）一词来称呼大部分作品。尽管在他之前有很多其他作者的奇幻作品问世，但《霍比特人》和《魔戒》的巨大成功造成了该文学类型的流行与复兴。因此托尔金被大众公认为“现代奇幻文学之父”——或更准确地说，是对于严肃奇幻。 1972年，托尔金获英国女王伊丽莎白二世颁发的大英帝国司令勋章。同年，牛津大学授予他荣誉文学博士学位。托尔金于1973年9月2日在牛津逝世，与妻子合葬在牛津北郊的一个公墓里。 2008年，《泰晤士报》把他列为“1945年后50位伟大的英国作家”榜单第6位。2009年，他在《福布斯》高收入的“已故名人”榜单中列第5位。 J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was a distinguished academic, though he is best known for writingThe Hobbit,The Lord of the Rings andThe Silmarillion, plus other stories and essays. His books have been translated into 50 languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide.The Children of Hurin was published for the first time in 2007. 克里斯托弗·约翰·瑞尔·托尔金 （Christopher John Reuel Tolkien）生于1924年11月21日，是J.R.R.托尔金的第三个儿子，也是zui小的一个。作为托尔金遗产基金会的执行人，他编辑并出版了托尔金的大部分遗稿。

Foreword The Fall of ArthurNotes on the Text ofThe Fall of ArthurThe Poem in Arthurian Tradition The Unwritten Poem and its Relation toThe Silmarillion The Evolution of the Poem Appendix: Old English Verse