One of author J.R.R. Tolkien's earliest pieces of work is finally being released to the public. The new book, titled "The Story of Kullervo," was initially written by Tolkien while attending Oxford University and is considered his first piece of prose fiction. Based on the Finnish poem "The Kalevala," it tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father.
According to the official description, "Kullervo, son of Kalervo, is "perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien's characters. 'Hapless Kullervo,' as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny."
The description continues: "Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruellest of fates."
Though Tolkien never actually finished the story of Kullervo in his lifetime, it is considered "a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien's invented world." Tolkien himself referred to The Story of Kullervo as "the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own," calling it "a major matter in the legends of the First Age."
Tolkien’s Kullervo serves as the ancestor of Túrin Turambar, the "tragic incestuous hero" that Middle-earth fans likely remember from "The Silmarillion."
The Story of Kullervo will hit UK boostores on August 27th, and will be available in the United States two months later on October 27th.
