https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Beren_and_L%C3%BAthien

Oooh the story of the romance between the Human Man Beren and the Elf Maiden Lúthien. And I am almost at that part in the Silmarillion.

But this one is basically a completely detailed stand alone story of this tale. And J.R.R. Tolkien apperaently was quite passionate about this tale, using analoges and comparisons to his love of his wife Edith Mary Tolkien.

Great now I have to wait till May to order it and Amazon has no Pre-Orders :(

Also I am suprised that Christopher Tolkien is still alive, he's currently 91 years old.

I wonder how much of the manuscript was completed by J.R.R. and how much was added. I admit I'm somewhat interested in this, but will wait until I read some reviews and thoughts on it.

Well regarding The Tale of Hurin how much was that just added and nothing from JRR's manuscripts?

I'm more looking forward to this one, as it's stuff I've never read before, and sounds really interesting.

I'm not sure how much of the material in Beren & Luthien will be new, and honestly I like the story of the Children of Hurin much more as part of The Silmarillion than the standalone version, and I suspect this will be much the same. I'll probably get it anyway, I love Tolkien's legendarium too much not to, but still I already have The Silmarillion (in like three editions), I have The Lays of Beleriand, I doubt this will contribute much more.

Do you recommend Sigurd and Gudrun, Fall of Arthur, and Tolkien's Translation of Beowulf?

And what is the name of this non middle earth tale that is a folklore famous in Finland?

I absolutely do. I enjoyed Tolkien's prose version of Beowulf immensly, and the included esseys and commentary really helped to understand it better than anything before. It's probably the best and most accessable of those three, but I enjoyed all three very much. I love Arthurain legends like crazy, so even though Tolkien's poem is very much unfinished and not very long it's still a very interesting version of the legend, both fresh and incredibly fitting. Again, the included "scholarly" materials are very helpful and quite accessable. Pretty much the same goes fo Sigurd and Gudrun, but this is a much longer, fisnished work, so it's only for you if you can really sink your teeth into such a long alliterative poem narrative, it's certainly not for everyone, but very rewarding. Story of Kullervo, derived from Kalevala. Pretty much everything said above applies here. It's prose like Beowulf, but unfinished like Fall of Arthur. You don't need to now Kalevala to read it, though I guess it helps.

All of those are great on their own, and very rewarding for fans of the Middle-Earth legendarium, as there are many connections to find, and it really helps to appreciate and understand all the layers of those legendarium books when one has immersed himself in the legends that inspired them. Not just because of some characters and stories that served as direct inspiration for Tolkien's own, but also to learn the qualities, the mentatlity (for lack of a better word) of such stories.

No idea. But that reminds me I should get around to reading that one...

If you love Arthurian Legends so much than you are gonna love Warcraft's Arthas who is litirally the evil inversion of the story of King Arthur at least in the most basic sense:

https://youtu.be/sotg3le_EqU?t=523

https://youtu.be/sotg3le_EqU?t=1381

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck

Basically to sum up Arthas' story if you really don't want to do research:

Arthas becomes the Evil Lich King of the Undead Scourge.

Arhtas gets the evil sword Frostmourne.

Arthas destroys his Kingdom of Lordaeron and murdered his father the King Tereneas Menethil.

Arthas was taught by the Necromancer turned Lich Kel'thuzad.

Arthas founds an order of Death Knights called the Knights of the Ebon Blade.

I am a huge LOTR fan, though I'm not really into the Silmarillion and all of the elaborate backstories. I've heard about how much he liked the Beren and Luthien story and that it's on their gravestones. But when I first heard about it, I thought it sounded like a rehash of the Aragorn/Arwen story. Just like the eagles coming to save the day was rehashed. (Meant with all due respect, just my opinion.)

Dude, I played Warcraft 3, I know who Arthas is. And his story really has absolutely no resemblance to that of Arthur. It's a good story, but nothing to do with Arthur. Other than having a magic sword, but honestly - who doesn't these days? Every character in WoW is running around with twenty of those. If anything it would be Aragorn and Arwen story that would be the rehash, I'm pretty sure the first draft of Beren and Luthien is way older than anything Lord of the Rings. Anyway, you can't really call it a rehash when the repetition is intentionall AND worked into the story. The characters themselves, and those around them, note the parallel. It's an important part of Aragorn's story that he is so very much like his forefathers, almost like a person lifted from an eariler age. Not to mention that repetitions like that are also part of myths legends that inspired Tolkien's legendarium, like I mentioned before. Sometimes a single character over the ages got split into two, often father and son, with parts of their stories repeating, just sometimes two characters would merge into one. Repetition itself was in some cases an important motif, a character encountering a similiar adventure a few times in a row etc.

Looking forward to it.

Having read The Silmarillion, I'm not holding out much hope for the book, but hope to be proven wrong.
The parts of The Silmarillion that were done by Tolkein I liked, but the bits that weren't done by him....

/shudder.

Oooh, I guess it's time to re-read The Children of Húrin, Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion. :-)

If he have seen the comparison I mean that Arthas more or less is the "Evil Opposite" version of certain Arthurian Elements as I have said:

Arthas becomes the Evil Lich King of the Undead Scourge = Arthur becomes King of England/Camelot.

Arthas gets the evil sword Frostmourne = Arthur wields Excalibur/Caliburn/Sword in the Stone.

Arthas destroys his Kingdom of Lordaeron and murdered his father the King Tereneas Menethil = Arthur saved England/Camelot from the Saxons.

Arthas was taught by the Necromancer turned Lich Kel'thuzad = Arthur was taught by Merlin the Wizard.

Arthas founds an order of Death Knights called the Knights of the Ebon Blade = Arthur forms the Knights of the Round Table.

Arthas does the evil opposite of what Arthur has done.

Do you know a site that outlines where in the book it was written by Tolkien and the other part that wasn't?

I've had The Silmarillion on my Kindle for a while now but I haven't had the right mood yet.