The Great Tales were among the most important tales of the First Age of Arda.
All of them are covered within The History of Middle-earth, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, but recently, lone publications of some of them have been made: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin.
Publications and chapters[]
- The Children of Húrin (2007)
- Beren and Lúthien (2017)
- The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
- The Tale of Eärendel (a chapter is included with The Fall of Gondolin publication, and The Book of Lost Tales Part Two.)
Background[]
The Fall of Gondolin, "...together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, he regarded it as one of the three ‘Great Tales’ of the Elder Days."[1]
Tolkien also referred to the 'four great tales' as the Great Saga or The Lays of the Children of Atani.[2]
He originally envisioned writing several stories from the entire Quenta Silmarillion as full, standalone stories.
- "I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched."[3][4]
Christopher Tolkien states in the forward to The Children of Húrin:
- It is seen from this reminiscence that from far back it was a part of his conception of what came to be called The Silmarillion that some of the ‘Tales’ should be told in much fuller form; and indeed in that same letter of 1951 he referred expressly to the three stories which I have mentioned above as being much the longest in The Book of Lost Tales. Here he called the tale of Beren and Lúthien ‘the chief of the stories of The Silmarillion’, and of it he said: ‘the story is (I think a beautiful and powerful) heroic-fairy-romance, receivable in itself with only a very general vague knowledge of the background. But it is also a fundamental link in the cycle, deprived of its full significance out of its place therein.’ ‘There are other stories almost equally full in treatment,’ he went on, ‘and equally independent, and yet linked to the general history’: these are The Children of Húrin and The Fall of Gondolin.
- It thus seems unquestionable, from my father’s own words, that if he could achieve final and finished narratives on the scale he desired, he saw the three ‘Great Tales’ of the Elder Days (Beren and Lúthien, the Children of Húrin, and the Fall of Gondolin) as works sufficiently complete in themselves as not to demand knowledge of the great body of legend known as The Silmarillion.[5]
Christopher also stated in the The War of the Jewels:
- The completion of the Quenta Silmarillion remained an aim; but the 'great tales', vastly developed from their original forms, from which its later chapters should be derived were never achieved.
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Groot Verhale |
| Albanian | Tregime e madhe |
| Arabic | حكايات العظمى |
| Armenian | Մեծ պատմություններ |
| Assamese | গ্ৰেট টেলছ |
| Azerbaijani | Böyük Nağıllar |
| Basque | Ipuinak Handia |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Вялікія казкі |
| Bengali | বৃহৎ গল্প |
| Bosnian | Velika Bajke |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Велики приказки |
| Catalan | Gran Contes |
| Chinese | 大故事 |
| Corsican | Grandi Storii |
| Croatian | Sjajne priče |
| Czech | Velké příběhy |
| Danish | Storhistorier |
| Dutch | Groot Vertellingen |
| Esperanto | Grandaj Rakontoj |
| Estonian | Suur lugusid |
| Finnish | Suuria-Tarinoita |
| French | Grande Contes |
| Frisian | Grutte Ferhalen (Western) |
| Galician | Gran Contos |
| Georgian | დიდი მოთხრობები |
| German | Großgeschichten |
| Greek | Μεγάλες Ιστορίες |
| Gujarati | મહાન વાર્તાઓ |
| Hebrew | סיפורים הגדולות |
| Hindi | विशाल कहानियाँ |
| Hungarian | Nagy-mesék |
| Icelandic | Stóra-Sögur |
| Indonesian | Cerita-cerita Besar |
| Irish Gaelic | Scéalta Mhór |
| Italian | Grandi Racconti |
| Japanese | グレートテイルズ |
| Kannada | ಮಹಾ ಕಥೆಗಳು |
| Kazakh | Ұлы әңгімелер (Cyrillic) Ulı äñgimeler (Latin) |
| Konkani | ग्रेट टेल्स |
| Korean | 그레이트브 테일즈 |
| Kurdish | چیرۆکە گەورەکان (Sorani) Çîrokên Mezin (Kurmanji) |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Улуу жомоктору ບົດເລື່ອງ |
| Latin | Magnam Historiarum |
| Latvian | Liel pasakas |
| Lithuanian | Puikus istorijas |
| Luxembourgish | Grouss Geschichten |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Големи приказни |
| Malayalam | മഹത്തായ കഥകൾ |
| Malaysian | Cerita-cerita Besar |
| Marathi | ग्रेट टेल्स |
| Meiteilon | ꯑꯆꯧꯕꯥ ꯋꯥꯔꯤꯁꯤꯡ꯫ |
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Их түүхүүд |
| Nepalese | महान कथाहरू |
| Norwegian | Storfortellinger |
| Pashto | عالي کیسې |
| Persian | داستان ها کبیر |
| Polish | Wielka opowieści |
| Portuguese | Grã Contos |
| Russian | Великие Россказни |
| Serbian | Велике приче (Cyrillic) Velike priče (Latin) |
| Sindhi | عظيم ڪهاڻيون |
| Sinhalese | මහා කතාවක් |
| Slovak | Veľký príbehy |
| Slovenian | Velike zgodbe |
| Spanish | Gran Cuentos |
| Swedish | Storsagor |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Ҳикояҳо Кабир |
| Tamil | கிரேட் கதைகள் |
| Telugu | మహా కథలు |
| Thai | นิทานที่ยอดเยี่ยม |
| Turkish | Büyük Öyküler |
| Turkmen | Ajaýyp ertekiler |
| Urdu | عظیم کہانیاں |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Великі казки |
| Vietnamese | Đại Những câu chuyện |
| Welsh | Chwedlau Fawr |
| Yiddish | גרויסמעשיות |
References[]
- ↑ The Fall of Gondolin, Press Release
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XII The Peoples of Middle-earth: "As is seen in The Silmarillion. This is not an Eldarin title or work. It is a compilation, probably made in Númenor, which includes (in prose) the four great tales or lays of the heroes of the Atani, of which The Children of Hurin was probably composed already in Beleriand in the First Age, but necessarily is preceded by an account of Fëanor and his making of the Silmarils. All how ever are 'Mannish' works."
- ↑ The Silmarillion
- ↑ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 131
- ↑ Tolkien, J. R. R. The Children of Húrin (pp. 11-12). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.