The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Christopher Tolkien

Length: 56 mins

Publisher's summary

First ever audio edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war.

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son was originally published in the 1953 edition of Essays and Studies. In December of that year, J.R.R. Tolkien took possession of a reel-to-reel tape recorder and, some time during the first few months of 1954, decided to record ‘the whole thing on tape’ as a way of ‘testing’ the performative quality of the dramatic dialogue between Tídwald and Torhthelm.

For the older Tídwald, Tolkien adopted a slower, deeper voice, perhaps akin to ‘the voice of Gandalf’ that W.H. Auden recalls hearing as an undergraduate, as noted in Humphrey Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien, A Biography. For the younger, more idealistic Torhthelm, Tolkien used a lighter, more spirited tone to convey his youth. Christopher Tolkien notes that his father added sound effects, such as the ‘creaking and bumping of the waggon wheels, by moving a piece of furniture in his study’.

This recording, together with an introduction and the two accompanying essays read by Christopher Tolkien, was released on cassette tape in 1992, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of J.R.R. Tolkien and the 1001st anniversary of the Battle of Maldon. It was presented as a gift to the participants of the Tolkien Centenary Conference, Keble College, Oxford, and is now available as an audiobook for the first time.

©2023 1953, 1975, 1980, 1992, 2001, 2023 The Tolkien Estate Limited; Introduction © The Estate of C.R. Tolkien 1992, 2023 (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Short sweet and to the point

Fascinating hearing both father and son reading for this book and the fact that Tolkien did his own sound effects was great!

Excellent little one-man play, plus a short essay

This is a presentation of Tolkien's original work "Homecoming of Beorhtnoth", a poem and play in alliterative metre that features Tolkien himself (recording himself on a personal tape-recorder) performing all the parts (and sound effects, as Christopher Tolkien points out in the introduction).

It also features the short essay on the word and theme of "Ofermod" which is linguistic and historical in nature, read by C. Tolkien.

Classic

A beautiful recording of the man himself. Very glad this is here will be back often.

Truly a Treasure

How had I not heard rumors of this recording ages ago? I've grown to love listening to C.R.Tolkien as I've utilized Audiobooks in a recent total reread of J.R.R's work, but now this!!!!
I just powered through while on a family vacation thanks to the brevity of the story. I now look forward to rereading this a couple times in a row to start appreciating the layers as they unfold.

In their own voices

I love this so much. And love how the West family did the same thing in some Tolkien books. What a gift!

Insightful, enlightening and wonderful

As one digs deeper into Tolkien's life and work, new and insightful corners come to light. I think this is the most grizzly of the professor's work. His decision to focus on the two kost critical, and not thr most famous lines of the source poem and his revelations as to why in the essay that accompanies his one-man dramatization of the work speaks volumes. I think this work, more than any others by him, unveils his experiences and thoughts on war, whether he wanted to or not. There's something ver Shakespearean about this, and the comparative analysis between this work and Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are a masterclass in the literature of chivalry in northern Europe and Britain.

always delightful to hear Tolkien's voice

the poem is interesting as a historical artefact, and Christopher's introduction is necessary to fully appreciate it, but if not for JRR Tolkien reading this story I would not have bothered getting it.