The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Christopher Tolkien

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!

Awesome (but im biased)

Anything tolkien i will like, but this is an excellent peek into old english culture and a very cool original recording by JRRT himsef

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.