The Lay of Leithian - Writing

Writing

Tolkien worked on The Lay of Leithian from the summer of 1925 until September 1931, when he abandoned it with only thirteen of the seventeen planned cantos completed. During the composition he made many amendments of the already existing parts of the poem, partially based on the criticism of his friend C. S. Lewis who had read the poem in 1929. In the 1950s, after the publishing of The Lord of the Rings, he resumed working on the poem, of which he rewrote many passages, particularly of the second canto which was expanded and split into two. Nevertheless the poem never reached a complete or definite form.

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