Fiction literature

Now for the first time we present Tolkien's dramatic version of the great Northern legend to Ukrainian readers. He composed two related poems basing on his close study of the ancient poetical traditions of Iceland and Norway and preserving exacting verse-forms, which helped him to render the concentrated energy of the poems of Edda. In the Lay of the Volsungs is told the ancestry of a mighty Sigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir the Dragon whose treasure he took for his own; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild; of his coming to the court of the great princes the Niflungs (or Nibelungs); and of the a great love but also of a great hate, that sprang to life because of the skillful enchantress, mother of the Niflungs, and caused the bitter strife and the tragic end of Sigurd and Brynhild, of Gunnar the Niflung and his sister Gudrún. In the Lay of Gudrun is told of her fate after the death of Sigurd, of her marriage to the mighty Atli, the ruler of Huns (the Attila of history), and of brothers the Niflungs' murder by his order and their sister's terrible revenge. The poems is supplied with the detailed commentaries made by the editor and aimed to familiarize the readers with the distinctive features of Eddaic poetry and the real historical background of the legend.

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All works of Khrystyna Lukashchuk is saturated with sensuality. A Fresco is a story lined up by sensuality: its main intrigue, its events are unconsciously determined by the splashings of feelings. The book begins with a woman dreamed by a main character – a woman he instinctively and almost automatically falls in love with – and ends with cobwebs of inexpressive feelings of the main character, his beloved and his close friend. Conventional ellipsis in the end of the story is aimed to emphasize the gallantry.

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This is a definitive collection of J. R. R. Tolkien’s famous shorter works. The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and hallmarks that made Tolkien’s Hobbit a beloved classic. They create such a wonderful world that leaving it is next to impossible. Roverandom is about a toy dog who becomes enchanted by a sand sorcerer and travelling to the Moon and into the deep sea encounters strange and fabulous creatures; Farmer Giles of Ham is fat and unheroic, but — having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant — is called upon to do battle when the dragon Chrysophylax comes to town; The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells about Tom’s many fantastic ad­ventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls; Smith of Wootton Major is lucky enough to swallow a magic star which becomes his pass to the Land of Faery; Leaf by Niggle recounts strange adventures of a painter Niggle who sets out to paint the perfect tree. These works are supplemented with the essay On Fairy-stories, which offers theoretical principles of Tolkien’s creative work, with the throughout illustrations and afterword by Alan Lee, and with the intro­duction by the Tolkien scholar and writer Tom Shippey. The collection may be considered an outstanding event for all admirers of true art.

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An author of this book is a well-known Ukrainian archeologist, public figure and writer. In a whole-hearted and interesting manner she tells about the pets she had and the way their presence has influenced her life. Curious interlacements of sad and comical circumstances, of wisdom and lightness will attract both young and mature readers. They will for certain remind them of the most important human values such as love, honesty, devotion, and patriotism.

The book is embellished by the author’s illustrations.

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«From the Head» is an autobiographic book by world-famous dramatist and prose writer Janusz Głowacki. It is a collection of longer and shorter essays in which the author in an ironic way tells about stages of his creative coming-to-be and social atmosphere of Poland since fin de siècle till now. Some Polish critics consider the book to be a literary autobiography, others treat it as a collection of stories connected by a common character. The book, in any case, has already won popularity among Polish readers and abroad, and it would certainly be interesting for Ukrainian readers as well. Dynamic manner of narration, neat metaphors, expressive descriptions and characteristics, wide geography – from Warsaw and Paris to New York and Taipei – all these and some other attractions of the text will make this book a thrilling and didactive reader for the most demanding literary gourmand.

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This book – the legendary herald of The Lord of the Rings – proposes an integral mythological history of the skilfully fantasised, but still so real world of Middle-Earth. Harmonious and connected codex that tells the story about the epic struggle between the good and the evil includes the following separate works: Ainulindalë is the myth about the Creation of the world, the appearance of the Evil and the causes of the Fall; Valaquenta is the overview of the hierarchy of the divine powers, depiction of their character and their role in the Creation; Quenta Silmarillion is the story of the revolt of Fëanor and his kin against the gods, expatriation of the rebels from Valinor and their return to Middle-Earth, as well it is the story of the hopeless – nevertheless the sacrificial courage – war with the great Enemy for the Silmarils (the perfect jewellery created by Fëanor and stolen by Morgoth); Akallabêth tells the story of the fall of the great island kingdom Númenor in the end of the Second Age while the tale Of The Rings of Power gives a short revision of the noble events of the Third Age, first of all the course of the War of the One Ring.

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The book that has been published recently by the author’s son – Christopher Tolkien – is describing the tragic fate of Turin and Nienor. The dreadful perdition of Morgoth is on them – the terrible revenge to their father for his non-desire to obey the Dark Lord. The sad outcome is inevitable even though the elves are sympathising, the courage is present, and the dragon Glaurung is defeated. Nevertheless, even hopeless struggle has a sense as a promise of victories in the future fights with the evil that J.R.R. Tolkien described in other works – The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

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The Lord of the Rings could not be described in few words. The sublime work by J.R.R. Tolkien has in itself something from the heroic romantics and classic science fiction. Though, it is difficult to explain to the contemporary reader all the peculiarities of the book, the whole spectrum of its meanings. Either comic and homy, or epic and sometimes even fearsome, the story passes through endless changes of sceneries and characters in the fantastic world each element of which looks entirely realistic. Tolkien has created a new mythology of the imaginary world – the world with its own time and space.

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The author dedicates his novel to all participants of national liberation movement, to those who having weapons in their arms and eternal historic memory, true filial love, and adamantine willpower in their hearts brought our country near to its independent, fight for that holy and pious achievement during World War II. He dedicates it precisely to all despite of any possible differences in standpoints concerning this or that personality and despite any preferences to either of the sides in bloody fronts.

Surely, the novel is a creative work of the author, but at the same time he gives to his contemporaries some very expressive documental facts concerning a controversial historical heritage and his personal view on realities of that time.

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