First edition, first printing. xxii, 106pp, with colour plate frontispiece and five further plate illustrations. Blue cloth-covered boards with gilt lettering on the spine. Tan endpapers. 8vo. Volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout. The original, illustrated, dust wrapper has some very gentle shelf wear and a tiny white spot on the front panel.
Aotrou and Itroun is a J R R Tolkien poem modelled on the Breton Lay genre popular in Middle English literature of the 12th century. It explores chivalric values and its tensions with Christianity particularly regarding the institution of marriage. Tolkien's poem was first published in The Welsh Review at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Having been largely unavailable for decades it was first published in book form by HarperCollins in 2016.
