Early JRR Tolkien work set for release

London, Feb 19 (ANI): An early, unpublished work by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien is set to hit bookshelves this spring.

On Tuesday, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that Tolkien's The Legend of Siguard and Gudrun, featuring notes by the author's youngest son, Christopher Tolkien, will be released in May.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, a reworking in verse of old Norse epics, predates Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, reports the BBC.

The book was written at least 80 years ago.

Tolkien, who published The Hobbit in 1937 and followed with his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, died in 1973.

His books have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun was written in the 1920s and 1930s, when the author was teaching at Oxford University. (ANI)