HarperCollins is to publish a new book by J. R. R. Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, edited and introduced by Tolkien’s son Christopher, will be published in hardback in May 2009.

The previously unpublished work was written while Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University during the 1920s and '30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The publication will make available for the first time Tolkien’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs.

Further details about the contents of the book will be revealed closer to publication.

In Norse mytholgy, the warrior Sigurd is the mythical son of Sigmund and Hjordis, as depicted in the Volsung Saga. The Sigurd myth has influenced numerous modern stories. Richard Wagner's opera Siegfried is a retelling of the Sigurd myth. Tolkien used certain elements in his books, such as the sword reforged and the cursed ring, there are also numerous elements in The Children of Hurin.