Unavailable for more than 70 years this early but important work is published for the first time with Tolkien's Corrigan' poems & other supporting material including a prefatory note by Christopher Tolkien Set In Britain's land beyond the seas' during the Age of Chivalry The Lay of Aotrou & Itroun tells of a childless Breton Lord & Lady (the Aotrou' & Itroun' of the title) & the tragedy that befalls them when Aotrou seeks to remedy their situation with the aid of a magic potion obtained from a corrigan or malevolent fairy When the potion succeeds & Itroun bears twins the corrigan returns seeking her fee & Aotrou is forced to choose between betraying his marriage & losing his life Coming from the darker side of JRR Tolkien's imagination The Lay of Aotrou & Itroun together with the two shorter Corrigan' poems that lead up to it & which are also included was the outcome of a comparatively short but intense period in Tolkien's life when he was deeply engaged with Celtic & particularly Breton myth & legend Originally written in 1930 & long out of print this early but seminal work is an important addition to the non-Middle-earth portion of his canon & should be set alongside Tolkien's other retellings of myth & legend The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrun The Fall of Arthur & The Story of Kullervo Like these works it belongs to a small but important corpus of his ventures into real-world' mythologies each of which in its own way would be a formative influence on his own legendarium