The Lord Of The Minnows

If only they'd thought of this two years ago, when the whole world was awash in The Lord of the Rings.

In the hopes that a past fad hasn't died completely, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is holding to their decision to not take on new manuscripts in the adult trade division. Instead, they're going with an old one.

Back when J.R.R. Tolkien was a young man teaching at Oxford, before he put together his impressive saga of Middle Earth and all things Hobbit, he wrote The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. He based his tale on the old Norse myths, those tales of long ago that we all despised when studying mythology at university. Apparently, Mr. Tolkien found something lacking as well, and reworked them into a novel that he never published.

He's been long dead, of course, and his fantasy fiction that did make it into print continues to sell well. Still, after the films came out, the trend ran its course, but could there be some flicker of interest in Tolkien yet?

HMH is banking on it. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is due to be laid down in May, and if all goes well, sales will be brisk and HMH's parent company can pay off some debt and convince Moody's that it isn't on the brink of default.

Better to gamble with a known commodity than take a chance on a new author. Now, if only one of the networks could be convinced to run the three "Ring" movies right before the new novel is released, and if the BBC and RTE would join in the promotion...