(Part 3) Top products from r/tolkienfans

The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond is essential to all things Tolkien.

I compiled a list with links to Free and Open Access Journals which will offer a large amount of detail not only about Tolkien but the Inklings and extended subjects.

And I recently posted a selection of unpublished letters which offer some intriguing letters that were left out of the published 'Letters of'.

The only official biography is Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien but there are other works which I and others regard as essential. John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War is excellent. Tom Shippey's Road to Middle-earth is also worth a read. The Inklings again by Humphrey carpenter offers some valuable insights to how the Inklings interacted and includes a large amount of biographical information.

Like the 'free and open access' post I intend to compile a list of blogs in the near future so I will keep your thread in mind and post back here when I do.

This is probably the closest you'll get to original covers in a box set. They're stylized black-themed versions of Tolkien's personal artistry (compare this with this). I have them, they're quite nice. They're matte, not glossy, so they have a nice texture; and the binding is good so the spine doesn't crack if you set it down while open.

Unfortunately if I'm correct I believe your Sil/UT/CoH box set is Harpercollins, so you're probably in Europe or Canada. The ones I posted are published by Mariner, a division of Houghton Mifflin, for sale in the US. This looks like a somewhat comparable Harpercollins edition but I can't vouch for their quality and the covers don't appear to be accurate.

Digging a bit deeper into the Harpercollins library, here's a UK (IDK if you're in the UK but it's probably avaliable in other non-US distribution areas) Hobbit edition that looks just like the original. Here's a LOTR one-volume edition with a cover based on Tolkien's original design for Fellowship of the Ring. This looks like a pretty accurate LOTR+Hobbit paperback set, but it appears to not be in print anymore so you have to buy used or pay through the nose to get it.

Album of all the original covers for reference if you care

I had the same issue in january, I wanted to buy a "complete" collection of Tolkiens books but box sets mostly dont contain everything I wanted and the nice ones are really expensive...<br /> <br /> I decided to buy the Harper Collins Anniversary editions (as mentioned in your other post) because they had every book I wanted in a similar size and spine layout. Its not the cheapest way to get all of them but the most satisfying for me... Also by far not the most expensive editions.

The books I got:

Fellowship of the Ring

Two Towers

Return of the King

Hobbit

History of the Hobbit: Mr. Baggins

History of the Hobbit: Return to Bag End

Simarillion

Unfinished Tales

This is a picture of them I found online, missing the second History of the Hobbit book and an one extra, but you get the idea of how they look: Link

I hope this is some help or at least a bit interesting

A few thoughts:

At one point Lewis and Tolkien were going to write companion novels about space and time. You can see echoes of this in the last chapter of Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in CSL's Space Trilogy when he mentions that space has been cut off from human travel and now any future voyages would be through time. There's also echoes of what might have been in JRRT's Notion Club Papers, which has a time-travel element, but was never published.

In addition, JRRT did not care for the Narnia series because he felt it lacked a coherent theme. However, in the controversial Planet Narnia, Michael Ward posits that CSL actually did have a theme: the medieval view of the planets (The Seven Heavens). There are definitely intriguing arguments made in the book, especially as he combines information from Narnia and the Space Trilogy into his thesis. I wouldn't say it's iron-clad, but if I was still in education, or had the luxury to write papers, this is an area I'd love to explore in depth - specifically the influence of Charles Williams on the evolution of CSL's thought.

If you're interested in aspects of their backgrounds that influenced their worldviews, I would recommend The Discarded Image from CSL (on medieval literature - my favorite CSL book) and The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey (on the philological undergirding of Middle-Earth). The Humprey Carpenter books are also good (JRRT Letters, Tolkien bio, Inklings bio) as are CSL's letters.

There's a way, sort of, J.R.R.Tolkien has left all his linguistic writings on the Elvish Languages in 7 big boxes, (thousands of pages per box) and Christopher Tolkien has later referred to them naming as Quenya A, B, up to Quenya G, for they can be specifically identified. Yes, not a couple of boxes, but even 7, my mellyn (PE: 22, p. 141).

Be aware, though, that if you do not have a particular background, these pages will be likely not understandable, sadly...

Regarding what you can hear/read online:

In real life it is simple. If you do not follow the rules of English grammar you are not writing or speaking in English. If you don't follow Tolkien's rules you are not writing his elf! Anyone who visits the websites dedicated to Elvish languages (Eldalie, Quenya.101, Ardalambion, etc.) or reads the books dedicated to them (those of David Salo, Ruth S. Noel, Pesch, Comastri, etc.) trying to learn Quenya or Sindarin, will be baffled by the array of many different and conflicting grammar rules. These sites and books never agree with each other. Why?

Because every author has invented his own rules.

We read from many writers (Drout, Pesch) and on the net that there are many “neo-elvish” languages: the neo-quenya and neo-sindarin. But it is not correct, neo-elvish languages do not exist or rather are not languages. Writing: Something wure mi expectatione [sic] does not mean that whoever wrote it is the creator of a neo-english language, the same with: Alaghioru saranno alboro dormirenene [sic] won’t make you the creator of a new neo-italian language. To create a neo-language one must first of all be a linguist, know the rules of a Tolkien elven language well and from there build a new elven language. What a job! Those who build what they call neo-Sindarin and neo-quenya only rarely mention Tolkien's grammars and almost never explain what they do (for example, I change this thing written by Tolkien, because I invented a certain new rule). What they build are not languages. They distort the little of what they understand about Tolkien's logopoeia at will.

Corey Olsen has a good book called Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, which follows the story and analyzes Bilbo's growth as a hero. Definitely worth looking at. Professor Olsen also has a lot of podcasts and other resources on Tolkien as well on his website.

I agree that the most entertaining way is to read them in the order they were published: The Hobbit, then Lord of the Rings (technically not a trilogy by the way), then The Silmarillion. The basis of The Silmarillion is it is the story of the creation of the world and the events of the First Age (The Hobbit and LotR take place in the Third Age). Be warned, it can be a difficult read.

Also there is a lot "pertaining to the LotR universe" more than just those 3 works. I have two selves of books by Tolkien or about him/his work.

Also if you are just reading for the first time hardcovers can be expensive. A good paperback set might not be a bad idea.

If your library has Exploring The Hobbit you might want to check out some of the commentary about Bilbo. Interesting, and also a good read.

...and it's available for pre-order on Amazon UK, at least. Thank you for reminding me of that! It will have a bunch of otherwise very hard-to-find poems that were early versions of much of the work in the book as well as, apparently, an unfinished prose story about Tom.

I have these illustrated (by Alan Lee), and love them:

The Hobbit

http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Illustrated-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0395873460/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1325269700&sr=8-3

LotR

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0618260587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325269823&sr=1-1

The Silmarillion is not an easy read. It took me many read throughs before things sank in.

Then my mother gave me this https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553456067/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_lXJ.ybC4TXZR4

I found that listening to the book helped a great deal and I picked up on stuff not even 20 years of re-reading did. It might be worth it for you to look into acquiring the audiobook or see if your library carries it.

Your main confusion is about how I use symbolism in the Biblical context. I will try to elaborate.

Think of the concept of a triangle. Add no material or image to it. Just let it be a concept in your consciousness. Now, let us manifest it in reality in two examples. To do this, lets take three wooden sticks and place them in the shape of a triangle. After that, second example, let us take three ropes and place them in the shape of a traingle again.

Now he wooden sticks and the ropes are not the same material. But, if we examine them, we find that they both point towards the concept of a triangle.

In the same way, exiles and dreams are like those wooden sticks and those ropes. They are not the same thing literally, yet they point towards the same concept.

This book makes it more clear if you want: https://www.amazon.com/Language-Creation-Cosmic-Symbolism-Genesis-ebook/dp/B07D738HD8

If you have not already done so, I would strongly urge you to read A Secret Vice, the book not just the essay. The book was published only a few years ago, I think. It serves as an insight into Professor Tolkien’s views on languages, both real and invented.

I would also recommend reading the Professor’s essay English and Welsh, published in the book The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays.

Another recommendation is David Salo’s A Gateway to Sindarin, though it is primarily a grammar of his Neo-Sindarin for the LOTR movies, he does explore Tolkien’s methods for inventing languages and his inspirations.

I would recommend reading the book, it’s dope! here you can buy it on amazon I think. if I did it right

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0553456067/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498623817&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=silmarillion+audio+book&dpPl=1&dpID=51Dyjv4QAqL&ref=plSrch

Here's the Amazon store options. Martin Shaw's version is the one that I have. Can't reccommend it highly enough. Its available here on CD or to download via Audible.

https://mobile.audible.co.uk/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/The-Silmarillion-Audiobook/B016N9VAG4?source_code=M2M30DFT1BkSH121515013C

I never would have thought they were rare. I read them and re-read them many times and ended up buying The Red Book years ago as I wanted a hardcover version:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lord-Rings-Collectors-Edition/dp/0395193958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335138168&sr=8-1

I know I didn't pay that much for that book then either.

Your map is a combo of two maps .. one of which appears in the back of This Edition of LotR:
3rd age map

There are some box sets available, such as this one - https://www.amazon.ca/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Boxed-Set/dp/0261103563?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duc12-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0261103563 I've never heard of a single edition of all four books. You can also get LOTR as a single book instead of three separate ones.

Since I own the LotR, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion in that edition: Those aren't one set. The LotR is a box set (see examors's link), The Silmarillion and The Hobbit you have to buy separately:

The Silmarillion

The Hobbit should be this. (At least it's the same ISBN my exemplar of that edition has. And Amazon's description says: "with a striking new black cover".)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Children-H%C3%BArin-Paperback-Box/dp/0007309376/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

I think you mean these:

• The Lord of the Rings
  
• The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Húrin - Even though the title says 'The Children of Húrin', the picture shows all three books so I am guessing that the product includes all 3.

It's from this version, which it states has the greater index, but you could just as easily call me a liar. ;P