Posted by
Hemos
on from the from-way-back-in-the-vaults dept.
AngrySpud writes "For those LotR fans out there, Salon.com has posted an MP3 of J.R.R. Tolkien himself reading from The Two Towers. It can be found here."
These were released -- on this side of the Atlantic, at least -- a few years ago by HarperCollins, who have their own Tolkien imprint. There's a double cassette of the great man, not only reading, but singing all those elven things that I tend to skip over in the book.
If you're interested, wander over to here (which is a frame inside this)
Say to thorin 'carry me'|say to thorin 'go window'|se|e|se|e|get ring|n|d|n|go crack
Incredible scope? Incredible scope?!?! Damn, that's an understatement. It requires five pages of genealogical charts, a pronunciation guide, dozens of pages of glossary, a fold out map, an index, and footnotes every other page just to make heads or tails of it.
For comparison, I've never seen a history textbook with that much scope, nor that much detail.
-- .sig: Now legally binding!
...and in other news.
by
spellcheckur
·
· Score: 5
Next week on the Micro$oft website, William Gates himself reading from the M$ End User License Agreement...
He tried to get it published several times before the
Hobbit was even written, and nearly gave up in frustration. If he had, we never would have had the Hobbit, nor the
LotR.
The really remarkable thing about the Silmarillion, IMO, is that it was apparently never really finished. Tolkein continued to revise and completely rewrite sections well after the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were published. Part of the reason that the Silmarillion is of such uneven tone and polish throughout is that some of the stories hadn't been revised since the 1930's, while others had been rewritten shortly before his death. The Silmarillion as published was really a compilation of stories in different stages of revision, and even from slightly different stages of his conception of the underlying story, edited just enough to ensure coherence, as they existed at the time of Tolkein's death.
This stuff is revealed (in inordinate detail) in the whole History of Middle Earth series, which is basically his son's editing and deciphering of his papers. If you're a hardcore Tolkein fan, or just somebody who's very interested in the creative process, it's fascinating to see how the stories developed over time. What is particularly interesting is the way in which elements that were minor and trivial in the earliest versions gradually became more important, and vice versa. It makes you wonder if such a thing could even be possible today, given the way that people tend to overwrite their old word processing files instead of leaving paper copies of their work at different stages around to be looked over by later scholars.
--
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
OK, I consider myself something of an expert on the LOTR, having read dozens of times, as well as "The Road To Middle Earth", the Silmarillion, and the entire history. Anyway.
The plot is NOT illogical. There is an excellent reason why Frodo is chosen to carry the ring, and not Gandalf, Glorfindel, or one of the other much more powerful characters.
The Ring tends to corrupt anyone who owns it, and is a huge temptation for the powerful. Gandalf was offered the Ring by Frodo and refused it, since he knew it would make him far more powerful, but also that he would not be able to resist the urge to use it... "Do not tempt me!... I shall have such need of it".
Frodo, on the other hand, has far less innate power and thus is not so tempted. Even so, by the time he and Sam get to Mordor Frodo has reached the point where he can barely resist using the ring, and certainly cannot throw it into the Fire on his own willpower.
If you didn't get that fundamental point in the plot, no wonder you didn't enjoy the book.
Didn't you notice the discussion between Gandalf and Denethor about the ring? Denethor, who has great power, makes exactly the same complaint you do."To send this... in the hands of a witless halfling [into Mordor] is foolishness".
But Gandalf replies "Were it buried beneath the roots of [Mount] Mindolluin, still it would burn your mind away.... I do not trust you... Nay, stay your anger! I do not trust myself in this matter".
And that is why Frodo carried the ring. Please, read the book again - or at least the two chapters "The Shadow of the Past" and "The Council of Elrond" from the first book. All of this stuff is very carefully set up by Tolkien so the rest of the book follows logically from these premises.
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
-- Torrey Hoffman (Azog) "HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
"'The Lord of the Rings', on which he'd worked for over 14 years, had been refused by publishers and he had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print."
How close...
IMHO, the world would be a worse place without this book (these books). And I'm sure there are plenty of others out there who will agree with me.
Thanks for this, Hemos. Don't know why I like this, but I really do.
Slashdot Mirror
These were released -- on this side of the Atlantic, at least -- a few years ago by HarperCollins, who have their own Tolkien imprint. There's a double cassette of the great man, not only reading, but singing all those elven things that I tend to skip over in the book.
If you're interested, wander over to here (which is a frame inside this)
Say to thorin 'carry me'|say to thorin 'go window'|se|e|se|e|get ring|n|d|n|go crack
Incredible scope? Incredible scope?!?! Damn, that's an understatement. It requires five pages of genealogical charts, a pronunciation guide, dozens of pages of glossary, a fold out map, an index, and footnotes every other page just to make heads or tails of it.
For comparison, I've never seen a history textbook with that much scope, nor that much detail.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Next week on the Micro$oft website, William Gates himself reading from the M$ End User License Agreement...
Cool, he came out of the grave to help promote the new films. Now that is professionalism
Slashdot: Proof that a million monkeys at a million typewriters can create a masterpiece
MP3 without annoying pop-up
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
The really remarkable thing about the Silmarillion, IMO, is that it was apparently never really finished. Tolkein continued to revise and completely rewrite sections well after the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were published. Part of the reason that the Silmarillion is of such uneven tone and polish throughout is that some of the stories hadn't been revised since the 1930's, while others had been rewritten shortly before his death. The Silmarillion as published was really a compilation of stories in different stages of revision, and even from slightly different stages of his conception of the underlying story, edited just enough to ensure coherence, as they existed at the time of Tolkein's death.
This stuff is revealed (in inordinate detail) in the whole History of Middle Earth series, which is basically his son's editing and deciphering of his papers. If you're a hardcore Tolkein fan, or just somebody who's very interested in the creative process, it's fascinating to see how the stories developed over time. What is particularly interesting is the way in which elements that were minor and trivial in the earliest versions gradually became more important, and vice versa. It makes you wonder if such a thing could even be possible today, given the way that people tend to overwrite their old word processing files instead of leaving paper copies of their work at different stages around to be looked over by later scholars.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
OK, I consider myself something of an expert on the LOTR, having read dozens of times, as well as "The Road To Middle Earth", the Silmarillion, and the entire history. Anyway.
... I shall have such need of it".
... in the hands of a witless halfling [into Mordor] is foolishness".
... I do not trust you ... Nay, stay your anger! I do not trust myself in this matter".
The plot is NOT illogical. There is an excellent reason why Frodo is chosen to carry the ring, and not Gandalf, Glorfindel, or one of the other much more powerful characters.
The Ring tends to corrupt anyone who owns it, and is a huge temptation for the powerful. Gandalf was offered the Ring by Frodo and refused it, since he knew it would make him far more powerful, but also that he would not be able to resist the urge to use it... "Do not tempt me!
Frodo, on the other hand, has far less innate power and thus is not so tempted. Even so, by the time he and Sam get to Mordor Frodo has reached the point where he can barely resist using the ring, and certainly cannot throw it into the Fire on his own willpower.
If you didn't get that fundamental point in the plot, no wonder you didn't enjoy the book.
Didn't you notice the discussion between Gandalf and Denethor about the ring? Denethor, who has great power, makes exactly the same complaint you do. "To send this
But Gandalf replies "Were it buried beneath the roots of [Mount] Mindolluin, still it would burn your mind away.
And that is why Frodo carried the ring. Please, read the book again - or at least the two chapters "The Shadow of the Past" and "The Council of Elrond" from the first book. All of this stuff is very carefully set up by Tolkien so the rest of the book follows logically from these premises.
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
"HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
How close...
IMHO, the world would be a worse place without this book (these books). And I'm sure there are plenty of others out there who will agree with me.
Thanks for this, Hemos. Don't know why I like this, but I really do.
JJ