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I just "stumbled" on this tread - very nice contributions by all of you (particularly you, Alice) and an excellent idea from Erestor Arcamen to start this! :)

I'll add my 5 cents here if I may.

Herewith the Dutch LotR paperback edition (easily 50+ years old) that introduced me for the first time to Tolkien's writings.

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Folio Society, if I'm not mistaken.


Edit: I am.
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That looks like a Folio limited edition which came out as I recall after I'd bought their standard edition. I was tempted but decided I quite liked what I had already as it used the same artwork and you were paying for the nice goatskin binding (what about the goat(s)!)
 
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I just "stumbled" on this tread - very nice contributions by all of you (particularly you, Alice) and an excellent idea from Erestor Arcamen to start this! :)
I'll add my 5 cents here if I may.
Herewith the Dutch LotR paperback edition (easily 50+ years old) that introduced me for the first time to Tolkien's writings.
Overall title "IN DE BAN VAN DE RING", very interesting.
That would seem to translate into German as "Im Banne des Ringers", more literally (but not quite proper German) "In dem Bann(e) von dem Ring". (The German overall title ist "Der Herr der Ringe", so literally LoTR.)
If I've translated correctly, the Dutch title would be "Under the Spell of The Ring"?
 
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Under the Spell of The Ring

Yes, that is correct, Olorgando.

Its name has always been this way in Dutch/Flemish - don't ask me why.

Paraphrasing this title, in the Flemish press I could read, at the occasion of the announcement of Christopher's death, that a.o. he had always lived "under the spell of his father" ("In de Ban van zijn Vader") ... !
 
That looks like a Folio limited edition which came out as I recall after I'd bought their standard edition. I was tempted but decided I quite liked what I had already as it used the same artwork and you were paying for the nice goatskin binding (what about the goat(s)!)
You are correct, it's the limited edition. I didn't buy either, though I did get a copy of Hobbit. The problem for me was they didn't use the corrected edition (not that I agree with everything done there, either).
 
Its name has always been this way in Dutch/Flemish - don't ask me why.
If I remember my biographical books correctly, the Dutch/Flemish and the Swedish translations were the very first. And two that raised JRRT's hackles the most, too. Bits about "naturalizing" these supremely English books to The Netherland and Sweden, to which JRRT took quite strenuous objection. It was what caused him to create his "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" in 1967, one of the beneficiaries of which was the first (of two, the latter translation being from the 1990s with issues of its own) German translators, Margaret Carroux and Ebba-Margareta von Freymann (poems). Case in point, the Elves are called "Elben" in German, much closer to the term "Alb" found in many Germanic languages and very much meaning the Nordic concept of Elves. What raises my hackles is when the private TV channel that has the TV rights for Germany refers to Arwen as "Feenkönigin"! First, she is not a queen of the Elves, and that blasted term "Fee" is derived from French and very much in deepest Tinkerbell (or Shakespeare) territory!!!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
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I'll give my three JRRT bookshelves a try (I wonder when I start getting flamed by mazzly). This excludes the three German LoTR volumes, just couldn't fit them in here.

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Did this with my ancient digital camera - remember those strange thingies? did nothing but take pictures? ;)
 
Ol' geezer sends one Hobbit to have conversations with a huge dragon, the other to mess around the inside of a volcano ...
Put it that way, no wonder people thought him a "disturber" and quite cracked. Can I say, "Delegation for Hobbits Endangered by Wizards, in Law." Hey, Ellessar, get on that.

XD

CL
 
Put it that way, no wonder people thought him a "disturber" and quite cracked. Can I say, "Delegation for Hobbits Endangered by Wizards, in Law." Hey, Ellessar, get on that.
XD
CL
Gave it some more thought.
Now for TH, it's Gandalf's fault entirely. Even harangues those sensible Dwarves to do something they clearly see as daft.

But in LoTR? Not Gandalf's fault alone.

Item: at the Council of Elrond, there are plenty of other people who should be sensible, besides the council chairman, Glorfindel, Aragorn ...
What do they do? Add three more Hobbits to the Fellowship. Though then again, Elrond had doubts about Merry and especially Pippin, so it's mostly Gandalf's fault again. Nine Nazgûl, pitted against them one who can deal with some of them, two doubtfuls in Aragorn and Legolas, one highly unlikely in Gimli - and to fill up to nine, four Hobbits?!?

Item: the eight remaining of the Fellowship show up in Lórien, having just lost their by far most powerful member. So what to Galadriel and Celeborn do? Give them some marginally useful stuff (ok, the margins often just making a difference) … and send them onwards again!

Item: Faramir finds two Hobbits, who want to continue on their quest accompanied by a murderous cannibal degenerate near-wraith of their kind … and he sends them onwards, too.

Plenty of people with some serious optimism overload! 🧐😉
 
Now I'm sorry I brought it up. :rolleyes:

Back to books. Since we're now putting our collections on display, here's mine:
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Some duplicates, especially with the paperbacks -- I can't resist a nice pristine old copy, when I see one.

Though I haven't been able to assemble a set of first-printing Ballantines yet.
 
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Now I'm sorry I brought it up. :rolleyes:
I was satirizing the "sensible" view at that point in time in M-e, 3018/19 TA.
Isildur muffed the ultimate sensible thig to do 3019 years earlier.
There were plenty of times in the intervening ,millennia when being sensible in certain situations would have been a better idea.
Like King Eärnur of Gondor not accepting that second challenge by the Witch-King and riding to Minas Morgul. Plenty of others.
By 3018/19 being sensible was hopeless. That was one of the very rare occasions in any kind of History for desparate measures.
But one point JRRT drove home relentlessly (if not quite openly as a narrator) was that giving up was not an option.
Pointed out by most if not all authors who wrote about his works.

Of which authors it seems you (and possibly Alice) also have collected several volumes.
I mean, non-JRRT-nerds, looking at Alice's JRRT library, then mine, then yours (and probably that of quite a few other members here) ...
How sensible do we probably seem to these people, who would probably consider themselves sensible?

To which I would simply answer 😛😛😛😛😛

P.S. to mazzly: I think we could also use a nose-thumbing thingy in the smilies collection ....
 
I bought my first edition The Lord of the Rings in Winchester, years ago (okay, technically my wife bought it for me) -- with the Tolkien covers from EA's library (above). My favorite one volume edition (purchased last century by me) is this red gem!

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I gave a copy of that one to my g/f in 1972.
Funnily enough, when the movies came out I was complaining about The Fellowship of The Ring on (I assume) another forum and I got an email from her saying she knew it was me when she read it, even though we hadn't talked since 1973.

Well, I think you will never guess which Tolkien book it is. It is Soviet edition and this dragon is amazing. One of my favourites
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LOL, I love that!
I want one!!
Not that I can read Russian :(

Well, maybe I should upload all of my Tolkien collection as it's quite big.
The higher shelf is in Russian, the lower is in English (mostly)
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And below is photo of myself with my first LOTR edition (it is so dear to me)
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Very nice!
I'll post a photo of my first LoTR (without me in it of course. Unlike yours, I'd detract from it.

And nadmozg version too

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Hmm, I have that artwork, i can't remember if it's a book cover, in a book or a poster.

Maybe you didn't know that, but Elrond actually was a girl. In opinion of the illustrator, of course

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LOL And Gandalf apparently escaped from Disney World.
 

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