Tolkien 📔Book Covers

Olorgando · Nov 30, 2022

Here's the front cover of the dust jacket of Brian Sibley's "The Fall of Númenor" that finally arrived today:

Ent · Nov 30, 2022

We wonders, my precious...we wonders. Did the book come too? 😁
(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

Thanks for the pic.

Olorgando · Nov 30, 2022

Ent said:
We wonders, my precious...we wonders. Did the book come too? 😁
(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

Umyes - inside the dust cover ...
🤨

Ent · Nov 30, 2022

Olorgando said:
inside the dust cover

An amusing, though appropriate, place for a book don't you think? 🙂

Deimos · Nov 30, 2022

Ent said:
We wonders, my precious...we wonders. Did the book come too? 😁
(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

Oh, that is bad....very bad...🙄 (people have been shot for lesser offenses, you know....😱)

Erestor Arcamen · Mar 8, 2023

Signed copy of Smith of Wootton Major for sale, just a tiny € 14.000

Smith of Wootton Major 1967 2nd impression signed by Tolkien - clp0872

Smith of Wootton Major signed by J.R.R. Tolkien to nurse Susan Welham-Jones in 1968

tolkienlibrary.com

Andriu · Sep 5, 2023

Erestor Arcamen said:
One thing I haven't seen discussed in a while are the various editions of Tolkien's books and their covers. I know there are countless versions out there but I'd love to see your favorites. I'm in the U.S. so I'm sure some of our international users have their own editions that they find special and that a lot of us may not have seen before. Some of the international versions I have seen are gorgeous! I'd love to see what you've got and I'm sure other members would too.

The first time I read Lord of the Rings, I borrowed the books from the library so these covers are definitely special to me. I love the simplicity of them.

This is the current hardback edition that I own but if I could find the older ones from above, I'd buy them for sure.

I'll dig up my copy of The Hobbit and share it too but I'd love to see covers from your country or that are special to you!

🥮

I'm from Spain, last january I bought a recently published edition of the three LOTR books by 'Minotauro' the publisher for fantasy literature of the spanish publisher group 'Grupo Planeta'. The design is very similar to the 50th aniversary edition you attached, with full cover illustrations and a beautiful reflective golden colour for the titles.

I've tried to upload a picture I took of my books because in the website's images you can't really see the letter's material and appeal, but I keep getting a message saying the file is too large. Does anyone know what the maximum file size is?

This is the link for the publisher's Tolkien collection:
https://www.planetadelibros.com/coleccion-biblioteca-j-r-r-tolkien/0000493000

Erestor Arcamen · Sep 5, 2023

Andrés Gómez Alonso said:
I'm from Spain, last january I bought a recently published edition of the three LOTR books by 'Minotauro' the publisher for fantasy literature of the spanish publisher group 'Grupo Planeta'. The design is very similar to the 50th aniversary edition you attached, with full cover illustrations and a beautiful reflective golden colour for the titles.

I've tried to upload a picture I took of my books because in the website's images you can't really see the letter's material and appeal, but I keep getting a message saying the file is too large. Does anyone know what the maximum file size is?

This is the link for the publisher's Tolkien collection:
https://www.planetadelibros.com/coleccion-biblioteca-j-r-r-tolkien/0000493000

Max file size is 2MB

Andriu · Sep 5, 2023

Erestor Arcamen said:
Max file size is 2MB

Thank you! Here are the images

Andriu · Sep 6, 2023

Turgon said:
what your favourite Tolkien picture is...

Eowyn versus the Nazgul Lord by Frank Frazetta.

Not necessarily my favourite but very interesting.

Frazetta is a lengendary fantasy illustrator. He worked on an animated movie called Fire and Ice with director Ralph Bakshi, who had previously directed the 1978 LOTR animated movie. Both used a technique called 'rotoscoping' wich gave them that iconic movement and look.

He has other LOTR artworks wich you can find here:
https://www.frazettamuseum.com/products/lord-of-the-rings-portfolio

I find interesting the way he draws the hobbits, nowadays they are usually represented with proportions very similar to humans' (although reduced) and I would say they adhere to a minimum of beauty standards (Specially Elijah Wood with his big blue eyes 🤣). But Frazetta represents them as noticeably short armed/legged, with small chins, and really weak-looking and helpless.

Do you think this more accurate to the books??
Personally I find it a bit too exagerated, but I appreciate the 'old-fashioned' representation of ugliness. When nowadays every character, drawn or acted, seems to be requiered to be beautiful.

Mind you I'm far too young to have experienced this age of fantasy productions. This is all 'second hand' knowledge from what my old drawing teacher used to talk about very passionately.

Ent · Sep 6, 2023

Andriu said:
But Frazetta represents them as noticeably short armed/legged, with small chins, and really weak-looking and helpless.

Tolkien says:

They can't be too short armed and legged to be "quick".
And Rosie Cotton is described as being "pretty" and other similar adjectives.

I see little reason to think, the hobbits being of the race of man, they are not indeed very similar to appearance as is 'man' though 'about half his height'.

Porky probably since they eat 92 meals a day or so... and like the drink quite a bit... but the definition above draws a fairly clear picture - for me anyway.

Ent · Sep 6, 2023

As to this guy:

If we look at his probable arm length and leg length, given where his belt is, in 'proportion' he's not really all that short-armed or short-legged. His foot MAY be just a bit too big, with not quite enough 'fur', and given the angle it's hard to see his other leg at all but the pic seems to be "imbalanced"... a feeling of the other leg, wherever it is, being 'shorter' than the one whose foot we see...

but overall, i don't see it as 'too bad'.'
My biggest problem is the 'pointed ears'. I'll need to research that. Hobbits are of the race of man, not elves. I note several artists giving them pointed ears. I need to resolve that from source texts so I can determine where I stand on it.
Right now I don't see hobbits having pointed ears.

Tar-Elenion · Sep 6, 2023

Letter 27, Tolkien saying how depict Hobbits:
"I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur."

Letter 319, Tolkien submits a definition of Hobbit for an OED supplement:
"In the meanwhile I submit for your consideration the following definition:
One of an imaginary people, a small variety of the human race, that gave themselves this name (meaning 'hole-dweller') but were called by others halflings, since they were half the height of normal Men."

CirdanLinweilin · Sep 7, 2023

Tar-Elenion said:
Letter 27, Tolkien saying how depict Hobbits:
"I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur."

Letter 319, Tolkien submits a definition of Hobbit for an OED supplement:
"In the meanwhile I submit for your consideration the following definition:
One of an imaginary people, a small variety of the human race, that gave themselves this name (meaning 'hole-dweller') but were called by others halflings, since they were half the height of normal Men."

I was waiting for someone to mention letter 27. I distinctly remembered Tolkien mentioning. a pointed ears, if only slightly.

CL

Ent · Sep 7, 2023

Tar-Elenion said:
ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish';

I wonder why. Do I recall too, in the published text somewhere, a comment about at least someone among the hobbits possibly having 'some Elf' in their background/heritage? Yet this would not spread to all hobbits, if it was a limited encounter.

Really doesn't matter though. Tolkien as sub-creator sees them as having slightly pointy ears, even though 'of the race of man', so...there we have it.
Slightly pointed ears they have..!

Olorgando · Sep 7, 2023

Huorn said:
Do I recall too, in the published text somewhere, a comment about at least someone among the hobbits possibly having 'some Elf' in their background/heritage?

"An Unexpected Party", third page of the chapter:

"It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. This was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."

Ent · Sep 7, 2023

"The Circle is now complete. When I woke up, Hobbits had regular* ears, now they are slightly pointed". (Darth Vader Revised.)

*Regular: definition - unpointed.
Of course to the Hobbits:
*Regular: definition - pointed.

Hum. "Regular" is situational.

Ugluk · Dec 2, 2024

Walked into a bookstore, and what did I see?

Squint-eyed Southerner · Dec 2, 2024

@Ugluk, what language is that?

Ugluk · Dec 3, 2024

Tolkien 📔Book Covers

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