Tolkien 📔Book Covers

[Radaghast]

Boromir looks rather short and slim there on the FotR cover. He's supposed to be a big, burly dude. The hobbits look kind of goofy too. The thing that impresses me most about the art is the backgrounds.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Yes, those are nice enough.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

More Juniper Books editions:

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

That black set is super slick looking 😍

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Yeah.
You can buy the dust jackets separately, to wrap your HM editions:

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Book Set | Jackets Only

Elevate your Tolkien collection with custom jackets for The Lord of the Rings set. These jackets are perfect for any hardcore fans and collectors.

www.juniperbooks.com

Kind of a lot for three sheets of paper, IMO.

 

[Radaghast]

I prefer the single-volume edition. I have the 50th version of the book which I'm not sure is in print anymore. Wish I'd have taken better care of my copy :/ Not that I trashed it or anything. Also wish I could find a better picture.

 

[Elthir]

Already bought the first two examples here.

Plus, the artist Arthur Rackham with cats!

🐾

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Thought these look really cool

"Take a look at Tove Jansson’s illustrations for a Swedish edition of The Hobbit. ‹ Literary Hub" https://lithub.com/take-a-look-at-tove-janssons-illustrations-for-a-swedish-edition-of-the-hobbit/

 

[Radaghast]

I like the illustrations but this is a pretty liberal interpretation of Gollum. Looks more like DC Comics' Swamp Thing 😂

Also, why is Bilbo in his pajamas?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Geez. Makes you wonder how he managed to squeeze through those tunnels.😁

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I did a bit of superficial surfing and turned up this discussion, which goes some way toward explaining how the huge Gollum may have come about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/comments/1vco4m

Not that that's the only strange Gollum, by any means; I recall being bewildered by the way Pauline Baynes showed him, in the decorations for her 1970 map:

I tried to produce a closeup detail -- not very successfully:

It's not very clear, but Gollum has odd rings all over his body, making him look like a mummy -- or maybe a grub worm.

I know Tolkien made some corrections on the map itself, before it was published, but I don't know if he saw the illustrations.

That said, she later did some different conceptions of him. And I like much of her other Tolkien work. I don't think these have appeared here yet:

 

[Radaghast]

Yeah, looks weird from what I can see. Also, like something is sticking from the top of his head, unless that's supposed to be his other arm. If so, it's at an odd angle.

I'm otherwise a big fan of Baynes' work. I'm surprised there aren't any better scans of that image.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Yes, it's his arm, and I agree, it's an odd pose.

There probably are better examples online somewhere -- I just couldn't find them.

 

[Elthir]

I know Tolkien made some corrections on the map itself, before it was published, but I don't know if he saw the illustrations.

It's been stated that Tolkien generally disliked the Fellowship illustration above this map, and wrote
his reactions to it. We've had some bits of these already, and I'm guessing we've got more, if not all of them, coming in The Nature of Middle-Earth (section "Descriptions of Characters") -- and would not be surprised to see commentary about the "bad guys" below the map.

The History of The Hobbit author claims Tolkien so disliked the top part that he [JRRT] had it removed before giving the map as a gift. If GNOME does indeed publish this, I'll be interested to see if this claim is confirmed.

🐾

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

the Fellowship part of this map

You're talking about the illustrations at the top, I assume? I wonder what he thought of the "evil" characters at the bottom -- especially Gollum. 😁

BTW, the map itself is a somewhat "elongated" -- and therefore distorted -- version, which as I recall was necessary in order to fit the standard poster format.

 

[Radaghast]

Weird that she gave the Ringwraiths hats

 

[Elthir]

You're talking about the illustrations at the top, I assume?

Yep. You quoted a rejected version of my post above

My fault. My first version was unclaritable . . . and I posted too fastly and edited too slowly.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

That's OK -- I try to be charitable. 😊

 

[Elthir]

I had the Pauline Baynes map on my wall once. It got ruined in an accident involving water and old pipes, but I have "always" wondered (since the womb?) . . . the colouring on the bottom of the Hobbit feet?

The leathery bottoms?

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Or the "feathery" bottoms?

Edit: Letter 228.