The latest cool Tolkien news is the newly-found annotated map of Middle-earth by the Professor, himself. And it was found in a The Lord of the Rings volume owned by Pauline Baynes, herself. Can't get much better than that!!

Fascinating. Sadly, I can't nearly anywhere afford it.

In other news, I finished my 23rd reading of The Lord of the Rings awhile back, and, honestly, as with the Narnia Chronicles, it becomes more beloved and precious (no pun intended ) with every read! ♥

*edited

I finished my 23rd reading of The Lord of the Rings awhile back

I don't know exactly how many times I've read it, but if an audiobook counts, I'd say around ten. I'm listening to the un-official audiobook by Phill Dragash. I listened to it the first time in August, and now I'm in "The Two Towers" again.
Just in case others haven't heard of it, here's the link.

http://www.phildragash.com

It's possibly the best thing to happen to LotR.

EDIT: You can currently hear only the trailer on that site.
If anyone is interested I can post the links where you can hear the actual audiobook.

How do you pronounce the dwarves' names in The Hobbit?

It really grated with me when I heard some of the dwarves' names spoken in the Hobbit movies, as I'd had my own ideas as to how the names ought to have been pronounced from reading the book when I was 8 (44 years ago).

In particular, Fili and Kili - in the films they're pronounced "Filly" and "Killy". I'd always thought of them as "Filey" (as in the seaside town in Yorkshire) and "Kylie" (as in Minogue, although she wasn't famous when I was a child - she would only have been 4 when I first read the book).

Also, "Gandalf" should have been pronounced "Gandolf" (I think a note in one of the LOTR appendices supports this).

This is how I have pronounced them, but whether they're correct or not, I do not know.

Fili - Feel-y
Kili - Keel-y

Oin - rhymes with groin, although I have heard that Oh-in is more proper
Gloin - same, but possibly Gloh-in

Gandalf - Gand-alf
Hmm, not sure about the last syllable as 'olf' ... I used to say it more that way, but then heard/read (and I forget where), that that 2nd "a" should be more prononced as such.

Here is a treasure: JRRT, himself, reading selections of his marvelous poetry from Fellowship of the Ring! My favourites? Most of them.
*Durin/Mirrormere
*The Road Goes Ever On and On
*Sing Hey to the Bath at Close of Day! (I love his chuckle at the end of this one)
*Gandalf's Lament
*Gil-galad
*The Elvish song to Elbereth in the Hall of Fire (to hear the Professor speaking the musical Elvish language is simply lovely)
*Hobbit Walking Song (We Must Away, We Must Away)
*Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red
*The Man in the Moon
*The One Ring poem: except, to me, Tolkien rendered that iconic piece of writing far too briskly/abruptly and very much without the feeling I was expecting and hoping for

I love how he so delightfully rolls his r's in his agreeable, gravely, comfortable, yet dignified, voice.

Thanks for sharing that link, jo. I always enjoy hearing authors read their own words.

My pronunciations tend to agree with jo's, except for Gandalf's last syllable rhyming with 'golf.'

Random note: I had a similar experience with star names. I was pretty much self-taught as a kid, and back then there really weren't any pronunciation guides (at least my small-town library had none, and there was no internet yet). Since many come from other languages, like Arabic, the pronunciation wasn't obvious to me. Only years later, when I started hearing or attending astronomy lectures, did I learn that I say some star names differently. (But I got some right, like Zubenelgenubi ).

So, did anyone see that Tolkien's long poem The Lay of Atrou and Itroun is being republished after 70 years? (It came up in a Tolkien analysis book I read, and I was always sorry I didn't get to read the whole thing). Its about a knight, a lady, and a mysterious witch.

Another new Tolkien book will be published in May next year - a compilation of all versions of Tolkien’s tale of Beren and Lúthien.
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/2016/10/new-tolkien-book-beren-and-luthien/

Edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee, Beren and Lúthien will bring together material scattered throughout the 12-volume History of Middle-earth series.
[...]
Beren and Lúthien will be published 100 years since Tolkien’s wife Edith danced for him in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks in East Yorkshire, an event he later acknowledged was the inspiration for the meeting of the immortal Lúthien Tinúviel and the mortal Beren in the glades beside Esgalduin.

The story changed a lot from Tolkien's first concepts in 1917, until his son Christopher published what became the final version in The Silmarillion in 1977. Tolkien even wrote a version as a poem, which he showed to his new friend C.S. Lewis in 1929 - Lewis absolutely loved it, not least for its mythical qualities.

I'm looking forward to this book - I wouldn't want to hunt through the 12 HoMe volumes for the relevant sections, so having them all presented to me in one volume is great. And Alan Lee's illustrations will be good, too.

Aragorn and Arwen's love story in LotR in many ways parallell Beren and Lúthien's story - Aragorn even addresses Arwen as Tinuviel (another of Lúthien's names) the first time he meets her. (And they are both descended from the famous couple.)

As for my personal interest in Lúthien - my avatar is taken from a painting of a young Lúthien by Henning Janssen (with the artist's permission).

I'm excited about this! It will be wonderful to have every Beren and Lúthien segment currently scattered around the HoMe volumes now collected in one. And what a tale is theirs! Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Oh, wait, this is fiction. I keep forgetting that with Tolkien.

Add Alan Lee's evocative illustrations in, and this should be a beautiful keepsake and magnificent read.

Finally got started on The Hobbit this past week! My boxed set took forever to arrive and then it took me a bit longer to actually start reading, but my dream of reading The Hobbit in autumn finally came true. Yay.

It's interesting to finally be reading it after so long. I'm enjoying it a lot so far... Tolkien has a very home-y writing style, much more so than I expected. (In a strange way, it reminds me just a little bit of L.M.M. Montgomery, especially when he's describing the Shire and such-and-such member of such-and-such family.) It's also very interesting to contrast the story with CoN, knowing that Lewis and Tolkien were such good friends!

The boxed set I got was this one. (I couldn't resist the autumnal shades. ) It's actually a pocket edition, but the books are still decent-sized; they're about the same size as my hand. They're really nice to curl up in bed with!

Still, I wouldn't mind having this set, cake or not. Yum. Ran across that the other day! The baker did a beautiful job.

Oooh! That's a very nice set, Rose! I hope you enjoy your reading of The Hobbit.

I really want to get that Beren and Luthien book when it comes out. It may have to wait for a birthday list, though.

How are you coming on 'The Hobbit' and 'LotR' Rose?
It's been 15 years since Fellowship arrived in theaters. While I don't remember watching that movie quite as well as Two Towers

, I do sure remember going to the midnight showing in spite of it being finals week. Priorities.
Still my favorite of the LotRs movies. If it wasn't so long I'd pull it out and watch it again, but these days I'm hard pressed to watch a one hour movie.

I didn't see FotR in theaters (RotK was the first we saw in theaters) but I remember getting the DVD for my 13th birthday. I haven't watched through them all in ages. I might have to fix that soon. (Though I sympathize with you on getting through long movies, FK. Even with our little Samwise, it's not often we have the time to sit down for one. )

I got to see FotR in the theater. Actually, at least twice. My parents went to see it, and then my mom and aunt took me and my elder sister (we scurried to finish the book first ). I know it was still in the city theater in April the next year because my mom took me, my elder sister, and a friend to see it for my sister's birthday. There may've been another time in there my mom took us to see it, but I can't remember (I do know she snuck off one day to watch it again by herself ).

It's been a couple of years since I watched FotR (even with no kids, it's hard to sit down for about 3 hours to watch...we always do the EEs), but I do love it. The last time I watched it (and TTT and RotK) was over a school break which, sadly, isn't an option anymore. And I think the holidays are too packed this season to do a watch. (Particularly since a certain sister still hasn't finished the books, and shunting her off for 9 hours so my mom and I can watch just wouldn't fly... )

Question, does anybody have any experience with the audio recordings of LotR OR the BBC Dramatization? I'd like to get them for my husband for his birthday, but they are pricey for the unabridged versions. The Abridged version is quite reasonable, but that's not as much fun.

I have owned the BBC dramatisation on a big set of cassette tapes! They are getting older and I no longer have a cassette option in my car radio. But I have made it part of my annual read that I would also listen to this once the reading was finished.
I have looked online and would very much like to get a CD version - someone has said I could get a download, but my tech skills for audio are not so good. Anyway, the cassettes were 70 pounds, and the CDs will be pricey too.

And here in New Zealand it is the 3rd of January, so it is already Tolkien's 125th birthday!
The traditional toast from fans (using whatever they drink, I used tea) is "The Professor!"