I found my copy of LotR at Barnes and Noble one time. It's a hardcover, one-volume edition with illustrations throughout. And it's enormous! It pretty much dwarfs my Narnia one-volume, which is sitting on the shelf next to it. The best part, though, is that I found it on sale for $15! (It says $70 on the inside cover.) A wonderful book for a wonderful deal!

Silver, sounds great! Do you have a photo of your new copy?

That was a very good bargain, Silver the Wanderer!

Now, this is something I thought to post in the old NW's Tolkien thread, but can't remember if I ever did it. Forgive me, this is going to be a long post ...

The Hobbit was kind of a fairy tale that had some stuff modified from Tolkien's other writings (at least I've got that impression...). Is the Arkenstone meant to be a silmaril? We know that one silmaril was in the air, one in the sea and one inside the earth. Because they can't be destroyed, the one in the earth survived being dropped in the magma. Now, let's presume that it got carried by magma to far away from the original spot. And let's presume that the Lone Mountain was a volcano or there was molten rock cooling into rock just below it. It could make it possible for the silmaril end up inside the mountain, just waiting to be found by the dwarves. (Well, if the silmaril was supposed to stay in the earth, this would not happen, but let's forget that, as The Hobbit was not a continuation of Tolkien's (then unofficial) other writings, strictly speaking.)

What made me think about this is the fact that those stones are so similar. They are unbelievably beautiful and awake very posessive feelings in people. The Arkenstone has the light of stars in it, and the silmarilli had the light of the two trees in them. Bilbo couldn't give the stone to Thorin, who had actually threatened others to give it to him the moment it was found, and it seems that everyone wanted the silmarilli for themselves. Even Thranduil seems to be astonished by the stone, and he must be pretty used to seeing "normal" jewels, like diamonds. So the Arkenstone must be really outstanding.

Sorry, that was quite a lot of rambling, but I just wanted to make the reasoning clear. Do you think it's possible that the stone was at least inspired by the silmarilli, or could it even have been the other way round?

Silver, sounds great! Do you have a photo of your new copy?

Yep! This is what it looks like:

And here it is next to Narnia:

It's the biggest book I own, and it weighs a ton! But I love it.

I have a question...I know Tolkien added a lot of Christian elements to LotR, but I'm having trouble figuring out what they are. Maybe I'm just bad at reading between the lines. I'm curious though - does anyone know of an article (or something) that explains what they are? I'm not a Tolkien expert, and although I'd love to read some of his other works, I don't really know where to start...

Silver, that's a very nice edition! Alan Lee's paintings are amazing and the novel is a slightly easier read in the larger format. One of my friends has that same edition. You bought it for a great price. Back in the late 90's, my friend paid about $100 Australian! Ouch.

Here's a very interesting (but lengthy) article I found about the Christian elements in Lord of the Rings. There's also some good stuff about Lewis' Space Trilogy books. Enjoy.

http://www.bethinking.org/your-course/w ... -rings.htm

Wow, that's a gorgeous edition! We found our new hardcover in a used-books store for seven dollars. The price it said inside was like 68 dollars. I love bargains.

^^ I too love bargains! the copy I just mentioned of FotR that I just got only cost $1.99

^^ Yay for bargains!

And thank you for the link, Warrior 4 Jesus! That article looks very interesting! *goes to read*

What made me think about this is the fact that those stones are so similar. They are unbelievably beautiful and awake very posessive feelings in people. The Arkenstone has the light of stars in it, and the silmarilli had the light of the two trees in them. Bilbo couldn't give the stone to Thorin, who had actually threatened others to give it to him the moment it was found, and it seems that everyone wanted the silmarilli for themselves. Even Thranduil seems to be astonished by the stone, and he must be pretty used to seeing "normal" jewels, like diamonds. So the Arkenstone must be really outstanding.

I think it's very possible it was inspired by them, and its theoretically possible that the Arkenstone could be that Silmaril. I don't think so, though, since if the Silmarils can survive eons of ocean waves and magma, they would probably be impervious to being shaped by any kind of jeweler's tools, and it says in The Hobbit that the dwarves shaped the Arkenstone to reflect more light. A Silmaril wouldn't need that, since they're like little mini suns and moons. Besides, Thranduil would know a Silmaril if he saw one and would probably have unpleasant feelings about it, since they caused so much murder, war, and mayhem in his time, and he may have even lost family and friends in the Kinslayings. I'm speculating, though.

Also, I thought you guys might like to see this:http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e316/miss_rowan/Oxford%20Revisited/MalvernSwansandOxfordII083.jpg

I went to Oxford while I was in England, and my friends and I hiked for a good 40 minutes to Wolvercote Cemetary just to see this. There are so many letters and personal tokens left there. It was amazing.

That was a pretty interesting article. (Won't give any spoilers). There were also articles on the Space Trilogy and Till We Have Faces, which were pretty good too.

Maenad, you are so fortunate to have visited Tolkien's grave! What a poignant photo. I've always loved that he chose to have "Lúthien" and "Beren" engraved for he and his wife on their gravestone. Thanks for posting this. The angle is really effective, as well.

There is so much to comment on here, and I just don't have the time, but I'm keeping up with each post, and finding the discussions interesting, as always.

I did, however, find a few links that might be of interest:

How fast is the Beacon of Gondor? Someone has a lot of time on his hands. Really, though, it's such a fun and interesting science blog entry (not that I comprehend all the math involved ). And get a load of some of the comments below. What a discussion!

And ... Wow! An interview with JRR, himself, from the BBC archives. Never seen this one before. And the atmosphere of the 60s is so tangible! This video once again confirms Tolkien as rather a mumbler (versus CSL who had a big, booming voice). Apparently the only time JRR didn't mumble was when he entered his classrooms reciting lines from Beowulf in Old English! But listen, just listen, to that 'twinkle' in his voice at times. Love it!

And isn't it simply grand when Tolkien recites "The One Ring" poem in the original language? ..... Hey, I hadn't known before this that he had made that up ... in the bath.

Haha this is what I do to maintain a healthy, happy LOTR book or any book for that matter. I buy a nice hardcover LOTR set. I put it in my shelf and only look at it. If I want to read the books, I go to the library and check it out thats why my books stay nice and clean.

I know what you mean! I have a few well-loved copies of The LotR that are for everyday use. But someday I want to buy a nice hardcover set, which will simply be to look at in awe. Same with The Silmarillion: I have my reading copy, but awhile ago I purchased for myself the beautiful Ted Nasmith edition—a hardcover—which is meant for browsing gently through.

EDIT: The announcement was recently made that The Music of the Lord of the Rings book (by Doug Adams—Howard Shore's 'shadow') is available for pre-ordering on Amazon.com. Hopefully it will hit Canada and the UK soon too, as well as other countries. Can hardly wait for this book! (Been waiting for five years already. ) Also, included will be a Rarities Archive CD ending with a discussion between Shore and Adams. That CD will probably alone be worth the price. Can you imagine? More Middle-earth musical glories by Shore?!

That Silmarillion cover is gorgeous!
I got a new Tolkien book the other day, on his life and work. Its very good so far. There's this one part I thought was really funny. It was some disagreement with the publishers over the spelling of the plural of 'dwarf' (the whole dwarfs vs. dwarves, elfin vs. elven thing), and the publisher was insisting that the correct plural was 'dwarfs', saying that that was what was in the Oxford English Dictionary. Tolkien's reply? "I wrote the Oxford English Dictionary!" I just thought that was hilarious.

Oh that's funny. "I wrote the Oxford English Dictionary!" Lol. Tolkien seemed like he would have been a fun guy to meet. Well C. S. L. would be to but, you know.

That's great, Lady Haleth.
(It reminds me of Pa Grape in Veggie Tales, when Tom Grape asked him if he still wanted to see the pyramids, he responded with sudden enlightenment, "I've seen the pyramids. Ha! I built the pyramids! . /kinda random)

From all I've gleaned, Tolkien did have a wonderful sense of humour. I'm sure I've told this one before, but when he and Edith in their dating years were visiting a rooftop café, for amusement they tossed sugar cubes over the railing, aiming to get them in the cuff of the bowler hats of men sauntering along the sidewalk below.

Another one, and I quote from Letter #72 of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, where JRR is talking about yet another memorable Inklings gathering:
"The chief entertainment was ... some excerpts from C.S.L.'s Who Goes Home? [later called The Great Divorce]—a book on Hell, which I suggested should have been called rather 'Hugo's Home' [referring to another Inkling, Hugo Dyson]. ... Just a couple more examples of Tolkien's sense of fun.

I saw this on TORn recently. Huh?! What might Radagast be doing in The Hobbit? From what I remember, the only reference to him is when Gandalf mentions he is his cousin (or something like that).

Personally, I can see Sylvester McCoy more as Bilbo, than as a wizard. He has such a very hobbit-ish face and, in this photo, anyway, even looks like a younger Ian Holm as Bilbo.

I saw this on TORn recently. Huh?! What might Radagast be doing in The Hobbit? From what I remember, the only reference to him is when Gandalf mentions he is his cousin (or something like that).

Personally, I can see Sylvester McCoy more as Bilbo, than as a wizard. He has such a very hobbit-ish face and, in this photo, anyway, even looks like a younger Ian Holm as Bilbo.

Let me put this rumour to bed. TORn made up the Radagast bit entirely out of innuendo (something they seem to be making a habit of lately).

Here's how it went down: A couple of Scottish members of the Hobbit Forum (at which I Mod) were both vying for an interview with Sylvester McCoy when they attended the Highland Games. One tried to go through channels and score a personal interview. The other simply asked a reporter friend to ask Sylvester the question.

This was then broken at the Hobbit Forum, and a fellow (young) member of the forum in his excitement revealed the scoop to Onering instead of our Administrator who has his own Blog . For this faux pas, as a Moderator, I duly chastised the youngling.

And this is how it was reported by the Dunoon Observer/Argyllshire Standard reporter:

Mr McCoy told the Standard that contrary to widespread internet rumours, he's not vying for the role of Bilbo in The Hobbit (due to start filming next year) - but is one of two actors being considered for one of the wizard parts.
"I am being cast in The Hobbit," he said. "We're currently in negotiations - there are two of us under consideration. It's not the Bilbo role, but could be bigger

Not a peep about Radagast. We can assume that McKellen will be returning as Gandalf, and as Christopher Lee may not be returning it could be Saruman. Considering that the Bilbo role would have been as Old Bilbo (McCoy is nearly as old as Ian Holm) telling the tale, this part would have been fairly small, whereas a part as Saruman (in The White Council storyline) would be much bigger.

GB