~Nessime's Notes

By:Nessime
 November, 26 2005


   ~~~

Oh boy - a new toy to pla...*cough*...I meant tool. That's it: a nice new tool to use.

Thank you, Mike! :)

1 reply


 [1] Am still trying to figure this out - I don\'t see a way to add a new topic header....

Ah, well... In lieu of that option, I\'ll just go ahead and stick this note in here for anyone who may be interested.

For the canon and research geeks among us:

This past week I picked up a copy of the 50th anniversary edition of LotR (I waited for the less pricey paperback edition - the budget is couldn\'t handle the hardcover edition* right now :p), in which the erroneously \"corrected\" froward has finally been restored - among other things that may be of interest to you.

Barnes & Noble online only shows the hardcover edition, but I found the trade paperback edition (cover art by Alan Lee) in my local B&N (priced at a much more affordable $20 - 10% less with my B&N Member card *g*).
(http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ue6MGlrBME&isbn=0618517650&itm=1)

In the new edition Douglas Anderson has updated his Note of the Text, and there is also a Note on the 50th Anniversary Edition by Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull.

In their Note... Hammond and Scull wrote:

Many of the emendations in the present text are to marks of punctuation...Tolkien\'s original punctuation is always more felicitous - subtle points, when one is comparing commas and semi-colons, but no less a part of the author\'s intended expression. Distinctive words such as chill rather than cold, and glistered rather than glistened, changed by typesetters long ago without authorization,* likewise have been restored...

Most of the demonstrable errors noted by Christopher Tolkien in The History of Middle-earth have also been corrected, such as the distance from the Brandywine Bridge to the Ferry (ten miles rather than twenty**) and the number of Merry\'s ponies (five rather than six), shadows of earlier drafts...

...Although most readers will be content with the text alone, many will want to know more about the problems encountered in preparing this new edition,...To this end, and to illuminate the work in other respects, we are preparing a volume of annotations to The Lord of the Rings for publication in 2005...

*cough* or changed, according to Anderson, by a \"proof-reader at the publisher...they obviously knew the English language better than Tolkien\"

**which also turned up in FotR-the movie (can\'t fault PJ for faithfulness to the book in that instance)
~N.

Their book, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader\'s Companion by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, won\'t be out till December 27th; I\'ve pre-ordered it through B&N. For details on what\'s in the book, see B&N.com:
(http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ue6MGlrBME&isbn=0618642676&itm=5)

I\'m especially eager to see their list of archaic and unusual words, as well as Tolkien\'s own Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings. Riches that any research geek will savor. :)

~Ness
Posted:Dec 2, 2005 08:51 GMT  Reply to this Comment