LotR: A Reader's Companion

On Jul 12, 12:52 pm, Troels Forchhammer <Tro....TakeThisOut@ThisIsFake.invalid>
wrote:
> ... I still think it is well worth the money
> (but then I did choose the paperback version <GG>).

In the U.S. it appears that the HM hardback is cheaper than
the HC paperback. As near as I can tell there is no HM
paperback. At amazon.com the HM hardback is $19.80, with
free shipping if your order totals $25.00, but the HC paperback
is $19.xx, with no free shipping available.
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In message
<4a2fac9a-a372-4823-a8f2-4bf5ffacc7a6.DeleteThis@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>
calvin <crice5.DeleteThis@windstream.net> spoke these staves:
>

<snip>

> I think the authors should have contented themselves
> with telling us things that would not be resoundingly
> obvious to even the most casual reader.

This is precisely my main objection to the RC -- that it seems to me
to attempt to satisfy too broad an audience.

As you note there are observations included that seem obvious even to
the casual reader (though in the case of the title of first chapter,
it is, of course, only obvious to those who have also read /The
Hobbit/), and at the same time, there is much information in the book
that I expect will seem just as irritating to the casual reader (the
one who'd benefit from the party expectations observation).

But the book does certainly also contain valuable information for the
serious Tolkien student: previously unpublished excerpts from various
versions of 'The Hunt for the Ring', Tolkien's nomenclature for LotR,
the LotR-part of the long letter to Milton Waldman (#131 in
/Letters/) and other stuff. If you never read anything in it except
words written by Tolkien, I still think it is well worth the money
(but then I did choose the paperback version <GG>).

I read LotR and the companion together -- it took me quite a bit
longer than my usual readings, but it was quite an interesting way to
read it.

--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.

Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience
- Piet Hein, /Omniscience/
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calvin wrote:
> Will they be telling us that 'Many Partings' is a deliberate
> reference to 'Many Meetings'?

Oh! Uh... I never noticed that...

--
David
Stardate 8531.5
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"Wayne Hammond" <Wayne.G.Hammond DeleteThis @williams.edu> wrote in message
news:337f4ffc-d9c1-4002-b35b-3aef53707cf8@x35g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
<snip>

Thanks for replying in person and explaining your motives. You've earned one
more -future- reader.

Ertugrul

** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **
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On Jul 12, 5:22 pm, Wayne Hammond <Wayne.G.Hamm....TakeThisOut@williams.edu>
wrote:
> ...
> The new HarperCollins trade paperback has a few small additions and
> corrections, and with a larger type size is easier to read than the
> previous (mass-market) paperback. Addenda and corrigenda to this and
> other books we've produced may be found at

http://mysite.verizon.net/wghammond/addenda.html

It's good to have this website, so that corrections to
'... A Reader's Companion' and other books can be
printed and saved.

These corrections, and others listed in the book, and
others discussed by Douglas Anderson in his 'Note[s]
on the Text', all add up (to me) to be a dismaying
revelation about the publishers, which I assume is
an industry-wide problem. No matter how careful the
author, his son, and others, especially Hammond and Scull,
have been, their efforts appear to have been routinely
thwarted by the careless destructiveness of those who
make the final settings before a book is printed. These
incompetents seem to be capable of doing nothing right,
not even correcting their own errors when given detailed
instructions. It's infurating, really.
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