Tolkien Fans gotta check this out

Kracus · Post by **Kracus** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 2:32 pm

tamashii wrote:
Dude, there's one version of LotR. Tolkien's. Whatever or not you get it in three books or one, it's the same text.
Funny because I went to the book store and there was:

1. 1 book = about 1000+ pages
2. 3 books = each book about 500+ pages
3. 6 books = each only about 100 pages

Notice the difference in text

1. Low 1000
2. close to 2000 if you added it up
3. about 700-800 hundred

So which one's the real one. Should I buy the one with the most text or is that a bunch of more descriptive crap added that I really don't need to read. Or should I read the #3 one only to find out there are parts missing in it?

Oh and thats only one bookstore. I went on the internet and there were at least 50 versions of it.

Pardon me, but doesn't that have to do more with how big the book is, the font, margin etc that causes one to have more pages, not text, than others? Or are all printed books printed with the same standard?

tamashii · Post by **tamashii** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 3:07 pm

Pardon me, but doesn't that have to do more with how big the book is, the font, margin etc that causes one to have more pages, not text, than others? Or are all printed books printed with the same standard?

The ones that I saw=yes. Same font size,margins, ect.

Kracus · Post by **Kracus** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 3:13 pm

tamashii wrote:
Pardon me, but doesn't that have to do more with how big the book is, the font, margin etc that causes one to have more pages, not text, than others? Or are all printed books printed with the same standard?
The ones that I saw=yes. Same font size,margins, ect.

oh well I don't know, I'd say just read the inside of the covers and see what they say. Some of them could have more pages cause they add stuff in about the movie or about Tolkien's life maybe.

tamashii · Post by **tamashii** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 3:17 pm

oh well I don't know, I'd say just read the inside of the covers and see what they say. Some of them could have more pages cause they add stuff in about the movie or about Tolkien's life maybe.

That makes sense, well I guess I'll chose one and go with faith.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 3:48 pm

tamashii wrote:
Dude, there's one version of LotR. Tolkien's. Whatever or not you get it in three books or one, it's the same text.
Funny because I went to the book store and there was:

1. 1 book = about 1000+ pages
2. 3 books = each book about 500+ pages
3. 6 books = each only about 100 pages

Notice the difference in text

1. Low 1000
2. close to 2000 if you added it up
3. about 700-800 hundred

So which one's the real one. Should I buy the one with the most text or is that a bunch of more descriptive crap added that I really don't need to read. Or should I read the #3 one only to find out there are parts missing in it?

Oh and thats only one bookstore. I went on the internet and there were at least 50 versions of it.

There are no variations on LotR itself.

Tolkien also did many more works related to Middle-Earth than just LotR, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. Some of them are available in print.

LotR is composed of the following:

(1) The Fellowship of the Ring
(2) The Two Towers
(3) The Return of the King

Anything else is not part of the book (LotR is one book, not three). They are either seperate works or additional information.

I assure you that, regardless of length (why are you going on something so irrelavent anyway?), the text is unaltered through all of those versions.

MistyCaldwell · Post by **MistyCaldwell** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 4:46 pm

ACtually, I think there was a children's version released in 3 volumes that were notably shorter. I can't really remember reading them but they were 'adapted' by the Tolkien books. Maybe that is what tamashii saw.

R-A-N-M-A · Post by **R-A-N-M-A** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 7:10 pm

But unbeknown to most people The hobbit and lord of the rings we not! Tolkiens first books, his books of lost tales come first.

Mariah Ketchum · Post by **Mariah Ketchum** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 9:59 pm

I own the BIG book with the new cover and all three books together with a lot of extra infomation in the back. I noticed that LoTR was divided up more than I thought it would be. All of the three books were divided up into two smaller "books" with in the novles themselves. Perhaps this accounts for the six small books.

Red Wolf · Post by **Red Wolf** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 12:19 am

Those six small books are each half of the original three books which are each a third of the One True Book (see how I snuck in that LotR joke?). The divisions are merely for organizational sake, such as the inclusion of chapters any a more standard format book.

Some key things to remember when picking up Tolkien:

1. The original books were started during WWII and have publishing dates starting at 1954. This is why you have a lot of peaceful nature vs warring machines in the series.

2. The Hobbit, while even more enjoyable after reading the LotR, is a self contained book and is readable first or as a stand alone. The Silmarillion, as already stated, requires reading of the other books first. A movie on the Silmarillion would be impossible but I would love a Hobbit movie (will never happen, I know). I have always favored Bilbo over Frodo.

3. Tolkien was a linguist. A major reason he wrote these books was so he could create his own language (elvish in this case).

4. Tolkien was a historian. A major reason he wrote these books was to substitute for the vastly missing British mythology that had been destroyed through the various invasions and conquests of England over the centuries before and during the Roman Empire. While considered fantasy today his view on this book was more mythology than anything else.

5. These aren't the movies. The first movie was close but cut out a good bit. The second movie really screwed with the timeline. And anyone who says they won't read the last installment so it doesn't spoil the movie's ending will die by way of paper cuts. The term "page turner" existed a long time before the term "cliff hanger" ever was uttered.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 12:33 am

Red Wolf wrote:3. Tolkien was a linguist. A major reason he wrote these books was so he could create his own language (elvish in this case).

4. Tolkien was a historian. A major reason he wrote these books was to substitute for the vastly missing British mythology that had been destroyed through the various invasions and conquests of England over the centuries before and during the Roman Empire. While considered fantasy today his view on this book was more mythology than anything else.

It wasn't just those roles alone; Tolkien combined both historian and linguist in Middle-Earth. He meticulously planned not only the history and language, but also the history of the language -- there are clearly defined paths of lingustic evolution in Middle-Earth. It's details like that, I think, that makes Tolkien's world so interesting.