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J. R. R. TOLKIEN
reads and sings his
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
The Two Towers
and The Return of the King
(Caedmon Records 1975, TC 1478)The following chapter and line information is given with a cautionary word as the information is approximate only when related to The Lord of the Rings as printed. It is to be remembered that this material was recorded some time before the publication of the book and no doubt, Tolkien reworked the material before submitting it to Rayner Unwin. A slight liberty has been taken with the Great Elvish poem which begins, "Ai! laurie Ian tar lassi surinen!" and is recorded on Side B, Band 6. Tolkien recorded this also in a spoken version which appears on the Caedmon recording of THE HOBBIT and THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS (TC 1477). It appears here in Tolkien's own Plain-Chant. It seems to me to sum up the whole of the Ring so beautifully, that I trust it will not offend in its present placement.
WARD BOTSFORD (cloth) refers to Houghton Mifflin Company cloth-bound editions In the United States and George Allen &Unwin, Ltd. cloth-bound editions in Great Britain. (paper) refers to Ballantine Books paperback editions In the United States.Liner information: This record is based on a tape recording that J.R.R. Tolkien made when he was staying in my house in Malvern, Worcestershire. It was in August, 1952. For the whole of that summer he had been depressed because THE LORD OF THE RINGS, the book on which he had worked for fourteen years, had been refused by publishers, so that he had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print. But the fact that they had all returned it made it possible for my wife, Moira, and I to borrow the only complete typescript and to become with our friend, C.S. Lewis, about the first passionately enthusiastic Tolkien fans. There arose the question of how to return it to its author. Since it could not of course be entrusted to the post, I wrote to ask when he would be at home in Oxford for me to deliver it. His reply indicated that he would be quite on his own in the second half of August and perhaps even rather lonely. We therefore invited him to come to Malvern to pick up the typescript and to stay for a few days. It was easy to entertain him by day. He and I tramped the Malvern Hills which he had often seen during his boyhood in Birmingham or from his brother's house on the other side of the Severn River valley. He lived the book as we walked, sometimes comparing parts of the hills with, for instance, the White Mountains of Gondor. We drove to the Black Mountains on the borders of Wales, picked bilberries and climbed through the heather there. We picnicked on bread and cheese and apples, and washed them down with perry, beer or cider. When we saw signs of industrial pollution, he talked of orcs and orcery. At home he helped me to garden. Characteristically what be liked most was to cultivate a very small area, say a square yard, extremely well. To entertain him in the evening I produced a tape recorder (a solid early Ferrograph that is still going strong). He bad never seen one before and said whimsically that be ought to cast out any devil that might be in it by recording a prayer, the Lord's Prayer in Gothic, one of the extinct languages of which he was a master. He was delighted when I played it back to him and asked if be might record some of the poems in THE LORD OF THE RINGS to find out how they sounded to other people. The more be recorded. the more be enjoyed recording and the more his literary self-confidence grew. When he had finished the poems, one of us said: "Record for us the riddle scene from THE HOBBIT," and we sat spellbound for almost half an hour while he did. I then asked him to record what he thought one of the best pieces of prose in THE LORD OF THE RINGS and he recorded part of The Ride of the Rohirrim. "Surely you know that's really good?" I asked after playing it back. "Yes," he said, "it's good. This machine has made me believe in it again, but how am I to get it published?" I thought of what I myself might do in the same difficulty. "Haven't you an old pupil in publishing who might like it for its own sake and therefore be willing to take the risk?" "There's only Rayner Unwin," he replied after a pause. "Then send it to Rayner Unwin personally." And he did. And the result was that even during his lifetime over three million copies were sold. When he got back to Oxford, Tolkien wrote to thank us for having him, a letter in Elvish that is one of my most valued possessions. This selection of passages well represents the Trilogy's inventiveness and imaginative range. It contains poems from the beautiful world of the tree-elves. There follows a moving elegy for Boromir, a fine piece in a noble literary tradition. The Ents are in the opinion of many the finest of all Tolkien's imaginative creatures, because they owe nothing whatever to any other writer or tradition. They are as truly original as literary invention can be, and their marching song is most forcefully read. One of the most remarkable pieces in the whole selection is the passage of Elvish sung to plaiu-chant. Elvish is the beautiful and musical language that Tolkien invented in his undergraduate days. It can be said to be the origin of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, for having invented a language Tolkien had to invent creatures who spoke it and then to give them a history and a literature. (For more information see Appendices E and F of the books, with the aid of which students at certain schools have taught themselves to read and write the language.) Considering its impromptu nature the plain-chant is remarkably well sung. We meet Sam Gamgee in the long prose passage from THE TWO TOWERS in which he tries to get Gollum or Smeagol to help him prepare a meal to revive the exhausted and sleeping Frodo. Gollum has developed markedly since the days of THE HOBBIT, Sam is the ideal feudal servant, and the writing blends the noble with the homely and the humorous. Another section is even more remarkable. Tolkien here achieves in the Ride of the Rohorrim the rarest thing in modern literature, the truly heroic. It was C. S. Lewis's favourite passage and one that he often asked me to play when he came to stay. He once remarked of it: "That's at least as good as anything in Homer." And to round out the record we have a few pages from the great climax on Mount Doom when in a wonderfully sustained and almost unbearably exciting narrative Gollum is made to serve a noble purpose by biting off the ring on Frodo's finger and falling with it into the crack of Doom. GEORGE SAYER J. R. R. TOLKIEN As Merton Professor of English language and literature for more than a decade, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was recognized as an authority on Old and Middle English. In addition to the popular novels based on his own mythology - THE HOBBIT and THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING series - Tolkien published a number of philological and critical studies. Other Caedmon titles featuring Professor Tolkien performing his own works are POEMS AND SONGS OF MIDDLE EARTH (TC 1231) and THE HOBBIT (TC 1477). CREDITS COVER: Photograph used by permission of Billett Potter, Oxford, England.
SIDE A
THE TWO TOWERS (Part Two of THE LORD OF THE RINGS)
SIDE B
Band 1: Book Three, Chapter 1: The Departure of Boromir
(cloth) p .19, line 27 to p. 20, line 26
(paper) p. 22, line 24 to p. 24, line 20
"For a while the three companions remained silent..."2:40 Band 2: Book Three, Chapter IV: Treebeard
(cloth) p. 67, line 20 to p. 68, line 3
(paper) p. 84, line 13 to p. 85, line 3
"'An Ent?' said Merry..."1:20 Band 3: Book Three, Chapter IV: Treebeard
(cloth) p. 72, line 8 to line 33
(paper) p. 90, line 15 to p. 91, line 4
"Treebeard fell silent...1:14 Band 4: Book Three, Chapter IV: Treebeard
(cloth) p. 80, line 16 to p. 81, line 15
(paper) p. 100, line 38 to p. 102, line 22
"There was an Elvish song..."2:16 Band 5: Book Three, Chapter IV: Treebeard
(cloth) p. 87, line 19 to line 29
(paper) p. 110, line 20 to line 33
"Then Ores came with axes..."1:43 Band 6: Book Three, Chapter IV: Treebeard
(cloth) p. 88, line 13 to line 21 and p. 88, line 31 to p. 89, line 4
(paper) p. 111, line 26 to p.112, line 1 and p.112 line 13 to line 26
"Then with a crash..." and "To Isengard! ..."1:12 Band 7: Book Three, Chapter VI: The King of the Golden Hall
(cloth) p.112, line 12 to line 23
(paper) p. 142, line 33 to p. 143, line 10
"'It runs thus in the Common Speech...'"0:3 Band 8: Book Four, Chapter II: The Passage of the Marshes
(cloth) p. 227, line 20 to p. 228, line 16
(paper) p. 287, line 23 to p. 288, line 24
"Gollum turned to the right..."1:58 Band 9: Book Four, Chapter III: The Black Gate is Closed
(cloth) p. 254, line 24 to p. 255, line 9
(paper) p. 321, line 34 to p. 322, line 24
"'Were there any oliphaunts?'..."'1:57 Band 10: Book Four, Chapter IV: Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
(cloth) p. 259, line 32 to p. 263.line 9
(paper) p. 328 line 29 to p. 333, line 8
"A little way back.. ."7:40
THE RETURN OF THE KING (Part three of THE LORD OF THE RINGS)THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Band 1: Book Five, Chapter III: The Muster of Rohan
(cloth) p. 76, line 31 to p. 77, line 13
(paper) p. 91, line 38 to p. 92, line 23
"... so without horn or harp or music..."1:08 Band 2: Book Five, Chapter V: The Ride of the Rohirrim
(cloth) p. 109, line 26 to p. 113, line 6
(paper) p. 134, line 8 to p. 138, line 24
"'Then since we must look for fell deeds...'"8:45 Band 3: Book Five, Chapter VI: The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
(cloth) p. 124, line 30 to p. 125, line 20
(paper) p .152, line 9 to line 39
"No few had fallen..."1:37 Band 4: Book Six, Chapter III: Mount Doom
(cloth) p. 220, line 24 to p. 222, line 34
(paper) p. 271, line 13 to p. 274, line 8
"There at the bend..."7:09 Band 5: Book Six, Chapter 5: The Steward and the King
(cloth) p. 241, line 14 to line 33
(paper) p. 297, line 34 to p. 298, line 14
"And before the Sun had fallen..."1:40
Band 6: Book Two, Chapter VIII: Farewell to Lorien
(cloth) p. 394, line 1 to line 17
(paper) p. 489, line 3 to line 19
"Ai! laurie lantar..."0:47
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS #: 75-750494
@ Caedmon Records, Inc., 1975
SOURCE: Entire contents of this record including music: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, England.
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Revision: 13 May 2005
Last modified: 13 May 2005