Lord of the Rings on Audio Cassette/CD
 

I was looking around the Amazon website earlier, just to check out the audio cassettes on Lord of the Rings. The unabridged ones are rather expensive, and are of limited availability.

When I was looking through them however, I came across a rather interesting find, and I was wondering if any of you Barrow Downers have come across it too.

There is an audio cassette of Tolkien reading excerts from "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings". Just imagine how wonderful it would be to actually hear the man himself reading from his own books and also hearing the way he reads them.

Here is the Review/synopsis of the cassette

Reviews

Synopsis
Contents: The Lord of the Rings The Hobbit The Adventures of Tom Bombadil The Road Goes Ever On The thrill of hearing J R R Tolkien perform excerpts from his own works is a unique and unforgettable experience for anyone who has been enchanted by the magic of his mythical world. J R R Tolkien recorded his favourite poems and passages from The Lord of the Rings in August 1952. He had been working on the book for over 14 years and had almost given up hope of ever seeing it in print. But hearing this recording played back to him prompted Tolkien to send it to a former pupil who had become a publisher. The result was that even during his lifetime over three million copies of the book were sold, and fifty million more have been sold since his death. Also included in this collection are Tolkien's recordings of excerpts from The Hobbit and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, together with William Elvin's performance of The Road Goes Ever On, accompanied on the piano by its composer Donald Swann and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner Howard Sackler.

If anybody has coem across this work, I would be glad to hear of your opinion on it.

I've seen this on eBay, and have been interested, but always ( [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] ) get distracted by other auctions. I'd like to hear from someone also....How does it sound?!

If it was recorded in 1952, what is the quality like?? I know that they can do all kinds of things with digital technology nowadays.

I bought a hardback, seven-volume edition of Lord of the Rings around three years ago, and it included a gift cd of Tolkien's readings of the book. They are just short excerpts, but some are truly wonderful. The Ride of the Rohirrim reading is fantastic, with Tolkien's wonderful "r" and vowel sounds.

Thanks for that Lalaith. I think I will go and order the cassette now!!!

There is also a CBC audio version, with Ian Holm (Bilbo) as Frodo. It is not exactly the same as the book, but it is O.K. I don't think that Tolkien said any part of it.

Ohhh, the ones read by Tolkien sound very interesting, readings by the man himself, how wonderful [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] . I am not very much into books on tape, but he would defantly know how to pronounce all the Elvish and other words correctly. (the pronounciations is something that I probably have the most trouble with)

I have the Martin Shaw CD of the Silmarillion,i am on disc 3 of 13 and so far and it seems very well done.I have his reading of the Hobbit and i didnt care for it so much cause he reads it like a play doing a voice for each charactor and its a bit corny but so far he has done the Silmarillion like he is reading it out loud normally and it has a very good inpact.Made the story much easier for me to understand (i am not the best reader). [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]