"How does one pronounce Tolkien?"

[Galin]

Just to mention it, the first edition Foreword also had a brief guide to pronunciation in any case. So some earlier readers had a few pointers... before meeting Keleborn, for example.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Galin

Just to mention it, the first edition Foreword also had a brief guide to pronunciation in any case. So some earlier readers had a few pointers... before meeting Keleborn, for example.

It did - but in very small print at the end stating that "Some may welcome a preliminary note on the pronunciation actually intended by the spellings in this history" & then goes on to mention c & g always being 'hard' (ie pronouned as 'k' & 'g' as in 'get', etc, but I don't see this as over-riding the earlier statement that the reader is free to pronounce the names as they like - & even if Tolkien hadn't permitted such freedom to the reader the case I'm making would still stand, because we're talking about the way we experience the story.

Originally Posted by Eonwe

Changing Cirith Ungol to Kirith Ungol, Seleborn to Keleborn and Sirdan to Kirdan was hard for me, and it's not the same. But then, when you read it again, it seems to fit better (at least to me).

Its not the same - & I think anyone who has altered their pronunciations to the 'correct' ones & goes back to the books & uses their original ones will find the experience much more powerful. Its a bit like the Peking/Beijing & Bombay/Mumbai thing for my generation - the former names may be 'incorrect' but they have much more romance about them than the latter.