Customer Reviews

The J. R. R. Tolkien Audio Collection

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

According to the inserts, these recordings were made before the "Lord of the Rings" books were even published. J.R.R. Tolkien performed these snippets for friends, in order to get their opinion of his new story as well as inspire himself to pursue publication. It is pretty fortunate that they were recorded.

Of course, the recording quality of these informal chats is not top-notch, but I would expect nothing different. These are not professional recordings, but probably just someone with a recording machine in a living room while Tolkien performs. They are intimate, and a wonder to hear. Imagine if you could have been there, with Professor Tolkien trying to interest you in his funny little stories!

Tolkien reads excerpts from several of his books, including "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." He reads "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," and sings a few of his songs. It is great fun to hear the "gollum" noise as he envisioned it, as well as the Elvish language spoken by it's author.

I highly recommend these recordings. They are a window into the past.

It's too bad that Tolkien didn't get a chance to read the whole of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit". But, it's wonderful that these recordings survived for us to hear them since they were not professionally made and most were done before "Lord of the Rings" was even published, let alone popular. Also, also my thanks to who ever decided to put all these on CD. My LPs of these recordings are worn out.

Ever wanted to actually HEAR the voice of the author of "The Lord of the Rings" books reading some of his own wanderfull work? Well, whith this collection, you CAN!!! Yes, it's true, Tolkien reading his own writing!!! Among the many treasures contained in this fabulous four disk collection is a sample of Tolkien reading the two lines of writing on the ring, "one ring to rule them all..." No, he doesn't read it in the black speech, but I'd like to think that he DID record that. there's a pretty good sprinkling of Elvish here too: both spoken and sung. You will just love the first item in this collection. Here, Tolkien reads the passage about Gollum from "the Hobbit". It should be noted that He reads at a fairly fast rate so you may have to listen somewhat more closely than you might otherwise. This one will just keep you coming back again and again and again!!!!! You'll NEVER tire of it.

Who better to read Tolkien than Tolkien?

What I find so delightful in this compilation is the variety of mood and tone that both J. R. R. and Christopher bring to Tolkien's work. J. R. R. has real fun with the poems and narratives (especially of Sam and Gollum). The riddle chapter from The Hobbitt is an absolute treasure. J. R. R.'s vocal characterization of Gollum is genuinely first rate; no actor could have done it better. And his reading of the charge of the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor is fully heroic.

But J. R. R. is always rustic whereas Christopher is erudite. The contrast is remarkable and somehow effective. Christopher's reading from The Silmarillion gives a sense of the depth of history of the Elder Days. His Oxbridge accent (after all, he grew up in Oxford) is perfect for the great persons he gives voice to. And of course he knows his father's work better than any person alive.

If you've ever enjoyed *reading* Tolkien, you owe it to yourself to *hear* Tolkien. You will love it! (And your kids will love Gollum!)

To a Tolkien fan since childhood, hearing the author himself reading his material was a somewhat emotional experience. Ideally, the recordings would be a complete reading of the whole LoTR trilogy or more, but even with the clips and bits available they are very much worth the buck.

To me, these recordings have confirmed that I have read the books "in tune" with Tolkien himself, and I feel that to a certain point they confirm that the movie pictures have captured Tolkien rather well, too.

I absolutely love this group of CDs! Hearing Tolkien himself reading exerpts from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings make reading the stories themselves even more wonderful!
And when Christopher reads from The Silmarillion, it's just amazing, especially for someone who's been reading these stories since I was a little child.
I'd recommed these CDs to anyone who wanted ot listen to a true master of words.

For anyone who has fallen under the spell of J.R.R. Tolkien, I can't recommend these recordings enough. For the price of one CD, you get 4 in the set, all chock-full of Tolkien and his son Christopher reading selections from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, and The Silmarillion. The price of the CD alone is worth hearing Tolkien's 29-minutes-long reading of a piece of "Riddles in the Dark" from The Hobbit...absolutely marvelous! His Gollum voice is delicious!

I highly recommend this CD package. You will enjoy it immensely.

This is a great 4 cassette audio book, with the author himself reading excerpts from The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. The only reason why I gave it 4 stars and not 5 stars, is because the original recording was not done professionally (it was recorded by the author in the summer of 1952), and it is choppy in places. But, to hear the author make the "gollum" noise in his throat is well worth the modest cost of this Audio Collection. He reads poetry and sings elvish songs -- it's pretty cool! There's nothing like hearing the nuances and voice modulation and intonation of the author as he reads his own writing as it was meant to be read.

The sound of tolkien reading his own works is a moving experience-both joy to hear these tapes,and grief that there were no further readings done by him.Tolkiens intonation,etc reveal heretofor unappriciated nuances to characters and events.GET THIS NOW-you will be delighted by what you will hear

If you want to give this as a present to a Tolkien fan then this is it, a collection of Tolkiens best books, (well, they are in my opinion they are) including the great joint work "The road goes ever on" with Donald Swann and J.R.R. Tolkien, but if you buy them for yourself and you have never read Tolkien books before beware, you will probably not be able to understand it. But as a gift it is great, myself a avid tolkien fan who has a large collection of Tolkien books will certainly look forward to adding this to my collection. 9 out of 10