Customer Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is amazing that it has taken 50 years for a book like this to come to Tolkien's readers, but at last and with great scholarly authority, comes annotations to "The Lord of the Rings."

Make no mistake, this is a scholarly book and its pretty dense and at times it will push the average LOTR reader. It is full of (appropriately) word origins and possible source info, word meanings and linguistic notes. Still, because of Tolkien's own linguistics background and motivations, this is a must to have at the core of the book and there is plenty of other types of info as well to add roundness and variety to the content.

Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond obviously read and write about LOTR in a way that the casual reader cannot and their considerible knowledge and resources (such as Christopher Tolkien himself) come into play. The book can be used as a side-by-side volume or can be read on its own chronologically. Also included is Tolkien's own, previously out of print "Nomenclature" or guide to names that he used to help potential translators of LOTR and a history of "The Lord of the Rings" The scholars also reference Tolkien's other works such as "The Hobbit", "Unfinished Tales", "The Silmarillion" and Christopher Tolkien's history of Middle-earth.

This is a 900 page work packed with information that can either be read completely or used as a help for those reading "The Lord of the Rings" and wish to get more depth and perspective from further Middle-earth exploration.

It is probably the most important Tolkien publication since (at least) Unfinished Tales in 1980.

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull are among the most authoritative of scholars researching the literary creations of J.R.R. Tolkien. In The Lord Of The Rings: A Reader's Companion, they have surpassed even their previous masterpiece: J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator. (As a matter of full disclosure I should mention that I met Christina Scull some years ago in London, and I have maintained a friendship with her and her husband Wayne G.Hammond ever since. Three articles I wrote for the Mensa Tolkien Special Interest Group's newsletter "Beyond Bree" have been referenced in A Reader's Companion, and I am also among those Wayne and Christina thank in their Preface. Even without these connections I would still be highly impressed with this work!)

This Reader's Companion consists of annotations to The Lord of the Rings. The length of Tolkien's masterwork, which is often mistakenly called a trilogy, made the normal method of including annotations alongside the text impossible, and so this separate volume has been produced. The annotations illuminate some interesting and sometimes obscure sections of the book and assist readers in interpreting Tolkien's rich but occasionally (to modern and American eyes) puzzling vocabulary. Tolkien readers and scholars will find it almost as fascinating as the book itself and many will probably read it straight through not once, but many times.

In addition to the annotations, A Reader's Companion also contains a wealth of material, including Wayne and Christina's own history of the writing of The Lord of the Rings. This is in itself a fascinating description of the many forms the story took over the years from 1937 to the early 1950s, and the many vicissitudes Tolkien endured as he "niggled" away at the writing and rewriting each chapter required. Besides this history the authors have included several fascinating discussions of chronologies, maps, and other matters like dust jackets which might with a lesser author be deemed unworthy of notice, but which in Tolkien's case illuminate the painstaking care he took with every detail. Also included is a portion of a previously unpublished letter in which Tolkien describes The Lord of the Rings as a part of his larger literary/mythological work, and the Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings which Tolkien created to assist translators, and which has been published (incompletely) only once before.

As befits such a fine work of scholarship, A Reader's Companion is beautifully bound with a dust jacket which makes use of Tolkien's own designs. Although the book with its index runs nearly 900 pages, it is comfortable and pleasant to hold. The typeface, though it can be small at times, is clear. The page references are easy to interpret and can be applied to whichever of the many editions of The Lord of the Rings the reader may possess.

It seems likely that at least some future editions of The Lord of the Rings will include A Reader's Companion. First time readers will probably prefer not to read the annotations until they have become more familiar with the text. Once they have been swept up in the story they will find A Reader's Companion enhances their experience. Those of us fortunate enough to have read The Lord of the Rings not just once but many times will immediately recognize A Reader's Companion's value and will cherish it as well.

The content of this book looks like superlative scholarship. Something that might be overlooked, however, but that deserves applause, is the publisher's use of sewn signatures for the book's binding. Very few books are made this way any more, as far as I can see, being instead bound just with glue; but a book made with sewn pages is likely to last longer and look better. The publisher is to be commended for this extra care, and encouraged to continue to use this method in subsequent printings - - especially while holding the price down so remarkably. Even at full price rather than Amazon's discount price, this book is very good value for they money.

As the authors point out in their own introduction, publishing an annotated edition of The Lord of the Rings, complete with the text, was a practical impossibility. Thus was this "Reader's Companion" brought into being. Perhaps not so intuitive and casual to use (as is, say, Douglas Anderson's "Annotated Hobbit") with a separate copy of LOTR, but at nearly 1200 pages, and with this Companion running over 900 pages, you can easily see why Hammond and Scull and their publishers chose to go this route. As a single volume such a thing might be used to stun a Warg!

As a guide, index, and explicatory text, LOTR: A Reader's Companion excels and exceeds expectations. It is very nearly exhaustive, without being exhausting (as such a book might easily have been). Rigorous and of real use to the serious scholar and academic, but readiy accessible and fun to read for the general Tolkien reader who takes pleasure in going deeper into the story, the backstory, and the life of Tolkien and his greatest tale.

LOTR: A Reader's Companion is as well a clear and well organized accesory volume. Much easier to use than most supplemental guides, it is keyed chapter-by-chapter, and page-by-page to the main text (I have 7 editions of LOTR, paper and hardcover, single-volume and sets, and finding the passage referred to in this Reader's Companion is quick and easy in most cases, as is finding appropriate entries in the RC while reading LOTR and coming across an item you want to know more about). I strongly recommend this book to any reader who has or will read LOTR more than once. It is addictive and fun to read all by itself, and deeply informing when read side-by-side with its source.

The book itself is a sturdy, handsome, well put together piece of publishing. A nicely utilitarian, simple, but still elegant cloth binding, with bright foil stamped spine, and a jacket with a plasticized lining, which will make it stand many more hours and years of handing and reading than most paper backed jackets. The paper is excellent stock, of moderate weight in a very pale cream tone. The print is crisp, dark, and thoroughly consistent throughout (which is becoming something rare even in quality hardcovers recently), and the type is a pleasing traditional serif face of good size, and easy to read. Not certainly a self-consciously "fine" or "collector's" edition, but as definately a book that will last and put up with use, and nonetheless has been designed with care and concern for the craft of book-making.

I own it, and I recommend this "Companion" to all interested readers and their libraries, small and large. With Foster's "Complete Guide to Middle-earth" and Christopher Tolkien's "History of Middle-earth", Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull shall have an equal position (to say: even somewhat superior as regards LOTR in particular, where the other two authors' work is more widely focused on the entire legendarium and body of JRRT's work). My only cavil, and I think it slight, is the absence of photos, drawings, publishing ephemera, and other graphicals, which were so prominent and vital in Anderson's "Annotated Hobbit". But: Buy it! Read it! You'll delight in it! It will enlarge your understanding and pleasure each time you read LOTR, whole or part.

Two of the foremost Tolkien scholars, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull have managed to produce in this volume one of the most essential books in any Tolkien library. A READER'S COMPANION carefully annotates, line by line, chapter by chapter, Tolkien's great masterpiece.

When the revised version of THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT came out in 2002 with Douglas A. Anderson's annotations, I was thrilled, as the original from 1988 was out of print. The way they handled THE HOBBIT was a large, oversized hardback, with the main text printed on wide sheets but only taking up the half closet to the binding, with the annotations on the outer edges of the sheets. The book is beautiful to hold, and it was very enlightening during rereadings of THE HOBBIT. It also noted all revisions, and gave original readings, including the original version of "Riddles in the Dark" chapter, which has been out of print for over fifty years. The natural question, of course, was when would LOTR get similar treatment? After all, LOTR had been in print for over fifty years, and such a publication has been long overdue.

Although the method described above worked well with THE HOBBIT, it proved unfeasible for LOTR. For one, LOTR is a much, much longer book than its prequel. So Hammond and his wife opted for a separate volume, and what a volume it is.

Due to the size of LOTR, the way READER'S COMPANION is broken up to cover each chapter in the book. Each annotation is proceeded by the first few words of whatever paragraph the two scholars are analysing at that point. This makes A READER'S COMPANION very easy to use, and to locate in your copy of LOTR the passage in which they are discussing.

As with THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT, there have been a very concentrated effort on the part of the Tolkien Estate to publish the more accurate version of LOTR as possible. Scull and Hammond, along with Christopher Tolkien, spearheaded this enterprise. READER'S COMPANION gives extensive details on how Hammond and Scull, with cooperation from C. Tolkien, set about making the definitive text on LOTR in 2004 and 2005 for the fifthieth anniversary edition. All future subsequent editions will be based on this edition, and is considered the most accurate text now available of Tolkien's work LOTR.

The book annotates all major changes made to LOTR's text in its fifty years of publication. It gives extensive details on how Hammond and Scull, with cooperation with Christopher Tolkien, set about making the definitive text on LOTR in 2004 and 2005 for the fifthieth anniversary edition. All future subsequent editions will be based on this edition, and is considered the most accurate text now available of Tolkien's work LOTR. It examines rare and archaic words and gives information on Elvish linguistics. Hammond and Scull deftly analyse different plot elements, elaborate and clarify obscure points in the text, and bring to light both real inconsistencies within LOTR and perceived contradictions. Tolkien very carefully organized and created precise chronologies and time tables, including the cycles of the moon, and every time the text mentions a new day had arrived, or said something of the moon, the book tells you the precise day this event is occurring.

The companion gives extensive information on time frames and maps. It covers and annotates the forward to the second edition as well as the prologue. There is information about the original 1955 dust jacks, how the title pages were handled, and a number of other publishing matters.

As far as rare and otherwise unpublished original material by Tolkien, A READER'S COMPANION is notable for its inclusion of three pieces.

1. It contains the original forward to LOTR, which was published in the first edition in 1955 and was deleted in 1965 by Tolkien himself, who replaced it with a much longer forward. Tolkien said of the original forward that it confused "personal matters with the machinery of the Tale" and was a "serious mistake". Tolkien was only too happy to delete it. Still, it makes for interesting reading.

2. The second highlight is the previously unpublished summary of LOTR that Tolkien wrote in his letter to Milton Waldman in 1951. This letter was first published in LETTERS OF TOLKIEN, and likewise appears in new editions of THE SILMARILLION. However, the LOTR summary was omitted from these publications, and is published here for the first time.

3. Thankfully, A READER'S COMPANION includes Tolkien's essential, and rarely published before now, "Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings." Previously published n 1975 in Jared Lobell's A TOLKIEN COMPASS, Tolkien prepared this document for his publishers, Allen & Unwin, to send to any translators who were translating LOTR into another language. As LOTR is largely a linguistic work in both foundation and inspiration, this gives a lot of insight into Tolkien and how he felt his work should (as well as emphatically should not) be translated, and what Tolkien considers fair treatment of the material. Essential stuff.

Ultimately, A READER'S COMPANION succeeds in being one of the essential reference works for Tolkien studies and fans. The dust jacket is beautiful, the binding (sewn!) is top notch, and, as any reference work must, you can easily locate any passage or annotation you are looking for. All the annotations are pertinent and enlightening, all textual changes and revisions to the text are accounted for, and with the previously unpublished or rare Tolkien material included, Hammond and Scull have produced the single best resource now available to us on Tolkien's masterpiece. They have proven themselves as two of the foremost Tolkien scholars in the world.

For those looking for additional resources to Tolkien's hobbit cycle, the best way to study them is to have THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT revised and republished in 2002 (the definitive version of that work), buy the fully corrected 50th anniversary text of LOTR, which is the most accurate typographical version ever published, and buy this volume.

Bottom line: If you are a casual fan or very much into Tolkien, buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

This extensively researched and painstakingly organized reader's companion to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is itself a masterpiece, as time will show. In over 400 pages, it contains a wealth of information for both new and seasoned readers, going far beyond just the characters, plot, and language used by the author (reflecting not only the English at the time but also the language as imagined by the author befitting of the book's characters).

Reading this companion, I realized just how much thought Tolkien put into his work, writing, rewriting, and editing parts over years of dedication. When reading a work of fiction, it's easy to be taken hostage by the plot and rush through the story just to see what happens next. Little things, like words that may not make sense, or titles whose significance is not entirely understood, may not get a second thought. And names, of which Tolkien's story contains so many, from characters to places, may appear as names only, but this book reveals the meanings and reasons behind chosen names. Not to mention all the folklores and other literature that Tolkien referenced in his story and expected his readers to know. Which is why I find this book so helpful -- it deliberately slows me down, making me understand the meaning and symbolism contained in the chapter's title and a place's name as much as it helps me fully appreciate the culture of the book's characters. The Shire and elvish country, for example, just come to life with the researchers' analysis.

It's no summer beach reading, but if you're fascinated by the world of Lord of the Rings, you know it's not enough just to know the plot or Heaven forbid, only watch the movies. This will help you get to a new level with Tolkien's masterpiece. Go chapter by chapter and page by page with this companion, and there's also a convenient index to help you with names you may have forgotten. Do you remember Belfalas, Dwarrowdelf, or Caradock of Llancarfan? Want to know more about Celeborn the Elf, Boromir, or the effects of elvish song on humans? Did you spot the proverbs that Tolkiens quoted in his work? Read this companion to the Lord of the Rings and find out.

This is not a book for the casual reader, or even for those enthusiastic readers of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" who are not interested in that work as a literary creation or in its sources. I suspect that most readers of this volume are persons who have Christopher Tolkien's "The Making of Middle Earth" series of books. In the present volume, Hammond and Scull discuss and correct hundreds of errors that have crept into "The Lord of the Rings" as printed over the decades; most of these errors are minor (one word inadvertently substituted for another or perhaps capitalization changed), occasionally a sentence was omitted from the manuscript. In addition, obscure word origins are examined for their roots in Middle Earth languages. This is an excellent, even necessary, reference book for the student of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" who wishes to delve deep into its development.

For the LoTR afficiando, this book is a must read. It goes through the books chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph, explaining many things that to the first time reader can be a bit perplexing. Archaic words are defined. Construction of some of the Elvish languages seen in the books is discussed in easy to understand language. Insights into Tolkien's thinking are explored through letters written by him. It is just rich, rich, rich with information that any Tolkien student would like to know.

I read the Lord of the Rings about once a year, and have for a while. Even so, there is much that I don't know and a lot of background that I wish I knew.

I just bought this book, and am reading it while I re-read the LOTR. I'm reading a chapter of LOTR and then read the chapter's notes in this book. THe world of Lord of the Rings is expanding hugely for me because of the vast amounts of background information this book provides.

Highly recommended!!

I've never attempted something like this,however, I was so impressed with this book I decided to give it a try.
While it would have been great to have an annotated version that included the entire novel,I must say it is very easy to find your place within this book. Weather you are going from the novel to the compainon or visa versa. I am speaking from the point of view of someone very familiar with LOTR having read it numerous times over the last 30 years.And somewhat familiar with Silmarillion.I assume someone seeking this sort of information and\or back story would have at least a minamal knowledge of the novel. Evan assuming no knowledge I believe you would quickly find your way around.
I found the information to be accurate,as far as my knowledge could be trusted to check such things.
One thing I've truely enjoyed is just reading random passages. I find myself reading page after page in this manner. I was just begining Unfinished Tales when I found this book and am anxious to begin reading LOTR again and make use of Reader's Companion.
I would also add that the book itself is very nice. It is well made.The pages are made of nice paper with a great feel.
Overall I am quite pleased and can find nothing negative to say. Again this is my first review and I hope someone finds it as useful as some of the reviews I have found helpful in the past.