LotR audio material (was Re: Tolkien and iPod)

Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Fri, 13 Jan 2006 09:08:29 GMT from Christopher Kreuzer
> <spamgard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
>> Did no-one mention that the BBC version is more a dramatization,
>> and not an audiobook? It is not an unabridged reading of the text.
>
> Thank you for pointing that out! I think it's a key point, and it's
> probably a major reason why I didn't like it. Even when the author
> doesn't create a different story (as Peter Jackson did in his
> dramatization), I still prefer my Tolkien complete and unadorned.
> Other people might prefer a dramatization over an unabridged reading.
>
> It would be great if someone :-) would put up a Web page of audio
> versions of Tolkien's works, with descriptions of them and perhaps
> sort comments from a couple of people -- though I recognize it could
> be hard to select that last.

[After I wrote some of the post below, I found these pages, which cover
most of what I wrote, though I have tried to add dates where I could
find them. See also the note towards the end of my post.

http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/tolkien-audio.html
http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/uk/misc_british.htm

I should have remembered this great website! It is also the home to the
Letters FAQ and some great pages covering the many, many editions of
Tolkien's books.]

I found a Wikipedia page a year or so ago that did a good job of
describing the radio versions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1981_radio_series)

Seems like there were three radio versions of LotR.

[A] Radio versions of LotR:

1) 13-part BBC Radio version of LotR in 1956
2) 13-hour BBC Radio 4 version of LotR in 1981.
3) Mind's Eye version of LotR in 1979.

Any recordings of the 1956 BBC version are probably long gone to radio
heaven.

This page is good (was a link from the Wikipedia page):

http://www.audiotheater.com/lotr.html

It has pretty pictures and also explains the change in company names for
the Mind's Eye one (now sold by Highbridge Audio).

This is an interesting page about the 1981 BBC version:

http://www.briansibley.com/Broadcasts/RingGoesEverOn.htm

Here is another page about the Mind's Eye one:

http://www.sf-worlds.com/lord-of-the-rings/the-lord-of-the-rings-minds-eye-1979.html

....which mentions that the same guy who adapted LotR for the
NPR-sponsored one (another way to refer to the Mind's Eye one) did a
radio script for 'The Hobbit'. Found it at an online shop here:

http://tinyurl.com/c4vx4

So we have an entry for radio scripts of 'The Hobbit', and there was
also one by BBC radio as well:

[B] Radio versions of 'The Hobbit':

1) Mind's Eye radio version of The Hobbit (unknown date, probably around
1979 when LotR version was done).
2) BBC radio version of The Hobbit (1968).

[C] Other radio broadcasts:

As for other radio scripts/broadcasts, there were:

1) Excerpts from Tolkien's translation of Pearl (Anglo-Saxon verse),
broadcast by BBC radio in 1936.
2) Talk by Tolkien on 'Anglo-Saxon verse'. Broadcast by BBC radio on 14
January 1938 - 13 minutes long.
3) Dramatization of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', broadcast by BBC
radio in 1953.
4) Performance of 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son'.
Broadcast by BBC radio in 1954.
5) 'Tales from the Perilous Realm' - BBC radio dramatisations of Farmer
Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, The Adventures of
Tom Bombadil (unknown date).

Items 1-4 are mentioned in /Letters/ (see notes below). Like the 1956
BBC LotR, they were probably not preserved.

As for unabridged audiobook material, including what we've already
mentioned, there are several items.

[D] Unabridged Audio Books:

1) 'The Hobbit' read by Rob Inglis.
2) 'The Lord of the Rings' read by Rob Inglis.
3) 'The Silmarillion' read by Martin Shaw.

There are also audiobooks of some of the other works:

4) 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' read by Terry Jones.
5) 'Farmer Giles of Ham and Other Stories' read by Derek Jacobi (the
other stories include "Smith of Wootton Major" and "Leaf by Niggle").

And also an _abridged_ version of 'The Hobbit':

1) 'The Hobbit' (abridged) read by Martin Shaw.

You also have the audio excerpts about and by Tolkien himself.

[E] Readings by Tolkien and others:

1) 'The Tolkien Collection' - excerpts from LotR, The Hobbit and the
Adventures of Tom Bombadil, read by J.R.R. Tolkien, plus excerpts from
The Silmarillion, read by Christopher Tolkien. [Note that the tapes and
CD collections of this item are slightly different - see details at
links below.]

2) 'J.R.R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait' - "Nearly two hours of BBC Radio
interviews with Tolkien, his three children, Humphrey Carpenter, Rayner
Unwin, and others."

[For other audio material from Tolkien himself, get hold of the various
interviews and collected materials on _film_, not radio, mostly in, or
for, TV/video documentaries.]

Then there are Tolkien-inspired songs and music.

[F] Tolkien-inspired music:

1) 'The Road Goes Ever On' - a song cycle - music by Donald Swann,
poems by J.R.R. Tolkien.

2) Various CD collections issued by 'The Tolkien Ensemble', setting many
of the poems and songs to music.

There is other music stuff as well, but I'll stop there.

Do you think you have enough room on your iPod for all those items,
Stan? :-) [Well, I know there is likely to be room, I guess I mean do
you have time to listen to them all!]

To summarize: these two pages here:

http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/tolkien-audio.html
http://users.telerama.com/~taliesen/tolkien/uk/misc_british.htm

....cover most of the items listed above, except for:

i) 'The Hobbit' (abridged version) read by Martin Shaw.
ii) The four early radio items (C1-4 above).
iii) Tolkien Ensemble CDs.

The 'Hobbit' version in (i) is an abridged version. Not quite sure what
is going on here.

The four items in (i) probably no longer exist. For details, see Letter
175 for Beorhtnoth and Letter 152 for 1956 LotR radio version. See also
BBC in the /Letters/ index: for Pearl broadcast see Letter 238 and
endnote 2 to that letter; for 'Anglo-Saxon verse' broadcast, see endnote
5 to Letter 19; for 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' dramatisation, see
endnote 1 to Letter 148.

For (iii) see http://www.tolkienensemble.net/ (though that looks a bit
out-of-date now). There seem to have been four CDs so far, released in
September 2001 (first 2); October 2002 (third one); and sometime in 2005
(fourth one - can anyone confirm this?).

I'm also trying to confirm dates for some of these items:

a) NPR Hobbit - when was it first broadcast?
b) Perilous Realm BBC dramatisations - when were they first broadcast?
c) Unlike the radio broadcasts, I haven't dated the first publication of
the audiobooks, music, or collections of readings, but I'd like to add
dates to these.

>> I have the Inglis (only LotR) and Shaw (Silmarillion) audiobooks.
>> Unlike Stan, I found the Inglis reading heavy going, but maybe I
>> should try it again someday.
>
> Tastes vary. I think the more people who weigh in, the better buying
> decisions people can make.
>
> For myself, I think it was the Lothlorien chapter that did the most
> for my opinion of the Rob Inglis reading. I don't mean that it's the
> only good thing! Rather, I mean that reading the chapter to myself I
> always found it rather boring because it was mostly descriptions
> rather than action or even "lore" like "The Council of Elrond. (That
> may not be accurate, but it was my impression.) I remember the first
> time I heard Inglis read that chapter, it burst on me how beautiful
> it was. Then I began really paying attention to the reading, and
> found much else that I liked. I think he's particularly god at
> Treebeard's voice, for instance.

I think I will give it another go!

>> I loved the Shaw reading of Silmarillion, and wrote a review of it
>> many years ago. I should dust it off and get it up on a web-page.
>
> I for one would love to see it.

I'll see what I can do. I still want to post a review of "The Science of
Middle-earth". I haven't forgotten that either! :-)

Christopher

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