A literary season rich in novelties in the library
- some recent UK editions
- the new French paperback collection (to my knowledge, "Les Etymologies" only exists in French).
- first French translation of the KWF atlas + the French edition of Worlds of JRRT (the second allowing me to have the free map as a gift )
- some variants or old French editions (yes, it's the Silmarillion in 2 volumes)

And to think that fall has only just begun...

“The Etymologies” I assume is just excerpted from The Lost Road.

Tell us more about the map?

Ulmo wrote:

“The Etymologies” I assume is just excerpted from The Lost Road.


Tell us more about the map?

Yes, that is correct.
This is a particularity of the French editions: the publisher offers a small book, independent of The Lost Road, which contains only the dictionary.

Regarding the map, it is just a commercial operation on the part of the publisher who offered a map of the Second Age as a bonus gift if you bought 2 books from a list of 2 publishers.
The map itself comes from the French translation of the KWF atlas but was, like all the others maps, redrawn by a French cartographer (since the original files were lost by the American publisher).
It should be noted, in this regard, that the Brazilian publisher has already purchased the rights for these new maps and that the French publisher hopes to conclude other sales with foreign publishers.

Some beautiful editions. Those new French ones look quite nice. I see three paperbacks in the box in the last photo. Are the three French paperbacks in the second photo the contents of that box set? Or are they "Rings of Power" covers in the box?

I might also note that at least one Korean edition of The Silmarillion has it divided into two books. It goes along with a 7-volume set of LOTR. (The Hobbit in the set is still just one volume.) Japanese and Korean editions typically divide LOTR into 6 or 7 volumes (depending on whether the Appendices are part of the edition), so dividing The Silmarillion into two volumes (for size considerations) makes sense. This is the first time I've seen such a two-volume Silmarillion outside Korea and Japan, though. Cool.

The box of the last photo is an old one, dating from the first Jackson films, in the first translation of the LoR in pocket format ; the three volumes have Jackson pictures on cover. In fact, in the last photo, you have all books in old translations.

In the second photo, all are in the newer second translation, including the Silmarillion retranslated last year, that is published in paperback and large format (the classical format of Bourgois publishers) for the first time. About the LoR, they are the more recent print in the same format. We don't have box for the most recent LoR translation in large format yet ; but for next year, we wait the hardback in one volume similar to the white and red published by HarperCollins last year. There exists just one (? Bergelmir will correct me) box in pocket format with the new translation, that was published some days ago.

I know these Rings of Power "Hands" covers are controversial, but since they're being produced in several different languages (and since they exist, whether controversial or not), I'm going to try to add as many of them as possible (hopefully all) to my collection of translations. The Hungarian one here was the first to arrive, but Dutch, German, and Spanish are in the mail. I haven't been able to find any other countries where the "Hands" covers are being used to advertise the Rings of Power, but if you know of some, please let me know.

(In my previous posts, I've used scanned images of the covers to post, but since everyone else makes nice photos, I thought I'd take a try at photography.)

Druss wrote:

The box of the last photo is an old one, dating from the first Jackson films, in the first translation of the LoR in pocket format ; the three volumes have Jackson pictures on cover. In fact, in the last photo, you have all books in old translations.

In the second photo, all are in the newer second translation, including the Silmarillion retranslated last year, that is published in paperback and large format (the classical format of Bourgois publishers) for the first time. About the LoR, they are the more recent print in the same format. We don't have box for the most recent LoR translation in large format yet ; but for next year, we wait the hardback in one volume similar to the white and red published by HarperCollins last year. There exists just one (? Bergelmir will correct me) box in pocket format with the new translation, that was published some days ago.

Nothing to correct, everything is perfectly correct (and for precision, the pocket box dates from 2003)

One of the facts that may explain why French editions are not really interested in Amazon visuals is Tolkien's publisher in France is a small publishing house, very focused on international literature that the it is commonly called "blanche" in France (understand by this, classic modern literary, and not related to the "Imaginary genres" that are science fiction, fantastic and fantasy).
The publisher has thus taken many years to modify its "Tolkien" graphic charter and to give it a specific visual identity (based on that of Harper Collins), which is a unique exception in its catalog. Now that it's there, they're not going to change it to match footage from the show.

Bergelmir wrote:

One of the facts that may explain why French editions are not really interested in Amazon visuals is Tolkien's publisher in France is a small publishing house, very focused on international literature that the it is commonly called "blanche" in France (understand by this, classic modern literary, and not related to the "Imaginary genres" that are science fiction, fantastic and fantasy).
The publisher has thus taken many years to modify its "Tolkien" graphic charter and to give it a specific visual identity (based on that of Harper Collins), which is a unique exception in its catalog. Now that it's there, they're not going to change it to match footage from the show.

That explains a lot about the unique nature of the French editions and why they rarely match common covers across the rest of Europe. Thanks

Nevertheless, I bet Pocket editions will published tie in versions next year.

Taivo wrote:

I know these Rings of Power "Hands" covers are controversial, but since they're being produced in several different languages (and since they exist, whether controversial or not), I'm going to try to add as many of them as possible (hopefully all) to my collection of translations. The Hungarian one here was the first to arrive, but Dutch, German, and Spanish are in the mail. I haven't been able to find any other countries where the "Hands" covers are being used to advertise the Rings of Power, but if you know of some, please let me know.

(In my previous posts, I've used scanned images of the covers to post, but since everyone else makes nice photos, I thought I'd take a try at photography.)

Sounds like a worthy project!

I do know that these are available in Brazil/Portuguese, at least.