I haven’t been diligent in following everything on here, so not sure what happened to Stu, but hope you’re alright, and joining everyone else in welcoming you back. ?

Alan kindly shared his compositional thoughts on this piece, for those interested:

I had thought of setting the scene in an interior, and that is probably what Tolkien had in mind, but I thought there was an opportunity to locate the forges within sight of Moria, and I wanted to get across the idea that the forging of the rings may be linked to the landscape, moonlight, water etc. The female elf in the left foreground - next to Celebrimbor - is adding some ingredient to the metal - it could be anything… The other female elf in the background is doing some detailed finishing work to one of the rings. Neither are based on particular characters from the text.

Thanks for the interesting insight!

The Fall of Númenor by JRR Tolkien review – masterful world-building from the father of fantasy

Following Amazon’s Rings of Power series, this beautiful compendium of Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth stories offers the ideal palate cleanser

John Garth

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022 ... rom-the-father-of-fantasy

thank you for sharing John Garth's article which reminded me how awesome standing in front of John Martin's Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (in the Tate Britain I think that I saw it) feels like.

Waterstones re-barcoded their store (Alan Lee) signed copies (& functionally stickered the front cover) for BL & FG when they were published. Granted, other sellers had "signed by" stickers too, but I don't recall barcode stickers on copies from smaller sellers.

Anyone who was at the "official" Numenor launch able to confirm whether this happened again? I've not noticed this time around...

Deluxe edition arrived damaged from BD this morning (so will be going back). Now the very odd thing is that it also had a page corner that had been separated into two layers with one folded over. This would be mildly odd, except for the fact that someone else posted about the exact same problem on the exact same page this morning (before my copy arrived).

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/ ... ile_reading_the_fall_of_númenor/

I have to say this is definitely by far the worst quality deluxe edition so far (Kullervo was better). Paper quality is poor and image reproduction on the colour plates is woeful. Nice binding colour, but no other redeeming features. That said, I'm glad to have it as a temporary reading copy before it goes back.

Edit: Worth pointing out the copy on reddit is a standard edition page block, and mine is deluxe. Can someone with both confirm whether the page blocks appear identical (other than the colophon)?

Stu wrote:

Deluxe edition arrived damaged from BD this morning (so will be going back). Now the very odd thing is that it also had a page corner that had been separated into two layers with one folded over. This would be mildly odd, except for the fact that someone else posted about the exact same problem on the exact same page this morning (before my copy arrived).

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/ ... ile_reading_the_fall_of_númenor/

I have to say this is definitely by far the worst quality deluxe edition so far (Kullervo was better). Paper quality is poor and image reproduction on the colour plates is woeful. Nice binding colour, but no other redeeming features. That said, I'm glad to have it as a temporary reading copy before it goes back.

Edit: Worth pointing out the copy on reddit is a standard edition page block, and mine is deluxe. Can someone with both confirm whether the page blocks appear identical (other than the colophon)?

Do you notice a reddish tent to the color plates? Someone else pointed it out to me and now it's hard not to see it.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

Stu wrote:

Deluxe edition arrived damaged from BD this morning (so will be going back). Now the very odd thing is that it also had a page corner that had been separated into two layers with one folded over. This would be mildly odd, except for the fact that someone else posted about the exact same problem on the exact same page this morning (before my copy arrived).

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/ ... ile_reading_the_fall_of_númenor/

I have to say this is definitely by far the worst quality deluxe edition so far (Kullervo was better). Paper quality is poor and image reproduction on the colour plates is woeful. Nice binding colour, but no other redeeming features. That said, I'm glad to have it as a temporary reading copy before it goes back.

Edit: Worth pointing out the copy on reddit is a standard edition page block, and mine is deluxe. Can someone with both confirm whether the page blocks appear identical (other than the colophon)?

Do you notice a reddish tent to the color plates? Someone else pointed it out to me and now it's hard not to see it.

Possibly very slightly, but I don't think it is something I would notice. The paper colour doesn't seem terribly even though. I guess it depends which printer was used to print each given signature that determines what any given page looks like, given the paper tone is just printed on. The paper is very rough -- it really does feel like a trade edition in a slipcase.

Edit: Actually, yes - I just compared the "Forging of the rings" against the original - and it is red in comparison. My God, the print quality is absolutely horrific for these plates though. I had low expectations, but these are much worse than I expected.

I hadn't noticed this but now it's mentioned I do see it. Not so evident on some but it's definitely there.

It's just all part of a long history of HarperCollins not giving a damn about quality though. It is unsurprising at this point.