Urulókë wrote:

Caudimordax wrote:

Any wild speculation on whether this will be printed to match the rest of the History of Middle Earth hardbacks? After all, it's got the seal of approval from the Tolkien estate, and is being marketed as an extension of HoME...

Just a wild guess, but I would guess that it will not be fully marketed as volume 14 of the HoMe series (ie it will not say "History of Middle-earth Volume 14" on the book itself). Neither will Unfinished Tales. Just too confusing!

It might well mention HoMe in the blurb, as the contents fit nicely into the theme of HoMe, but I think the 12 extant volumes are what they are, and any new material (including Nature) will come out as standalone books on a particular topic delving deeper into the History.

I think this will be the approach and would agree with it. Make it linked much in the same way The History of The Hobbit is, a paperback in the black spine style and a hardcover that befits its publication. It doesn't need to be forced upon those 12 volumes imo. Let ti stand on its own merits so hopefully this will be the start of a new phase in Tolkien publications.

onthetrail wrote:

Let ti stand on its own merits so hopefully this will be the start of a new phase in Tolkien publications.

I hadn't thought of this, but I really like it! Christopher Tolkien gave NoME his stamp of approval, hence my eagerness to rope it in with HoME.

It does make me wonder though, who is next in line at the Tolkien Estate to give such approvals to future releases? Are they more likely to make scholarly decisions about which works to print and how, or might it be more transactional?

Caudimordax wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

Let ti stand on its own merits so hopefully this will be the start of a new phase in Tolkien publications.

I hadn't thought of this, but I really like it! Christopher Tolkien gave NoME his stamp of approval, hence my eagerness to rope it in with HoME.

It does make me wonder though, who is next in line at the Tolkien Estate to give such approvals to future releases? Are they more likely to make scholarly decisions about which works to print and how, or might it be more transactional?

We don't know this at the moment, not sure when we will but it you need to look for an announcement from the Tolkien Estate.

I just hope we're not entering into a period of utter dormancy... With the Amazon series coming up, I hope they won't miss an opportunity to make a bit more dough. But then again, they could just continue to explore new permutations of the word "deluxe" on existing products. I'd also prefer anything new come out thoughtfully edited, though the bar has been set impossibly high by Christopher Tolkien.

Caudimordax wrote:

I just hope we're not entering into a period of utter dormancy... With the Amazon series coming up, I hope they won't miss an opportunity to make a bit more dough. But then again, they could just continue to explore new permutations of the word "deluxe" on existing products. I'd also prefer anything new come out thoughtfully edited, though the bar has been set impossibly high by Christopher Tolkien.

Not just "deluxe", they have to get the word "sumptuous" in the product description.

Stu wrote:

Caudimordax wrote:

I just hope we're not entering into a period of utter dormancy... With the Amazon series coming up, I hope they won't miss an opportunity to make a bit more dough. But then again, they could just continue to explore new permutations of the word "deluxe" on existing products. I'd also prefer anything new come out thoughtfully edited, though the bar has been set impossibly high by Christopher Tolkien.

Not just "deluxe", they have to get the word "sumptuous" in the product description.

The only person who was ever able to influence me with the word 'sumptuous' was Nigella Lawson and that involved licking cream off her finger

onthetrail wrote:

The only person who was ever able to influence me with the word 'sumptuous' was Nigella Lawson and that involved licking cream off her finger

I definitely didn’t just google that. Nope, not even a bit...

Some news from the Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020 ... earth-published-june-2021

Topics include Elvish immortality and reincarnation; the nature of the Valar, the god-like spirits of Middle-earth; the lands and beasts of Númenor; the geography of the kingdom of Gondor; and even who had beards. Whether elves, hobbits and even dwarven women could grow beards has long been subject of debate among fans.

The release is planned for June 2021 with this cover :

Cannot wait for this volume, looks and sounds great.

Thanks so much for sharing this. It’s the only book after The Fall of Gondolin to genuinely excite me.