It's pretty key if you want to understand where S&S/High Fantasy comes from and of course an important work of early English literature. I'd also cite 'The Prose Edda' as super-significant in this respect- never mind that Neil Gaiman retelling, go for the real thing, which is easy to read and in the penguin classics edition just the job. 'The Vinland Sagas' are great too - the Norse discovery of America!
Ah wonderful Stephen - thanks to your brilliant video I have ordered the The Tolkien Treasury from Amazon (I had a £10 voucher which I won at work in a raffle) can’t wait to get this 😅📖
Harlan Ellison said on his message board: "Susan and I are enjoying the LORD OF THE RINGS movies more than we did the books." (paraphrased) I'm stuck halfway into the single illustrated LOTR Harper Collins hardcover illustrated by Lee.
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think that the Alan Lee illustrations, although watercolor, are really dreary and drain a lot of the energy out of the text making it harder to read, especially if you are someone who is not jazzed on getting through Tolkien to begin with. I *am* jazzed on getting through Tolkien, and I think the Hildebrandt illustrations do more to capture the magic and the lighting, and the general verdancy of that world. Lee has almost no illustrations that look like the world was ever pleasant- was ever sunlit and verdant- it's all sliding into slate!
@@salty-walt On the LOTR movie featurettes, Alan Lee actually speaks in the same way he illustrates Tolkein. You have a very valid point regarding his approach. In Australia, only the Harper Collins Lee editions were available in shops at the time I was looking for nice hardcovers of LOTR and THE HOBBIT to own, circa early 2000s. Weirdly, my copy of THE HOBBIT was printed on heavy GSM semi-gloss paper, which made it mismatch with LOTR. First world probs!
@@salty-walt I enjoy Lee’s art well enough, but much preferred Nasmith’s work in The Silmarillion. The Hildebrandt Brothers art was the version of my younger years and I had a book of their LOTR art, but sadly no longer have it.
@@JimmyDaKoik There are Hildebrandt images in my head from 40 years ago that I cannot find online. It's most vexing. It's also doubly hard to convince the kids today that something happened if there's no proof of it online. Because there have been two generations who think that everything that ever existed also exists online. 'Tis to weep.
@@JimmyDaKoik That is sad. I thought I mentioned here (now I have NO idea where I said it!) that there's one Hildebrandt that I remember but can find NO record of online. It Clearly inspired Peter Jackson (why I went looking for it - to compare) with the ribbons of sunlight streaming in when Frodo awakes to find his friends around him. Mandella fan art. . .
I agree these are very nice editions indeed. I recall your passion for Moorcock et al while I had read LOTR, I recall moving onto Dancers at the End of Time and History of the Runestaff pretty quickly thanks to you. I did pick up an Unwin paperback boxset of LOTR recently secondhand, I remember that livery everywhere in the 70's. The Beowulf looks great, but pricey as you say; last version I read was Seamus Heaney translation in Faber from 1999, very readable.
I still prefer MM by a very long chalk, but I have grown more interested in Tolkien's iconography and career. I don't think I'll ever be a truly big fan, though.
A Tolkien assortment. Not read Roverandom but did the others a long time ago. Didn't much care for the poems in Tom Bombadil but maybe a reread might be in order. The one they missed was "Tree & Leaf" with the short story "Leaf by Niggle". Pauline Baynes was a well regarded illustrator & I had her poster map of Middle Earth surrounded by her vignettes taken from LOTR upon my bedroom wall. I have the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf and the CD audio book of him reading the poem/saga. Something about the Celtic voice that brings the tale to life. It would be interesting to compare the 2 versions. I can't help but think Harper Collins is trying to extract the most amount of money from fans with all the different editions and deluxe bindings. To be a completist ( if that is the correct word) will spend close to one thousand pounds. Enjoy the books 😀
Yes, HarperCollins are of course milking the archives for all they are worth, but any publisher would do the same. They know that there are uncritical (of text) Tolkien addicts out there who will spend the money, so you can't blame them - I just wish HC had invested some of this money in keeping their old Panther SF imprint alive but it declined absurdly in the 90s....but then my thoughts on SF in that decade are becoming well known LOL. I've always avoided the Heaney (the bestselling UK version since it appeared a couple of decades ago) simply because as soon as it was issued, everyone in the Uk who read book reviews went out and bought it (I always find this irritating, as it's not like 'Beowulf' was obscure, it just reveals the slavish nature of the Sunday supplement reader). I'm sure it's very good, though and one day I'll pick it up. I'm not sure a 'Celtic' reading will work for me, as I don't see 'Beowulf' as being of that culture, but of the Nordic. 'Celtic' is an interesting one, isn't it? Increasingly, many historians are questioning it's validity- it originally meant ' the culture of North-West continental Europe in a certain period' and over the years became applied romantically to the Irish, Welsh, Cornish and sometimes Scots. As a Welshman, I feel very little affinity with Ireland, quite frankly. I see my people as being the descendants of the original Britons who were pushed into the West by Romans and then Anglo-Saxons, who were of course Germanic. Arthur and Merlin are of course widely believed to have been Welsh or Cornish...'Arthur of the Britons' as it were. It's all fascinating stuff, I find!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal If memory serves the Celts originated in central Europe and I'm not sure if The Beaker People (Belgae) were a subset or distinct group. Any how the Celts migrated west. Both the Welsh & Irish have a bardic tradition of oral history that I was alluding to when I mentioned Heaney's version. I often start with something popular & then explore further. There is Gaelic A & B though I can't remember which is which but you have Irish & Scots, then Welsh, Cornish & Breton. Arthur "the once and future king" and his story being embellished by Medieval French who added Lancelot plus I liked the idea that Merlin was wise because he was living backwards in time.
@@zetectic7968 -Yes, all the differing ideas about this whole melange of West European culture is fascinating. Merddyn is one of a number of Welsh variant spellings of Merlin and in one of my videos I visit Carleon (birthplace of Arthur Machen and site of a Roman Amphitheatre) which has associations with an Arthurian Court- and in Colin Wilson's novella "Return of the lloigor" (video about this on my channel too), he refers to Carleon as Melincourt (Merlin's Court). It's a huge rabbit hole to fall into!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Colin Wilson's novella "Return of the lloigor" (video about this on my channel too). Yes I have watched that - very interesting.
Thank you, Stephen, for your opinion on the Beowulf edition. It was on my radar but I think I shall pass. Without your point of view, I'd have misspent 75 pounds. Much appreciated! I've always found Tolkien to be akin to a pilgrimage; undertaken solemnly, and having to will oneself through the tedious parts of the journey as an act of reverence. Still though, a very remarkable body of work and truly one of a kind. I have the same feelings about CS Lewis, although I must admit I prefer above all other works of his, the "space trilogy" far and away. Best wishes for a great 2023 old chap. Cheers.
Cheers Rick. At the moment, the US Penguin Classic 'Beowulf' prose translation is my preferred, but I'm yet to read the Tolkien which has both detractors and champions. At £75 I feel it is overpriced, personally, but of course I get a discount and decent hardcover copies of this keynote work are uncommon, plus I wanted to get the associational material to understand JRRT's academic work more fully, Hope you enjoy the New Year too!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Aren't those associated materials in the standard green covered hardback? (There was definitely more than just Beowulf.) I passed on one for $12 because I just didn't care for the condition, and it definitely had other essays. Kind of wish I had gotten it now.
@@salty-walt Yes, the textual content is the same. I wish I'd bought the standard jacketed hardcover but it's out of print and I left it too long, so had to plump for this instead.
Never thought that the short novels could be stretch out to those thick books.
Yes, it's quite a startler!
Great video I have never read Beowulf really must get round to reading it.
It's pretty key if you want to understand where S&S/High Fantasy comes from and of course an important work of early English literature. I'd also cite 'The Prose Edda' as super-significant in this respect- never mind that Neil Gaiman retelling, go for the real thing, which is easy to read and in the penguin classics edition just the job. 'The Vinland Sagas' are great too - the Norse discovery of America!
Ah wonderful Stephen - thanks to your brilliant video I have ordered the The Tolkien Treasury from Amazon (I had a £10 voucher which I won at work in a raffle) can’t wait to get this 😅📖
Congrats, Marc! The Treasury is very beautiful, bit of a pain to rack/shelve, but a lovely thing!
Harlan Ellison said on his message board: "Susan and I are enjoying the LORD OF THE RINGS movies more than we did the books." (paraphrased) I'm stuck halfway into the single illustrated LOTR Harper Collins hardcover illustrated by Lee.
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I think that the Alan Lee illustrations, although watercolor, are really dreary and drain a lot of the energy out of the text making it harder to read, especially if you are someone who is not jazzed on getting through Tolkien to begin with. I *am* jazzed on getting through Tolkien, and I think the Hildebrandt illustrations do more to capture the magic and the lighting, and the general verdancy of that world. Lee has almost no illustrations that look like the world was ever pleasant- was ever sunlit and verdant- it's all sliding into slate!
@@salty-walt On the LOTR movie featurettes, Alan Lee actually speaks in the same way he illustrates Tolkein. You have a very valid point regarding his approach. In Australia, only the Harper Collins Lee editions were available in shops at the time I was looking for nice hardcovers of LOTR and THE HOBBIT to own, circa early 2000s. Weirdly, my copy of THE HOBBIT was printed on heavy GSM semi-gloss paper, which made it mismatch with LOTR. First world probs!
@@salty-walt I enjoy Lee’s art well enough, but much preferred Nasmith’s work in The Silmarillion. The Hildebrandt Brothers art was the version of my younger years and I had a book of their LOTR art, but sadly no longer have it.
@@JimmyDaKoik There are Hildebrandt images in my head from 40 years ago that I cannot find online. It's most vexing.
It's also doubly hard to convince the kids today that something happened if there's no proof of it online. Because there have been two generations who think that everything that ever existed also exists online.
'Tis to weep.
@@JimmyDaKoik That is sad. I thought I mentioned here (now I have NO idea where I said it!) that there's one Hildebrandt that I remember but can find NO record of online. It Clearly inspired Peter Jackson (why I went looking for it - to compare) with the ribbons of sunlight streaming in when Frodo awakes to find his friends around him. Mandella fan art. . .
I agree these are very nice editions indeed. I recall your passion for Moorcock et al while I had read LOTR, I recall moving onto Dancers at the End of Time and History of the Runestaff pretty quickly thanks to you. I did pick up an Unwin paperback boxset of LOTR recently secondhand, I remember that livery everywhere in the 70's. The Beowulf looks great, but pricey as you say; last version I read was Seamus Heaney translation in Faber from 1999, very readable.
I still prefer MM by a very long chalk, but I have grown more interested in Tolkien's iconography and career. I don't think I'll ever be a truly big fan, though.
A Tolkien assortment. Not read Roverandom but did the others a long time ago. Didn't much care for the poems in Tom Bombadil but maybe a reread might be in order. The one they missed was "Tree & Leaf" with the short story "Leaf by Niggle". Pauline Baynes was a well regarded illustrator & I had her poster map of Middle Earth surrounded by her vignettes taken from LOTR upon my bedroom wall.
I have the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf and the CD audio book of him reading the poem/saga. Something about the Celtic voice that brings the tale to life. It would be interesting to compare the 2 versions.
I can't help but think Harper Collins is trying to extract the most amount of money from fans with all the different editions and deluxe bindings. To be a completist ( if that is the correct word) will spend close to one thousand pounds.
Enjoy the books 😀
Yes, HarperCollins are of course milking the archives for all they are worth, but any publisher would do the same. They know that there are uncritical (of text) Tolkien addicts out there who will spend the money, so you can't blame them - I just wish HC had invested some of this money in keeping their old Panther SF imprint alive but it declined absurdly in the 90s....but then my thoughts on SF in that decade are becoming well known LOL.
I've always avoided the Heaney (the bestselling UK version since it appeared a couple of decades ago) simply because as soon as it was issued, everyone in the Uk who read book reviews went out and bought it (I always find this irritating, as it's not like 'Beowulf' was obscure, it just reveals the slavish nature of the Sunday supplement reader). I'm sure it's very good, though and one day I'll pick it up. I'm not sure a 'Celtic' reading will work for me, as I don't see 'Beowulf' as being of that culture, but of the Nordic. 'Celtic' is an interesting one, isn't it? Increasingly, many historians are questioning it's validity- it originally meant ' the culture of North-West continental Europe in a certain period' and over the years became applied romantically to the Irish, Welsh, Cornish and sometimes Scots.
As a Welshman, I feel very little affinity with Ireland, quite frankly. I see my people as being the descendants of the original Britons who were pushed into the West by Romans and then Anglo-Saxons, who were of course Germanic. Arthur and Merlin are of course widely believed to have been Welsh or Cornish...'Arthur of the Britons' as it were. It's all fascinating stuff, I find!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal If memory serves the Celts originated in central Europe and I'm not sure if The Beaker People (Belgae) were a subset or distinct group. Any how the Celts migrated west. Both the Welsh & Irish have a bardic tradition of oral history that I was alluding to when I mentioned Heaney's version. I often start with something popular & then explore further.
There is Gaelic A & B though I can't remember which is which but you have Irish & Scots, then Welsh, Cornish & Breton.
Arthur "the once and future king" and his story being embellished by Medieval French who added Lancelot plus I liked the idea that Merlin was wise because he was living backwards in time.
@@zetectic7968 -Yes, all the differing ideas about this whole melange of West European culture is fascinating. Merddyn is one of a number of Welsh variant spellings of Merlin and in one of my videos I visit Carleon (birthplace of Arthur Machen and site of a Roman Amphitheatre) which has associations with an Arthurian Court- and in Colin Wilson's novella "Return of the lloigor" (video about this on my channel too), he refers to Carleon as Melincourt (Merlin's Court). It's a huge rabbit hole to fall into!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Colin Wilson's novella "Return of the lloigor" (video about this on my channel too). Yes I have watched that - very interesting.
Thank you, Stephen, for your opinion on the Beowulf edition. It was on my radar but I think I shall pass. Without your point of view, I'd have misspent 75 pounds. Much appreciated! I've always found Tolkien to be akin to a pilgrimage; undertaken solemnly, and having to will oneself through the tedious parts of the journey as an act of reverence. Still though, a very remarkable body of work and truly one of a kind. I have the same feelings about CS Lewis, although I must admit I prefer above all other works of his, the "space trilogy" far and away. Best wishes for a great 2023 old chap. Cheers.
Cheers Rick. At the moment, the US Penguin Classic 'Beowulf' prose translation is my preferred, but I'm yet to read the Tolkien which has both detractors and champions. At £75 I feel it is overpriced, personally, but of course I get a discount and decent hardcover copies of this keynote work are uncommon, plus I wanted to get the associational material to understand JRRT's academic work more fully, Hope you enjoy the New Year too!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Aren't those associated materials in the standard green covered hardback? (There was definitely more than just Beowulf.)
I passed on one for $12 because I just didn't care for the condition, and it definitely had other essays. Kind of wish I had gotten it now.
@@salty-walt Yes, the textual content is the same. I wish I'd bought the standard jacketed hardcover but it's out of print and I left it too long, so had to plump for this instead.