The Silmarillion Editions

[Nayra Waddles]

Whencollecting Tolkien books most people stop when The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings is on the shelves. Yet there is another treasure to explore. For most in the beginning a hard read, but maybe the most valuable literature treasure for others. I'll try to tell more on this book, The Silmarillion, it's origin and all on collecting this marvellous work, ranging from limited to translated editions.

The Silmarillion is actually tolkien's first book and also his last. In origin it precedes even The Hobbit, and is the story of the First Age of tolkien's Middle Earth. It shows us the ancient history to which characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, talk, rhyme and sing about. Tolkien worked on it, changed it, and enlarged it throughout his entire life. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien, with the assistance of fantasy fiction writer Guy Gavriel Kay to reconstruct some major parts.

The earliest drafts of The Silmarillion stories date back to as early as 1917, when Tolkien, a British officer stationed in France during World War I was laid up in a military field hospital with trench fever. At the time, he called his collection of nascent stories The Book of Lost Tales. After the war, he tried to publish some of his stories, however many editors rejected him, regarding his work as "fairy tale" unsuitable for adult readership. He tried once more, having already published The Hobbit in 1937; however that time too, The Silmarillion was deemed too complicated. Tolkien was asked to write a sequel to The Hobbit which would become his significant novel The Lord of the Rings.

But Tolkien never abandoned his book. He regarded The Silmarillion as the most important of his work, seeing in its tales not only the genesis of Middle-earth and later events as told in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but the entire core of his legendarium. He continued to work on them over the next several decades, revising and reworking his ideas, right up until his death in 1973.

For several years after his father's death, Christopher Tolkien worked through the mass of papers written by his father creating a coherent, consistent and chronologically accurate whole. On some of the later parts of the "Quenta Silmarillion" which were in the roughest state, he worked with fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay to construct a narrative practically from nothing. The final result, which included genealogies, maps, an index and the first-ever published Elvish word list was published in 1977.

Since its publication The Silmarillion is available in several states. There for it is possible to start collecting every single impression of The Silmarillion. Although already it is becoming a huge job, it is still much easier to succeed then trying to collect every single Hobbit out there. Another kind of collectors, like a friend of mine, try and collect all translations of The Silmarillion. An other interesting track to follow. Not only because of the languages, but mainly because of the strangest illustrations you will encounter. Next to that it promises a lot of new friendships. It is hard to start this kind of collection without making new friends at all. Of course there are many hardback and many more interesting paperback from The Silmarillion, yet few are really scarce. Most of them are easy to find and rather cheap to buy. There are at the other hand some real treasures which are harder to find, like limited, deluxe and signed The Silmarillion's. I'll give a short list down here to show some nice copies. I know i will not be showing the first American The Silmarillion, maybe just because it is i guess the most common The Silmarillion on the market, and of no particular collectable value. Yet it is my own reading copy!

I will also use the term pagination here to refer to a particular layout of text and where the page breaks fall. Two texts may have the same pagination even if they have small changes to the text but a change in pagination is often accompanied by fixes and the occasional introduction of new errors (because, in some cases, it corresponds to an entirely new setting of the text).

(Note the 2001 Houghton Mifflin hardcover and 2014 Mariner Books paperback seem to have the same text but I checked them both; similarly the 1977 UK and US 1st editions have no variants at the 40 loci checked)

This error was still in the 1979 Unwin Paperback (δ) but fixed in subsequent Unwin Paperbacks (ε). It was fixed in the 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β) and it is fixed in all other versions considered here.

It is interesting to consider the relative histories of this and the variant at Locus 18. In Locus 21, the 1983 Houghton Mifflin follows the 1977 1st Edition but the Unwin Paperbacks do not. At Locus 18, this is inverted.

These editions are unusual in that the dustjackets are reversible. This dustjacket has one side with a cover illustration by John Howe, and the other side has a design that matches the original first editions of the History of Middle-earth first published by George Allen and Unwin in 1983. More details on this item

A lovely deluxe edition from 2021. Illustrated throughout by Ted Nasmith. It is a beautiful edition. Maybe just a tad too orange, but lovely nonetheless. See also the 1998 illustrated edition. More details on this item

London: Folio Society, 1997. Francis Mosley. First Thus. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7" - 9" tall. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Published by The Folio Society, London 1997, this copy is the 1st printing of 1997. Set in Fournier with Omnia display. Printed at The Bath Press, Bath on Caxton Wove paper and bound by them in full vegetable parchment blocked with a design by Francis Mosley. Edited by Christopher Tolkien, Consisting of Quenta Silmarillion, together with Ainulindale, and Valaquenta, To which is appended Akallabeth and of The Rings of Power and the Third Age. J.R.R. Tolkien's account of the Elder Days, the tales of the Silmarillion are legends deriving from a much deeper past, when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him to recover the Silmarils. Originally published in 1977, 4 years after his death, Christopher Tolkien has gathered together and edited, what he considered his life's work. A wonderful edition, bound by the Folio Society, so you know they are nicely made. A minor rub or two to the slipcase, no bumped corners, Near Fine condition. Matches the latest version of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings published by the Folio Society. Additional digital photo's are available, inquire if interested. Other Tolkien books available, include both the UK and US editions, original cloth bindings, custom fine bindings, and Signed/Numbered/Limited Editions.Item #2688

As discussed in previous posts, one of the reasons that people collect first editions is because the author often has a hand in the design of the book, and Tolkien is an excellent example. Though Allen & Unwin had not planned on illustrating the book due to the expense, Tolkien submitted a number of his own drawings for consideration.

The Lord of the Rings is a significant exception to this rule. Because the series was originally written as one long book, and only split into three for financial reasons, the publishers could anticipate the books to come and used the dust jacket flaps to advertise them.

Despite the success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien never gave up the hope that his mythology of Middle Earth would be published. Much of the material existed in manuscript form, but in his latter years Tolkien was not able to devote the time and energy that editing it entailed.

On his death in 1973 he appointed his youngest son Christopher, who had been intimately involved in the inception and publication of the earlier books and, like his father, was an English lecturer at Oxford, to serve as editor and prepare the manuscripts for publication. The result was The Silmarillion, first published in 1977 by Allen & Unwin.

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A while back I picked up the facsimile of the first edition of The Hobbit. As some of you know, there are differences between the 1937 first edition and the 1951 revision. Largely these differences are chalked up to generally minor changes to bring the story in line with The Lord of the Rings as much as possible and specifically changes to the Riddles in the Dark chapter which sets the provenance, or at least the importance, of the one ring.

In our slow read of The Lord of the Rings I remember arguing at times with @clash_bowley and others (who I'll admit know more about Tolkien's works than I) that Tolkien was less clear on some of the facts of Middle Earth (and specifically on the nature of Gandalf) in his early works than in the later ones. Reading the 1937 edition of The Hobbit reinforces that opinion for me, though I admit it is just an opinion based on my interpretation of the text. IOW, I am seeing evidence for a theory I already had. If you read the text with a different theory, you might not see the same evidence or give it the same weight as I have. Even so, it's a fascinating discussion regardless of who is "right."

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