Congrats Northman!

Always such a great feeling when you finally find that long elusive edition!

Then it's time to put on the shelf and start the next hunt.

Was this set from the parents of your neighbour? Are the Parents living in Iceland?

remy wrote:

Congrats Northman!

Always such a great feeling when you finally find that long elusive edition!

Then it's time to put on the shelf and start the next hunt.

Was this set from the parents of your neighbour?

No they did not want to sell. Got this from an icelander on the tolkien collectors FB site

I absolutely love everything about this set. Fantastic Cover Illustration. The Design is just perfect (imho).

Today's arrival: The rarer 2nd printing of the 1987 50th anniversary HMCO Hobbit (with 1st in green, for comparison).

Congrats northman an wheresrob

northman : I love this icelandish edition. Is this the 1st thus in this country?

Emilien wrote:

northman : I love this icelandish edition. Is this the 1st thus in this country?

Was going to ask same question. Is this the 93-95 1st Edition or the early 2000's (2001,2002?) Edition?

Are there any differences between the two printings? Was the First Printing issued in a Slipcase or just the Second?

Lovely covers. Nice find.

remy wrote:

Emilien wrote:

northman : I love this icelandish edition. Is this the 1st thus in this country?

Was going to ask same question. Is this the 93-95 1st Edition or the early 2000's (2001,2002?) Edition?

Are there any differences between the two printings? Was the First Printing issued in a Slipcase or just the Second?

The first 2 volumes are from the first printing (93-94) while the RotK is from the second printing (2001-2002). The first printing came with dustjackets...the second printing was a boxed set with a hardboard cover emulating the dustjackets from the first printing. As you can see from the pictures even though i have a mixed set they look quite nice together.

While the printnumbers were low and of course there is the legal issue that prevents further reprints...what makes it even harder finding these sets is the combination of the literary culture on iceland and their pride in their language. Icelanders know very well that these books are rare.

I will take some pictures of text when i get back home and have some time. The icelandic orthography, particularly the letters eth (ð), and the runic letter thorn (Þ), gives the text an archaic feeling that just feels very nice. Since icelandic is basically old norwegian and we learned a bit of this in school I can also read a bit and get the gist so to speak so I will have a bit of fun looking at how some passages are translated.

northman wrote:

remy wrote:

Emilien wrote:

northman : I love this icelandish edition. Is this the 1st thus in this country?

Was going to ask same question. Is this the 93-95 1st Edition or the early 2000's (2001,2002?) Edition?

Are there any differences between the two printings? Was the First Printing issued in a Slipcase or just the Second?

The first 2 volumes are from the first printing (93-94) while the RotK is from the second printing (2001-2002). The first printing came with dustjackets...the second printing was a boxed set with a hardboard cover emulating the dustjackets from the first printing. As you can see from the pictures even though i have a mixed set they look quite nice together.

While the printnumbers were low and of course there is the legal issue that prevents further reprints...what makes it even harder finding these sets is the combination of the literary culture on iceland and their pride in their language. Icelanders know very well that these books are rare.

I will take some pictures of text when i get back home and have some time. The icelandic orthography, particularly the letters eth (ð), and the runic letter thorn (Þ), gives the text an archaic feeling that just feels very nice. Since icelandic is basically old norwegian and we learned a bit of this in school I can also read a bit and get the gist so to speak so I will have a bit of fun looking at how some passages are translated.

northman, wonderful! This is the first time I've even seen an image of them. Way to go!!

Really awesome covers…congrats northman on getting those