zionius wrote:

Per edelweiss, print-run of WM is "Announced 1st Print: 3.5K". For comparison, the 2024 LR Deluxe Box is 25K, Collector's Edition set is 75K for each volume. Print-run of HC is not available on edelweiss.

I have no inside knowledge of practices at WM, but I’ve worked as an acquiring editor in NYC book publishing for decades and I can tell you that announced first printruns are often extremely inflated, sometimes by well over 100%. The number is generally taken as an indicator of how much publicity and marketing support the publisher plans for that title. Actual first printruns are determined long after the “announced” figure is promulgated.

My impression is Collected Poems has sold fairly well. Anyone know if that impression is accurate?

If you do not have an electronic copy and can buy from the US Amazon Kindle Store, then this is very good. Not such a good price in the UK 😞

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The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien Box Set: Three-Volume Box Set

Tolkien, J. R. R.
9780063437500
William Morrow (2024-09-17)

$23.99 Bookshop.org (USA Only) - Availability: Click to check

$23.99 Amazon.com (Kindle Edition) - Availability: IN_STOCK

Check harpercollins.co.uk • amazon.ca • amazon.es • amazon.fr • amazon.it

Please note that the sale price is also available from Bookshop.org - their is a bug on their side that prevents the TolkienGuide bot from knowing this, but if you click through you will see the correct sale price. This is true for all eBooks in the US and UK for bookshop.org - they are aware of the issue, but I have not heard an update on when it might be fixed.

You probably know this, but generally speaking, if you see a temporary promotional price like $2.99 on an ebook from (say) Amazon, that price is probably also available for the same period of time from most or, more likely, all of the other major ebook retailers in the same country. For instance, this $2.99 price on the Collected Poems is currently up on Apple Books as well. This is because due to various industry agreements, when publishers decide to do a time-limited promotional price drop, on a specific title, with one ebook retailer, they’re obliged to give all the other ebook sellers the chance to get on board as well.

The Apple uk price is still £45 :(

As I said — in the same country.

I didn't find this in the official Addenda and Corrigenda so I guess perhaps the topic hasn't been discussed yet.

In Carpenter #289c: Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Donald Swann • 14 October 1966 (#1014) Tolkien said the first six lines of Errantry were partially inspired by D’ye ken the rhyme to porringer. In TI p.106 note 8, Christopher said "I cannot explain this reference". In Poems p.890 Christina & Wayne identified it to be a Jacobite song but didn't elaborate on the inspiration:

O what’s the rhyme to porringer?
Ken ye the rhyme to porringer?
King James the Seventh had ae dochter,
And he ga’e her to an Oranger.

The original song actually has four stanzas, the last of which is:

Ken ye the rhyme to grasshopper?
Ken ye the rhyme to grasshopper?
A hempen rein, a horse o' tree,
A psalm-book, and a Presbyter.

Now compare it with the first six lines of the original Errantry (emphases mine):

There was a merry passenger,
a messenger, an errander,
he took a tiny porringer
and oranges for provender;
he took a little grasshopper
and harnessed her to carry him;

Christopher discusses it in the last paragraph of the foreword to The War of the Ring, two people got in touch with CT and pointed out the reference. He says the original poem is attacking William of Orange, linking it to the "oranges for provender" (improving on the conconcted rhyme of porringer-oranger). One version has the fourth line "gave the Prince of Orange her".

Mea culpa! Thank you.