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Guide to Tolkien's Letters
(Nominated for 2026 Tolkien Society Award)
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12
21 May
2026-5-21 1:40:34 PM UTC
These are simply awesome to see! I'm a big fan of collecting physical media so this is right up my ally.
25 May
2026-5-25 7:08:21 PM UTC
There have also been some CD publications featuring these recordings

Essential Tolkien
Published by Caedmon
ISBN 9780061376498
1 CD

Features the recordings from The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring.

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The J R R Tolkien Audio Collection
Published by Caedmon
2001
4 CDs
ISBN 9780694525706

Features the recordings from The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers and Return of the King, Silmarillion Beren and Luthien, Silmarillion Darkening of Valinor and Flight of the Noldor.

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The Tolkien Audio Collection
Published by Harper Collins Audio
2002
4 CDs
ISBN 0007147015

Features the recordings from The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers ad Return of the King, Silmarillion Beren and Luthien, Silmarillion Darkening of Valinor and Flight of the Noldor.

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J R R Tolkien Audio Collection
Published by Harper Collins Audio
2002
4 CDs
ISBN 978000714014

Features the recordings from The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers and Return of the King, Silmarillion Beren and Luthien, Silmarillion Darkening of Valinor and Flight of the Noldor.

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J R R Tolkien reads excepts from The Lord of the Rings
1 CD
Comes with the 7 book Millennium Lord of the Rings boxed set

Features the a selection from the recording specific to the Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers and Return of the King.

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Tolkien reads an extract from The Hobbit
1 CD
Comes with the The Hobbit Limited Edition Collectors Box

Features only “Riddles in the Dark” from The Hobbit.

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Christopher Tolkien reads an extract from The Silmarillion
1 CD
Comes with the The Silmarillion Limited Edition Collectors Box

Features only “Of Beren and Luthien”.

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Tolkien reads an extract from The Hobbit
1 CD
Comes with the The Hobbit Facsimile Gift Set

Features recordings from The Hobbit.

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I also have a couple of general author CD’s which include smaller bits of the recordings.

The Spoken Word - Writers
Produced by the British Library
1 CD
ISBN 9780712305167

Features only 2 recordings from Fellowship of the Rings, “The Ring Goes South” and poem “Ai! Laurie Lantar”.

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The Spoken Word - Children’s Writers
Produced by the British Library
1 CD
ISBN 9780712305181

Features part of the recording of “Riddles in the Dark” from The Hobbit.

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That’s me done, if anybody can any more to this thread, then please do.
26 May
2026-5-26 1:47:43 PM UTC

AndyBirdUK wrote:


Tolkien reads an extract from The Hobbit
1 CD
Comes with the The Hobbit Facsimile Gift Set

Features recordings from The Hobbit.

73281395-4768-4122-97AC-66C0AAF176A6.jpeg

9A57C1F1-6C3C-4787-A144-9AC295788E8B.jpeg

Unless I'm mistaken in my understanding, the facsimile CD contains some additional recordings of Tolkien that were previously only released with the deluxe eBook version of the Hobbit (2011) and not otherwise available on any of the other collections of Tolkien's readings from the 1952 George Sayer tapes.
26 May
2026-5-26 2:00:09 PM UTC

PxChris wrote:

AndyBirdUK wrote:


Tolkien reads an extract from The Hobbit
1 CD
Comes with the The Hobbit Facsimile Gift Set

Features recordings from The Hobbit.

73281395-4768-4122-97AC-66C0AAF176A6.jpeg

9A57C1F1-6C3C-4787-A144-9AC295788E8B.jpeg

Unless I'm mistaken in my understanding, the facsimile CD contains some additional recordings of Tolkien that were previously only released with the deluxe eBook version of the Hobbit (2011) and not otherwise available on any of the other collections of Tolkien's readings from the 1952 George Sayer tapes.

Alas!, Tolkien reads Roast Mutton is included on the CD, but is a fraction of the length of the Deluxe eBook version, you really need that version to listen to.
26 May
2026-5-26 2:18:17 PM UTC

Trotter wrote:

Alas!, Tolkien reads Roast Mutton is included on the CD, but is a fraction of the length of the Deluxe eBook version, you really need that version to listen to.

Further to Trotter's comment for those interested, the timings are as follows.Tracks 2 and 4 differ only in the start finish position and contain the same audio readings as each other.[1]
  • Chapter I: An Unexpected Journey
  • Track 1: Chip the glasses and crack the plates!...
  • CD: 00:35
  • eBook: 00:35
  • Track 2: Far over the misty mountains cold...
  • CD: 00:54
  • eBook: 00:55
  • Chapter II: Roast Mutton
  • Track 3: There they all sit glum and wet and muttering...
  • CD: 01:19
  • eBook: 16:31
  • Chapter V: Riddles in the Dark
  • Track 4: Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum...
  • CD: 29:53
  • eBook: 29:51

1 Tracks 2 and 4 differ only in the start finish position and contain the same audio readings as each other.
26 May
2026-5-26 2:29:20 PM UTC
Such an odd editing decision to include less of a recording on a physical collector's edition than in an eBook...
30 May (edited)
2026-5-30 6:08:18 PM UTC
So it appears that this is an issue that was rectified with later editions of the Facsimile gift set release.
My copy of the CD has the "Roast Mutton..." segment at 16:32 long and I've verified that this is what's actually pressed on the CD.

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30 May
2026-5-30 7:13:59 PM UTC
I did not know that this was fixed, obviously I did tell HC at the time that it was a shorter recording, but pleased that they added the longer chapter.
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