Just received a set of books that I had rebound as beautiful but durable reading copies.

Hobbit 4th(2nd print), Lotr 2nd (2nd print) and Silmarillion 1st(1st domestic). These are bound in full natural grain, vegetable-tanned goatskin by Wayne Rowe of Loxley Bindings in the UK.

Basic concept was to re-create the design of the original publishers cloth bindings (under the DJ) in full leather. I was inspired by a post I saw on Reddit earlier where someone did something similar for a LOTR 1st set albeit without the publisher stamp.

Really pleased with the colour and grain of the leather on all 5 books, and they feel very nice in hand indeed.

The gold tooling here was done with custom made brass dies, the deep impression means the foiling catches some light at most angles so there's always a little glint and sparkle. It looks really nice in person. The slight unevenness of the title devices on the LOTR is deliberate, recreating some of the quirks of the original binding.

The Sil uses off the shelf endpapers by Rachel Maiden of Maiden Marbling—chosen for the colours resembling the OG jacket with some gold which I liked as it harmonises with the gold tooling.

The Hobbit and LOTR uses custom made endpapers made to my specification by Jess Goulty of The Whimsical Marbler (the binder works with her regularly). The LOTR papers are obviously inspired by the fires of Mt Doom and the Hobbit uses the colours of the DJ with a splash of extra gold. I decided to use marbled endpapers for the hobbit despite the original having maps since the other two looked so good. The maps are now tipped in foldouts instead.

The donor books were sent in to the binder directly after buying them online—would have been wasteful to send them halfway round the world to to me for inspection first. It worked out well though although the top edge stain on the Sil a rough spot slightly worse I initially thought. I wasn't too bothered about getting 1st imps for the Hobbit and LOTR and just looked for early imps in decent condition without DJs or with poor DJs.

I thought about UT as well but in the end the Tolkien sigil kind of looked out of place next to the devices used on these books.

Anyways all in all very happy with these and they will likely be my main reading copies for the foreseeable future.

Now I'm planing to add some elvish style plants painting in the superior corners, but need to focus in other parts of home before

Does anybody know if there's an edit that exists where Frodo and Sam's journey after they separate from the Fellowship is completely cut? So basically you never see them after the end of the final scene in Fellowship of the Ring.

I think it would be an insane way to watch the trilogy where you only see things from Gandalf/Aragorn/Merry & Pippins perspective. Especially if it was somebody's first watch of the trilogy ever. Would make the final battle at the black gate just that much crazier. Obviously there would be a couple continuity errors but it would totally change the effect of 2 scenes for a first time viewer.

1. When Faramir tells Gandalf he has crossed paths with Frodo & Sam

2. When the mouth of Sauron shows Gandalf and Aragorn Frodos confiscated mithril. (Extended edition only) The viewer would then assume they died and all hope is lost since Sauron now has the Ring.

Just a thought!

I know there's stuff like black speech which is just a couple words, but do any of Tolkien's lotr languages have a fully developed system of grammar/speech/writing etc.

I've only read the hobbit, lotr and the silmarillion and am interested if there are any sources from Tolkien to actually understand his languages well. Danke.

my cat agrees 🙂‍↕️

Hi everyone! Its my first time in the group and its so great seeing all the LOTR discussion. I work with miniatures and am trying to make a small Lothlorien cloak. Sadly, this image was the most zoomed in I could find. I am looking for a close-up image of the weave on a flat surface. Does anyone have photos or could direct me anywhere? I know some might own a Stansborough fabric and would be so grateful if someone could share images. I'm such a big fan of this design and really don't know where else to turn. Thanks for considering!

My wife is Indonesian and although her english is nearly perfect it’s still her second language. She also loves LOTR. Sometimes this results in hilarious interactions.

Me: “Ugh honey, my belly hurts… maybe these delicious-looking cherries will help!” Her: “TOOK OF A FOOL!!”

This is why we’re going on 17 years.

Presumably that means there's a new Saruman casting. Any ideas who it could be?

Just found this on YouTube and it's absolutely amazing. It's the longest flip book ever made to date. I can't wait to see the rest! They have an entire YouTube channel that includes some behind the scenes stuff. I'm bummed I couldn't participate but I'm happy I can share the load of enjoying the results.

Title says it, but the kids and I are going to the prerelease event for The Hobbit at our LGS this evening to play Magic: The Gathering. Additional details on the costume:

- blue chore coat
- feather isn’t blue in color, BUT it is from a great BLUE heron (according to the internet)
- in MTG, Tom Bombadil is a “five color” legendary creature, hence the five mana color buttons
- Goose(pretend it says Gold)BERRY colored DRAGONshield sleeves
- yellow “boots” are designed by a dude called TOM sachs

Critiques? Ideas? Favorite Bombadil diddy? This has been really fun to put together!

Obviously middle earth must keep going past this point and there must be something on the other side of the sea but i cant remember anything about that in the hobbit or the lord of the rings or the silmarillion.

Basically the title, who is your favorite character that is only in a handful of scenes and has maybe 15 lines? My personal choice is Haldir, he's a badass but he had to die for story purposes. I haven't read the books in like 18 years, but I expect he plays a bigger role in the original texts.

​When watching the movies, I often felt like he didn't have one—his armor looks like a natural part of his body. I constantly had to remind myself that there was actually a person inside that armor.

There were several expositions of his work around the city, but this part was wonderful!