Audiobooks by J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Robert Inglis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year. Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril. In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time on audio, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Samuel West, Timothy West (Narrator)

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Farmer Giles of Ham

Tolkien's acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tale, read by Derek Jacobi. Farmer Giles of Ham is one of Tolkien's most popular stories, full of wit and humour, set in the days when giants and dragons walked the earth. He did not look like a hero. He was fat and red-bearded and enjoyed a slow, comfortable life. Then one day a rather deaf and short-sighted giant blundered on to his land. More by luck than skill, Farmer Giles managed to scare him away. The people of the village cheered: Farmer Giles was a hero. His reputation spread far and wide across the kingdom. So it was natural that when the dragon Chrysophylax visited the area it was Farmer Giles who was expected to do battle with it! Two further stories in this collections are Smith of Wooton Major which tells of the preparation of the Great Cake to mark the Feast of Good Children, and the strange events which follow, and Leaf by Niggle, which recounts the strange adventures of the painter, Niggle.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Leaf by Niggle

Tolkien's acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tale, read by Derek Jacobi.Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle, who sets out to paint the perfect tree. But he senses that he will be snatched away from his work long before it is finished - if indeed it could ever be finished in this world. For it is in another and brighter place that Niggle finds his tree is finished, and learns that it is indeed a real tree, a true part of creation.Written in the early 1940s at the same time as The Lord of the Rings was taking shape, 'Leaf by Niggle' is a passionate adult fairy tale about a man who has 'a long journey to make', thought to be an allegory of Tolkien's own life.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Letters from Father Christmas

The complete series of Father Christmas letters written by JRR Tolkien for his own children between 1920 and 1943.Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? Every year, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien would write to Father Christmas, and the letters they received told wonderful stories of his adventures at the North Pole. These humorous tales are brought to life by Derek Jacobi as Father Christmas, John Moffatt as Polar Bear, and Christian Rodska as Ilbereth the Elf, complete with specially composed music.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Mr Bliss

A brand new edition of the long unavailable children's story, written and illustrated by the author of The Hobbit and Letters from father Christmas, with newly scanned manuscript pages and redesigned text.Now available as an audio edition.Professor J.R.R. Tolkien invented and illustrated the book of Mr Bliss's adventures for his own children when they were very young. The story is reproduced here exactly as he created it - handwritten with lots of detailed and uproarious colour pictures.This is a complete and highly imaginative tale of eccentricity. Mr Bliss, a man notable for his immensely tall hats and for the girabbit in his garden, takes the whimsical decision to buy a motor car. But his first drive to visit friends quickly becomes a catalogue of disasters. Some of these could be blamed on Mr Bliss's style of driving, but even he could not anticipate being hijacked by three bears.As for what happened next - the readers, whether young or old, will want to discover for themselves. Thankfully all ended well, and even the yellow motor car with red wheels (to which Mr Bliss has taken an understandable and great dislike), came in useful at the end...

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Sir Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Roverandom

Tolkien's acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tale, read by Derek Jacobi.While on holiday in 1925, four-year-old Michael Tolkien lost his beloved toy dog on the beach at Filey in Yorkshire. To console him, his father, J.R.R.Tolkien, improvised a story about Rover, a real dog who is magically transformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard who wronged him in order to be returned to normal.This charming tale, peopled by a sand-sorcerer and a terrible dragon, by the king of the sea and the Man-in-the-Moon, went through several drafts over the years. Now, many years on, the adventures of Rover - or, for reasons that become clear in the story, 'Roverandom' - are performed by Sir Derek Jacobi.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Smith of Wootton Major

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Tales from the Perilous Realm

Combined into one volume, this is the definitive collection of Tolkien's five acclaimed modern classic 'fairie' tales in the vein of 'The Hobbit', read by Derek Jacobi.The five tales are written with the same skill, quality and charm that made The Hobbit a classic. Largely overlooked because of their short lengths, they are joined here in one volume which reaffirms Tolkien's place as a master storyteller for readers young and old. Roverandom is a toy dog who, enchanted by a sand sorcerer, gets to explore the world and encounter strange and fabulous creatures; Farmer Giles of Ham is fat and unheroic, but - having unwittingly managed to scare off a short-sighted giant - is called upon to do battle when a dragon comes to town; The Adventures of Tom Bombadil tells in verse of Tom's many adventures with hobbits, princesses, dwarves and trolls; Leaf by Niggle recounts the strange adventures of the painter Niggle who sets out to paint the perfect tree; Smith of Wootton Major journeys to the Land of Faery thanks to the magical ingredients of the Great Cake of the Feast of Good Children. Taken together, this rich collection of work from the author of The Children of Húrin will provide the reader with a fascinating journey into lands as wild and strange as Middle-earth.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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Tales from the Perilous Realm: Four BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisations

Four BBC radio dramatisations starring Michael Hordern as Tolkien – plus a special archive compilation exploring Tolkien’s life and workThe tales in this collection all reflect an aspect of what Tolkien himself called ‘the perilous realm of Faerie’. Adapted for radio by Brian Sibley, co-writer of the acclaimed BBC radio production of The Lord of the Rings, they are rich in myth, magic and adventure. Among the supporting cast are Brian Blessed, Nigel Planer, Sorcha Cusack, Paul Copley and James Grout.In Farmer Giles of Ham, having accidentally shot a giant, Farmer Giles’ brave reputation is tested by Chrysophylax the dragon. In Smith of Wootton Major, a young boy eats a piece of cake containinga silver star, and is granted access to the magical land of Fäerie. Leaf by Niggle is a thought-provoking allegory of the creative process, and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil features Tom and the Hobbits in scenes from The Lord of the Rings which were not included in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation.Also included is J R R Tolkien: An Audio Portrait, in which Brian Sibley draws together interviews from radio and television programmes featuring the author himself, his original publisher Rayner Unwin, his biographer Humphrey Carpenter and many others torelate the story of both Tolkien the man and the worlds he created.Duration: 5 hours 50 mins

Brian Sibley, J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), , Alfred Molina, Brian Blessed, Brian Sibley, Full Cast, James Grout, Michael Hordern, Nigel Planer (Narrator)

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The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

J. R. R Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Derek Jacobi (Narrator)

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The Children of Húrin

Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Húrin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to TolkieThere are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Túrin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves.Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Húrin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Túrin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled.The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Author), Christopher Lee (Narrator)

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