The Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings
seemed an ideal opportunity to consider the latest (2002) text in light of information we had gathered in the course of decades of work in Tolkien studies, with Steve Frisby’s research at hand, and with an electronic copy of
The Lord of the Rings
(supplied by HarperCollins) searchable by keyword or phrase. The latter especially allowed us to develop lists of words that varied from one instance to another, and investigate variations in usage, as they stood in the copy-text and relative to earlier editions and printings. Of course Tolkien wrote
The Lord of the Rings
over so long a period of time, some eighteen years, that inconsistencies in its text were almost inevitable. Christopher Tolkien even observed to us that some apparent inconsistencies of form in hisfather’s work may even have been deliberate: for instance, although Tolkien carefully distinguished
house
‘dwelling’ from
House
‘noble family or dynasty’, in two instances he used
house
in the latter sense but in lower case, perhaps because a capital letter would have detracted from the importance of the adjective with which the word was paired (‘royal house’, ‘golden house’). There can be no doubt, however, that Tolkien attempted to correct inconsistency, no less than outright error, whenever it came to his attention, and it was our opinion, with the advice and agreement of Christopher Tolkien, that an attempt should be made to do so in the anniversary edition, in so far as we could carefully and conservatively distinguish what to emend.
    Many of the emendations in the present text are to marks of punctuation, either to correct recent typographical errors or to repair surviving alterations introduced in the second printing of
The Fellowship of the Ring
. In the latter respect and in every case, Tolkien’s original punctuation is always more felicitous - subtle points, when one is comparing commas and semi-colons, but no less a part of the author’s intended expression. Distinctive words such as
chill
rather than
cold
, and
glistered
rather than
glistened
, changed by typesetters long ago without authorization, likewise have been restored. A controlled amount of regularization also seemed called for, such as
naught
rather than
nought
, a change instituted by Tolkien but not carried through in all instances;
Dark Power
rather than
dark power
when the reference is obviously to Sauron (or Morgoth);
Barrow-downs
by Tolkien’s preference rather than
Barrowdowns
; likewise
Bree-hill
rather than
Bree Hill
; accented and more common
Drúeadan
rather than
Druadan
; capitalized names of seasons when used as personification or metaphor, according to Tolkien’s predominant practice and the internal logic of the text; and
Elvish
rather than
elvish
when used as a separate adjective, following a preference Tolkien marked in his copy of the second edition of
The Lord of the Rings
. In addition, we have added a second accent to
N úmenórean(s)
, as Tolkien often wrote the name in manuscript and as it appears in
The Silmarillion
and other posthumous publications.
    The result, nonetheless, still includes many variations in capitalization, punctuation, and other points of style. Not all of these are erroneous: they include words such as
Sun
,
Moon
,
Hobbit
, and
Man
(or
sun
,
moon
,
hobbit
,
man
), which may change form according to meaning or application, in relation to adjacent adjectives, or whether Tolkien intended personification, poetry, or emphasis. His intent cannot be divined with confidence in every case. But it is possible to discern Tolkien’s preferences in many instances, from statements he wrote in his check copies of
The Lord of the Rings
or from aclose analysis of its text in manuscript, typescript, proof, and print. Whenever there has been any doubt whatsoever as to the author’s intentions, the text has been allowed to stand.
    Most of the demonstrable errors noted by Christopher Tolkien in
The History of Middle-earth
also have been corrected, such as the distance from the Brandywine Bridge to the Ferry
(ten
miles rather than
twenty)
and the number of Merry’s ponies
(five
rather than
six),
shadows of earlier drafts. But those inconsistencies of content, such as Gimli’s famous (and erroneous) statement in Book III, Chapter 7, ‘Till now I have hewn naught but wood since I left Moria’, which would require rewriting to emend rather than simple correction, remain unchanged.
    So many new emendations to
The Lord of the