The Hobbit read by Nicol Williamson

Posted by Alan on September 17, 2010 at 1:31pm
"In the early 1970s, Nicol was approached by Demi Demetriou and asked
if he would undertake a recording of the Hobbit for Decca records. Nicol has a true love for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and was excited to work on such a challenging solo project.
A lot of people have expressed an interest in both a re-release and in an
unabridged version, but so far there is no movement in either
direction. Nicol actually is strongly opposed to an unabridged version,
in fact he re-edited the original script, removing many he said, she
said, said so and so etc, relying on his vocal character performances
to convey who was saying what to whom. He really prefers that to an
over-reliance on descriptive narrative, and feels it keeps you more in
the story.

A Demetriou Production, 1974, Argo Record Co. Adapted and produced by Harley Usil. Very attractive boxed set of four LP records. It also contains a short booklet with details of the recording and a
short essay on the Tolkien and the Hobbit. One of the first great
dramatic readings of the Hobbit. It is unfortunate that LP vinyl records
was probably the only medium that could be used for popular
distribution of audiorecordings in the 1970's. This probably resulted in
the rather severe condensed version presented on this LP set. Nicol Williamson, who later became very popular as Merlin in John Borman's Excaliber
and many other movies, does a great job with character voices and the
recording has very high production value. THIS SET MUST BE REISSUED ON
CD! It is now extremely hard to find and record players may even be harder to come by. There is no doubt that with the popularity of Tolkien and Nicol Williamson that this recording would be very popular (and profitable) when re-issued."




"The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a story for children written by J. R. R. Tolkien in the tradition of the fairy tale. Tolkien wrote the
story in the late 1920s initially to amuse his three sons, and draws on
much of the author's professional knowledge of languages, especially Old
English and its associated literature. It was first published on
September 21, 1937 to wide acclaim.

The Hobbit is set in a time between the dawn of Faerie and the Dominion of Menquot, and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins (the Hobbit of
the title) as he leaves his comedic-rustic village and moves into
darker, deeper territory along with the thirteen dwarves and wizard
Gandalf. He encounters various denizens of the Wilderland, in order to
reach and win his share of Smaug, the Dragon's, hoard. Through accepting
the nature of his Tookishquot half (a disrespectable, romantic,
fey and adventurous side of his family tree) and utilising both his wits
and common sense during the quest, Bilbo develops a new level of
maturity, competence and wisdom."


This might already be somewhere on timespast... if so just drop me a note.


TOLKIEN - Hobbit 001_023.mp3

TOLKIEN - Hobbit 002_023.mp3

TOLKIEN - Hobbit 003_023.mp3

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