I'm baaaack! ;)

Whoops...had to re-up this torrent. I fucked up the CUE sheets. Fixed.

        J.R.R. Tolkien: The Silmarillian [Unabridged]

Author...............: J.R.R. Tolkien Title................: The Silmarillian Narrator.............: Martin Shaw Genre................: Audiobook Source...............: CD Year.................: 1998 Ripper...............: EAC Codec................: FhG Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III Quality..............: 64kbps Channels.............: Mono / 44100 hz Tags.................: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.3

Ripped by............: Nighted on 10/17/2008

                   Tracklisting

1. (01:11:01) The Silmarillian [Volume I] - CD 01
2. (01:10:35) The Silmarillian [Volume I] - CD 02
3. (01:11:13) The Silmarillian [Volume I] - CD 03
4. (00:59:54) The Silmarillian [Volume I] - CD 04
5. (01:10:19) The Silmarillian [Volume II] - CD 05
6. (01:11:05) The Silmarillian [Volume II] - CD 06
7. (01:11:09) The Silmarillian [Volume II] - CD 07
8. (01:10:12) The Silmarillian [Volume II] - CD 08
9. (01:04:53) The Silmarillian [Volume III] - CD 09
10. (01:04:58) The Silmarillian [Volume III] - CD 10
11. (01:07:55) The Silmarillian [Volume III] - CD 11
12. (01:04:07) The Silmarillian [Volume III] - CD 12
13. (01:08:47) The Silmarillian [Volume III] - CD 13

Playing Time.........: 14:46:08 Total Size...........: 405.70 MB

NFO generated on.....: 10/17/2008 2:16:53 AM

The Silmarillion tells of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's World, when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle Earth, and the High Elves made war upon them for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. It is to this ancient drama that the characters in The Lord of the Rings so often look back.

THE SILMARILLION

Sit at the feet of the most beloved storyteller of the 20th century and hear how the world come to be. The Silmarillion is told here in a brilliantly faceted audio production, with all the glory of the First Age itself. Dazzlingly performed by Martin Shaw, it sparkles with the magic of the dawn of time�when Elves and Men roamed a world set spinning through space by the haunting music of supernatural choirs. Slip through the shadows and you, too, may catch the whisper of harp-song on the winds of the high air above the mists of the world.

This complete and unabridged audio boxed set of Tolkien's elegant masterpiece is one that will delight fans young and old. It is an extraordinary classic keepsake to be treasured and listened to again and again.

Born in Birmingham, England, Martin Shaw studied drama at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has since gone on to star in over a hundred roles on stage, television and in film. Most notably, Martin Shaw appeared in Roman Polanski's Macbeth and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in 1996 for his performance in An Ideal Husband on Broadway.

INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE KEEPSAKE BROCHURE AND MAP OF BELERIAND AND THE LANDS TO THE NORTH*

J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 at Bloemfontien, capital of the Orange Free State in South Africa. His English father, Arthur Tolkien, was employed as manager of the local branch of the Bank of Africa. When he was three years old, Ronald (as he was known to his family) and his younger brother, Hilary, were brought back to England by their mother, Mabel Tolkien. Before they could return to South Africa, their father died of rheumatic fever. Mrs. Tolkien and the boys remained in England, living for a while in a cottage at Sarehole Mill, near Birmingham, then moving to suburban Moseley in 1890. The same year, Mabel Tolkien experienced a conversion to the Catholic faith; this event

had a lasting effect on Ronald, and Catholicism became a motivating force in his life and writings. As a child, Ronald Tolkien spent considerable time inventing imaginary languages, a hobby which lead eventually to the creation of an imaginary world where such tongues might be spoken.

He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and from 1911-1915 at Exeter College, Oxford, where he read English Language and Literature and acquired an extensive knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. These subjects were to become important not only to his later academic writings and translations, but also to the shaping of his own fictional mythologies.

In 1916, he married Edith Bratt, and went to serve in the Great War as a Second Lieutenant with the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers. Towards the end of the year he was sent home from the Somme suffering from trench fever, and during his convalescence began writing his Book of Lost Tales, a collection of stories about his imaginary world that was eventually to be known as The Silmarillion.

After the war, he worked briefly on the Oxford English Dictionary. Then, having spent a year as Professor of English Language at Leeds University, he returned to Oxford in 1925 as Professor of Anglo-Saxon.

The Tolkiens had three sons and a daughter, and it was to his children that Ronald first told the story of Mr. Bilbo Baggins, an unadventurous hobbit who finds himself having the most surprising adventures. Because the story was a favorite, he began to write it down around 1930. The publishing house of George Allen and Unwin heard about the story and encouraged Tolkien to complete the book. He did so, and it was published in 1937 as The Hobbit or There and Back Again. It was a huge success and the publishers requested a sequel. Tolkien had already offered them The Silmarillion (though it was far from completed), but they were looking for another book "about the hobbit." Then, in December 1937, Tolkien wrote to them: "I have written the first chapter of a new story about Hobbits�'A long expected party.' A merry Christmas."

Thus began the long, erratic process of creating The Lord of the Rings. For the next twelve years, the work moved slowly towards completion; frequently put aside, once or twice almost abandoned. But encourage by his publishers, his family and his close friend C.S. Lewis, Tolkien worked away, writing, re-writing, extending and embellishing the story. As the work developed, it took surprising turns, threw up new and unprecedented conflicts and introduced the simple, vulnerable hobbits into a world of great heroes and mighty powers. It was the very world whose early history Tolkien had been recording in The Silmarillion. Few writers have undertaken the task of creating a new world with such thoroughness: Middle-earth�the world of The Lord of the Rings�has a geography, language, literature, history, mythology, flora and fauna that is unique and unparalleled. The Lord of the Rings was completed in 1949, but publication was further delayed while Tolkien tried to find a publisher who would agree to publish both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. When this proved impossible, Tolkien allowed Allen and Unwin to publish The Lord of the Rings on its own.

The book received a mixed critical reception: C.S. Lewis described it as being "like lightning from a clear sky." while American critic Edmund Wilson called it "long-winded balderdash," but they soon found an admiring readership. With the publication in America, in 1965, of an unauthorized paperback edition, the Tolkien cult began in earnest, proclaiming its admiration by every means from theses to graffiti. In 1971, Tolkien's wife died, and the following year he received the CBE and honorary Doctorate of letters from Oxford University.

Tolkien died on September 2, 1973 at age 81.

Perhaps the best insight into his personal philosophy is to be found in his short story Leaf by Niggle in which an artist spends his life engaged on a painting of a tree which he constantly reworks and retouches. When summoned to take a final journey, he leaves the picture incomplete, and with the passing years the work of a lifetime is neglected and destroyed�save for a small scrap of canvas bearing a single leaf. At the end of his journey, however, the artist comes to a land where his tree, now complete, forms part of a creation more perfect than the artist had ever envisaged.

The Silmarillion, edited by Christopher Tolkien, was finally and posthumously published in 1977.

*Map courtesy of https://users.telenet.be/endorion/eng/Maps/maps_beleriand.htm

This is the original map, drawn by Tolkien, included with the boxed set.