'What if...?' Editions

 

One of my prized Tolkien items - due (in part) to the uniqueness of it - is The Lord of the Rings illustrated edition from 2014. It may not be the most 'practical' edition for reading, though it still remains quite nice. 

This one is unique, in that there is no matching Tolkien editions published around then that have a similar design style, size dimensions, as well as the transparent slipcase, and the publisher-supplied shipping box (though, the boxes have appeared for the limited editions of The Children of Hurin, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, and starting with the illustrated collector's edition of Unfinished Tales, all future collector's editions from that title forward will have a provided box.) The initial single-volume illustrated edition was a larger book than the other standard Tolkien hardbacks at the time.

As nice as the new illustrated editions of 2020 and 2021 are for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales are (wholly recommend all of those, without question), I am going to brainstorm what the 'what if...' matching editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion could be like to match the 2014 illustrated edition of The Lord of the Rings. Of course, because of the appearance of the newer style of illustrated editions from 2020 and 2021, that means that the chance of these similar editions existing would be quite low. 

THE HOBBIT



First, up, of course, would be a matching edition of The Hobbit by Alan Lee. Here's how I can see it looking:

- it would be oversized (same dimensions as the 1997 edition)
- it would have a transparent slipcase (which would say 'J.R.R. TOLKIEN, THE HOBBIT, Illustrated by ALAN LEE')
- Smaug by Alan Lee (photo above) would be on the front cover of the book itself.
- Gandalf leaving the company at Mirkwood would be the image on the rear of the book.
- maps would be on the inside boards (Thror's at the front, Wilderland at the rear, as would be custom)
- Tolkien's depiction of Smaug would appear on the spine (the spine would be a dark, deep green, and be 'quarter-bound' just like Rings) and beneath it would read 'or, There and Back Again.' The spine would also have gold lettering, and be orientated in a similar fashion to Rings.
- it would feature a dark green ribbon-marker, matching the colour of the quarter-binding.

THE SILMARILLION



The Silmarillion would be very similar to my proposed Hobbit (and, it goes without saying, The Lord of the Rings).

- it would be oversized (same dimensions as the 2004 edition)
- it would have a transparent slipcase (which would say 'J.R.R. TOLKIEN, THE SILMARILLION, edited by CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN, Illustrated by TED NASMITH')
- Maglor by Ted Nasmith (photo above) would be on the front of the book itself.
- Beren and Luthien flown to safety would be the image on the rear of the book.
- The Beleriand map would be on both front and rear inside boards
- due to when this would have been hypothetically published (say 2018, latest), it would include the 1951 letter at the beginning, as well as all of the images that have appeared in the 2004 edition.
- Tolkien's image of Luthien's sigil would appear on the spine (the spine would be a dark, deep red, and be 'quarter-bound' just like Rings) which would also have gold lettering, and be orientated in a similar fashion to Rings. This would give all three books (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion) their own motifs stamped right onto the spine, which is why I've suggested it.  
- it would feature a dark red ribbon-marker, matching the colour of the quarter-binding.

I enjoyed designing these 'what if...' editions, and picturing how they'd look, and compliment the 2014 illustrated slipcased edition of The Lord of the Rings.