Speculation: Matching Folio Society Limited-Editions of THE HOBBIT and THE SILMARILLION

The Folio Society's limited-edition of The Lord of the Rings has sold out in about 36 hours after it was announced. Sadly, I didn't get the chance to write about it here, as I often enjoy doing about new Tolkien books/editions.

In their catalogue, they've been publishing editions of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

With the release of the limited-edition of The Lord of the Rings by Alan Lee, there's obviously been requests for matching editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.

THE HOBBIT

For The Hobbit, they have four artists they could go with to produce a similar edition which would match the recent Lord of the Rings.

First up, is John Howe, whose Smaug (above) is among my favourite Tolkien pieces. John Howe has sort-of-but-not-really illustrated The Hobbit before: he did the infamous pop-up book. This would be a wonderful occasion to include some of his newer pieces related to The Hobbit that haven't been published yet (aside from an occasional calendar), as well as create new work.

I have a slight bias towards this, as I believe no artist can do dragons like he can.



Alan Lee (his version of Smaug is pictured above) would also be a logical choice, as his illustrated Hobbit is as well known as his work for The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin have oftentimes made the two titles match one another, so Folio Society may do likewise.



Michael Hague's Smaug is pictured above. Showing the dragon by all the artists to show their style and approach. Michael Hague illustrated The Hobbit in the 1980's. As you can see, his work and style has a kind of 'retro fairy tale' look to it. To see his work again alongside the exquisite Lord of the Rings would be a nice surprise. I also say this, because that's the only time he's done an illustrated Tolkien book, and only edition has existed. Well, in paperback and in hardback, from both publishers (HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin.)

 Jemima Catlin (her Smaug above) would be my final choice for an illustrated Hobbit. in 2013, her artwork surprised the Tolkien community when her illustrated edition of The Hobbit was published. Her artwork is charming and whimsical, and perfectly matches the 'children's book' tone of The Hobbit, and makes it feel like a children's book....though, not in the negative sense, by any means. Should the Folio Society use her artwork, we'd all be in for a treat - again.

So those are my choices for an illustrated Hobbit to match The Lord of the Rings. They are in no order whatsoever, and any of them would definitely welcome.

THE SILMARILLION

There's only one logical choice when it comes to pairing a matching illustrated Silmarillion to a matching illustrated Hobbit and Lord of the Rings:



Ted Nasmith. Ted has been creating Silmarillion-based artwork for quite some time, as well as other Tolkien artwork. However, his work on The Silmarillion is the majority of his Tolkien portfolio. A very brief rundown on the various editions, as there's been 4 illustrated editions so far by HarperCollins.

The first one came out in 1998. It had about 16-20 (forget exact number) of illustrations, and was the normal amount for an illustrated Tolkien book to have. This went with the earlier Alan Lee-illustrated editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with regards to size and design.

The second, came out in 2004. This one had around 45 illustrations. This one matched later printings of The Hobbit by Alan Lee (due to the dustjacket being slightly re-designed), and a new 3-part illustrated edition of The Lord of the Rings (also by Alan).

The third, came out in 2008. This was an illustrated paperback, and featured about 16 illustrations. They came from the 2004 edition.

Finally, in 2021, we've got the newest and fourth one, in both hardback and slipcased format. This one has around 50 illustrations.

Ted has been done so much Silmarillion artwork, I've created an Excel document that lets one see which image has appeared in which edition(s)! In fact, there are some that have yet to appear in any illustrated edition!

Should the Folio Society persue a matching illustrated limited edition of The Silmarillion, I've got my fingers crossed tightly that it'll be by Ted Nasmith.

So, with luck, we should see limited-editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion in the near future. The recent Lord of the Rings has proven to be very lucrative to the Folio Society (1,000 copies at 1,000 pounds each). To make sure you don't miss it, subscribe to the Folio Society's newsletter, as well as follow them on social media (facebook, instagram....)

Note About Unfinished Tales

In 2020, for the first time ever, there was an illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales illustrated by Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith and John Howe. Due to when it was published vs the time I'm writing this post, its possible that HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin may have exclusive publishing rights to the artwork. I'm not sure how it works, though the artwork may be too 'new' to be featured in another publisher's illustrated edition at this time.