The Lord of the Rings Appendices

From Tolkien Gateway

The Lord of the Rings Appendices were published in The Return of the King and were the reason that the release of the book was delayed.

Overview

The appendices of The Lord of the Rings comprises six parts:

  • Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers
    • The Númenorean Kings
    • The House of Eorl
    • Durin's Folk
  • Appendix B: The Tale of Years
  • Appendix C: Family Trees (Hobbits)
  • Appendix D: Calendars
  • Appendix E: Writing and Spelling
    • Pronunciation of Words and Names
    • Writing
  • Appendix F
    • The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age
    • On Translation

Translations

Many translations lack the Appendices or only include a selection of them. In a number of cases the Appendices were, wholly or partly, published as a separate volume. It has even happened that those Appendices that were not or only partly included in the official translation were published in a fan publication.[1][2][3][4]

This has not been entirely without sanction. As soon as the prospect of translations began to be discussed, Tolkien stated that he was willing to allow "reduction or omission in parts" of the Appendices (whereas he would "not tolerate the abridgement or re-arrangement" of the narrative). "Only Appendix A v, [the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen] ... is really essential to the story."[5] When objecting to translation of names into Dutch he proposed "to substitute for some of the least-wanted Appendices a glossary of names".[6] He subsequently wrote to the Dutch translator, suggesting which part of the appendices might be omitted from the Dutch translation, apparently these included F II and D exept for the section on the Shire Calendar.[7] Later he suggested dropping "Appendix D (other than the Shire Calendar); probably most of App. E II, and most of F II" in general.[8]

When the Swedish publishers proposed to omit the Appendices altogether, Tolkien replied "I have no objection (...) to the omission of C, D (except for the Shire Calendar ...), E ii and F ii. Omission of the remainder would be, in differing degrees, damaging to the book as a whole. In the case of Het Spectrum [the Dutch translation], A and B and the Shire Calendar were retained, and that is the arrangement that I favour. I feel strongly that the minimum is retention of A (v) 'Of Aragorn and Arwen', and the Shire Calendar ...";[9] in this reply he also agreed the Appendices could be published in a separate volume. As a result, the Swedish translation contained only 'The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen' and Appendix D. Subsequently, however, all Appendices exept parts of E II and F II were published as a separate volume. Likewise, the Dutch translation of all Appendices exept F II has been included in some later editions in one or three volumes, and also published as a separate volume. In one edition F II was also included. But the example set in the first instance by the publishers of the first two translations was followed in several other languages.

In 1968 Allen and Unwin published a one volume paperback edition, including only Appendix A I v, 'The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen'. Apparently this was done because a paperback thick enough to include all Appendices could not be produced economically. Tolkien agreed, but he made a special plea to include The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.[10] This is the only edition (several print runs of which were issued hardbound as book club editions) in English known not to include the complete Appendices. But it seems to have given numerous publishers of translations the idea or excuse to likewise include only 'The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen'.

References


The Lord of the Rings Appendices
Appendix A · Appendix B · Appendix C · Appendix D · Appendix E · Appendix F



The Lord of the Rings
Foreword · Prologue · The Fellowship of the Ring · The Two Towers · The Return of the King · Appendices · Index