Ted Nasmith is my other god :: In which Falathrim brags

[Falathrim]

I assume that I'm not going to be excommunicated from the Church of Tolkien for being the first to make a non-Menegil thread in here, am I? I am? Nonsense. Rule three is 'What Falathrim Said'. Now shut up before you incur my wrath.

wink

So as I'm walking past the hall's front desk I observe that I've recieved a package. 'Praise be to Eru!' I exclaimed out loud,* earning the strange stares of the other inferior members of the dorm as I rushed to the desk. You see, a few days ago, I purchased the Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversay edition as well as the illustrated Silmarillion hardcover from Amazon, and it seemed as if they had finally arrived.

Realizing that I had only twenty minutes before class, all had time only to look at one. Not wanting to scar the 50th Anniversary LotR so soon, I opened the Silmarillion first.

It was beautiful. heart

Turns out that the vast majority of the illustrations were new, never seen before etc. etc. Images of Aule preparing to smite the horrified Dwarves, an image of the absolute horror on Tar-Miriel's face when she realizes she's gonna die, the battle of the First Kinslaying in the darkened world of Alqualonde, the burning of the Telerin ships, Eol being thrust off the cliff of Gondolin...

And the cover image is Numenor.

White Ships from Valinor :: Warning, Very Big

Even though the title is White Ships from Valinor, its pretty obvious that its Numenore. After all, the Elves visited the Isle of Gift all the time until time itself corrupted the lore of the Numenoreans. Oh, and the darkness in the sky? Shadow caused by my scanner. The actual image is very very pretty. smile

Why did I scan this image? Well, firstly, because I'm campaigning as we speak. Numenore for Pres! I also did so because I had NEVER before seen a good image of Numenor done by any artist. The only real Numenor illustrations are those depicting the Fall. Its nice to see one of pre-Shadow Numenor for once. I thought there may be one or two of you who feel the same.

Plus I wanted to brag about my books. xp


* Not really.


EDIT:

Ted Nasmith

Here, in advance of its publication, is the cover jacket (front) for the new expanded illustrated Silmarillion. The painting is called White Ships From Valinor, and it also will appear inside the book. It was very gratifying to finally do this painting, after identifying it as a possible theme some 8 years ago. In the accounts of Numenor, it's mentioned that during its golden age, ships from Valinor would sail to Andunie, the westernmost city on the island, bearing gifts and trade from the Teleri of Eressea and Tirion.
Originally, my idea was to take a view looking out to sea at the approaching ships from the hill of the Tower of Tar Palantir, but realized it would too closely resemble the composition of The Eagles of Manwe. The advantage, moreover, of looking in towards the land from the ships, allowed the depiction of a part of Numenor, a land and time still largely unexplored by artists. The result was thought so successful that it was chosen as the work to place on the cover.

 

[Khorkalba]

Very nice. 3nodding

I know what you mean about the previous Numenor illustrations. There are a few good ones, but they all portray the downfall... sweatdrop
This one is beautiful though... *is converted* Numenore2win! whee


I've seen some of the other new illustrations too recently. They're all wonderful.  

[Nimbrethil]

I would brag about your books too. Ted Nasmith does beautiful work.

...There's a Church of Tolkien?  

[Imyavie]

The painting is so beautiful... crying

Congratualtions on getting your book. When I buy the Silmarillion, I wanna get a nice hard cover one too ^__^  

[Zurgi]

Ted Nasmith is a fabulous artist. I've seen some of his art at Council of Elrond when I was looking for good images and his work just left me awestruck.  

[Falathrim]

Well, let's talk about my Super Expensive Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Edition now, because bragging is fun and I want to soak in your envy.

Just like my Leatherette Collector's Edition featured in my short lived Random Sig, the Anniversay Edition is all three volumes published into one novel. The first thing I noticed upon carefully removing it from its box holder thingy is that its shiny! The pages are trimmed with that gold stuff that I see old bibles covered in. Immediately, I squeed in joy cuz' its just too pretty!

The cover itself is made out of some material that I can't exactly trace. Maybe some form of leather? Whatever it is, its reeks of luxury. The image is simple and yet adorable: in the middle,. the Eye of Sauron, surrounded by a ring. The ring in turn is sorrounded by what I assume to be the ring poem, which is again in turn surrounded by the Three Rings of the Elves.

What did I notice next? Well, there was some ribbon thing. It took me a moment for me to realize that "OMG it has a built in bookmark sweet."

After that I carefully flipped the book around only to find that J.R.R. Tolkien's signature is etched into the very book in that shiny gold stuff I talked about earlier. Awesome.

I'm too scared to actual have the book open for more than five seconds at a time in fear of ruining my new Precious. I did, however, read the special note to the 50th Anniversary Edition, and discovered three things. First, all the errors in spelling and punctuation have been fixed. Second, distances have been fixed so they better match what Tolkien described in HoME. This made me go WOO! on the inside because I always thought it was a pity that quite a few distances were messed up entirely from what Tolkien had wanted. Third, in 2005 a volume of LotR annotations will be released which is just YAY! if your a sad little LotR freak on the scale that I am.

...I wonder if Chris fixed the Errantry poem. I doubt it... oh! Let's check! Nope. Still the incorrect version. sad

...the thing still kicks a**, though. And that's saying a lot, because its only a book!  

[Kazaera]

*DIES of envy*

I'm lucky if I can actually find anything Tolkien that's not the Trilogy in *English*, let alone in some kind of cool edition!
And now that I'm in Scotland, I'm a poor student who doesn't have the money to waste on such fripperies as leisure books. Or food, for that matter.
crying  

[Nimbrethil]

Only a book??

Henry Holt

A book is a thing by itself. There is nothing like it, as one shoe is like another, or as one kind of whisky is like another.

Books have smells and lovliness and textures (no pun intended) that are as physical as they are mental. [/bookgeekness]

Is there a piccy of it on the Amazon website?

(Oh, and try not to get any Envy on your clothes; it's a b***h to get out)  

[Falathrim]

Amazon? Yes, but...



But then, this picture does about as much justice as a pile of dog s**t does The Illiad justice. I don't even think that's a real picture...  

[Hironaur]

Falathrim

Amazon? Yes, but...



But then, this picture does about as much justice as a pile of dog s**t does The Illiad justice. I don't even think that's a real picture...

It's still so pretty though. *dies* All my books are crap. No hardovers, and my LotR has the movie covers. *dies again* Ok, I'm done now...  

[Falathrim]

Oh, as a side note (and I can make random side notes because this is my thread and I have you under control using the power of Envy), I also finally replaced my ruinated copy of Sauron Defeated, too.

Yes, ruinated is a word, cuz' I said so.  

[Nimbrethil]

Falathrim

Oh, as a side note (and I can make random side notes because this is my thread and I have you under control using the power of Envy), I also finally replaced my ruinated copy of Sauron Defeated, too.

Yes, ruinated is a word, cuz' I said so.

And with that, the world is set to rights. Now if only we could take care of that pesky "war" problem...

That picture still makes the book look pretty darn sexy. If the real thing's as good as you say it is, it'd be about all I could handle. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't passed out yet from its overwhelming awesomeness. I would. 3nodding  

[Kementari]

Ted Nasmith makes such pretty, pretty pictures. I have a 2003 and 2004 calander of his paintings. The 2003 one is for The Two Towers and 2004 is for Return of the King. I wished I had a 2002 Fellowship one, but I wasn't into calanders as much back then, didn't care what day of the week it was (such a rebel whee ).

Anyway, now I must envy Falathrims books.

*envys*

*dies*

Those are two more books I deem too pretty to read. I would lock them in an air-tight case with all your other pretty books.  

[Falathrim]

If I had an air-tight case, that's probably be where they'd go. I think I've already deemed them both too pretty to read. The idea of any harm coming to them appalls me. sad  

[Kementari]

Falathrim

If I had an air-tight case, that's probably be where they'd go. I think I've already deemed them both too pretty to read. The idea of any harm coming to them appalls me. sad

Or you could invest in one of those machine-thingys that suck the air out of plastic bags. It keeps food from spoiling, there are infommercials on tv about them at 2am.

Then put them in a pretty box, with a voice-activated lock.