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1976 Soviet edition of 'The Hobbit' (2015)
- us-merul 1y agoI found this starting with the recent XKCD comic about Tom Bombadil in LOTR, seeing he appeared in a 1991 Soviet TV adaptation that’s now on YouTube, checking here if anyone had posted it, and someone had provided the link to this book in that thread. Really cool find.
- Gualdrapo 1y agoThey're really amazing. Thank you
- georgecmu 1y agoAs bonus trivia, depiction of Bilbo was based on the "short, round stature, expressive eyes, broad and open face" of the famous Soviet actor Yevgeniy Leonov (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Leonov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Leonov). In this video Leonov mentions this fact before reading an excerpt from the book: https://youtu.be/z7hEJxTBsTs https://youtu.be/z7hEJxTBsTs
- Raztuf 1y agoThat's the most Hobbit-looking man I ever seen.
- abcd_f 1y agoHe actually says just that! Basically, he says that he was approached by some random person and was gifted a copy of The Hobbit. This person turned out to be an illustrator of translated edition (same as at the OP's link) and he made Bilbo look like Leonov (the guy in the video). As a footnote, Leonov famously voiced Soviet version of Winnie The Pooh in all its glorious 3 episodes: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh_(1969_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh_(1969_film) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQmGXzNMw0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQmGXzNMw0E
- davidw 1y agoGeorge Costanza is looking at those stamps and thinking he coulda been someone in the USSR
- Thorrez 1y agoI'm assuming you're not saying Tolkien based his description of Bilbo on that Leonov. Are you saying the illustrator based the illustrations on Leonov? Does Leonov actually say that? Or just that the description and illustrations are similar to him?
- pelasaco 1y agoHe and Danny Devito would be such great Hobbits
- RyanOD 1y agoInconceivable!
- culebron21 1y agoHere's that video in much better quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvNzEkS2B9U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvNzEkS2B9U
- curioser 1y agoI wonder if there are other sites that show the custom illustrations for the German, French, Spanish, and Japanese translations of JRRT’s books?
- mbeex 1y agoGoogle Search for an edition from Eastern Germany. Read it, when I was 10 years old (50 years ago!). It was long before all the fantasy hype, and it was magical. Klaus Ensikat was the illustrator. https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=ensikat+illustration+hobbit&dpr=1.5 https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=ensikat+illustration+h...
- TacticalCoder 1y ago[dead]
- pavlov 1y agoTove Jansson, author of the Moomins, also illustrated "The Hobbit" in the 1960s. Her version turned out controversial because Gollum is a giant compared to Bilbo. Turns out Tolkien hadn't described Gollum's size anywhere, and the author actually reworded future editions of the book to make it clear that Gollum is a small creature. You can see the image here: https://www.thepopverse.com/jrr-tolkien-the-hobbit-tove-jansson https://www.thepopverse.com/jrr-tolkien-the-hobbit-tove-jans... In my opinion Jansson's "Hobbit" is a great interpretation by a legendary artist, and this Gollum controversy has overshadowed it too much. The Soviet 1970s version (the OP link here) has an obvious debt to Jansson's illustrations, but the style is much more conventional and stiff. Jansson's linework and compositions are exquisite.
- CGMthrowaway 1y ago>Her version turned out controversial because Gollum is a giant compared to Bilbo. Turns out Tolkien hadn't described Gollum's size anywhere Cain and Abel, whom Deagol and Smeagol (Gollum) parallel, may have been giant themselves, given that Adam (their father) is specified in certain religious /apocryphal texts as being 60-100 cubits tall, or 90-150 feet.
- antx 1y agothat's a wild theory, considering that Tolkien himself described Gollum to be "a small, slimy creature" after the revisions, probably because of Jansson's depiction of him. and although the parallel is clear between many characters of the Hobbit and the Bible, do you have any credible sources that Tolkien took inspiration from apocryphal texts (or in this case the Hadith) ?
- CGMthrowaway 1y agoNot in this specific case. There are other examples that could be brought up, such as the Gift of Men (death), which may draw on the Book of Jubilees which suggests that death was given to man to limit wickedness and allow for renewal. Or Book of Enoch and the fall of Numenor. "Credible sources" will be difficult to procure as Tolkien notably avoided citing specific influences when discussing his works
- kej 1y agoIt's still on my to-be-read list, but anyone exploring the Russian/Tolkien rabbit hole might also like The Last Ringbearer, which is a retelling from the other side's perspective. The English translation was never officially published but is on archive.org and probably other less reputable sites.
- Wildgoose 1y agoIt really is worth reading. And I say that as a die-hard Tolkien fan. Genuinely highly recommended.
- bornfreddy 1y agoIf anyone is curious: https://archive.org/details/TheLastRingbearerSecondEdition/ https://archive.org/details/TheLastRingbearerSecondEdition/
- culebron21 1y agoWorth noting: the author, Kirill Yeskov, authored a great book on the Earth history and the old theories of it. And the reasons he wrote The Last Ringbearer, according to his (now deleted) blog, were 1) the geology of Tolkien's world was impossible, the landmass had to be bigger, 2) if the orcs were an army, there must have been a country, a money system, a bureacracy, a developed economy, and so on. From that country's perspective, the elves were a small bunch of rioters on the fringe of the empire.
- ricardobayes 1y agoIn Hungary, the Lord of the Rings book was translated by Göncz Árpád who later went on to become President of Hungary.
- michaeldoron 1y agoBest credentials for a public servant if I ever saw one
- IAmBroom 1y agoCzechoslovakia had a poet for a president. A very good one, Vaclav Havel, who BTW pioneered typographical poetry.
- p_ing 1y agoIf you're into various designs of Tolkien books, check out https://old.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/comments/vngd3x/isbn_groupings_for_recentish_harpercollins_books/ https://old.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/comments/vngd3x/isbn_g.... awesomebooks.com is a good resource for Americans wanting to purchase Harper Collins versions, though those versions are not always of better quality.
- rightbyte 1y agoIt feels like the illustrator didn't read the book? The stone trolls are giants? (Am I missremembering that they were trolls?) And the battle is between two human armies. Surely goblins were described in Bilbo as not human barbarians?
- sevensor 1y agoI thought the trolls were perfect. Big, unkempt, medium drunk. They should be a great deal bigger than Bilbo.
- rightbyte 1y agoYe reading some background it is the classical view of trolls as like big humans? I mean orcs are wretched elfs so it makes sense to draw them very human in some sense. I think my view was very much inspired by DnD. It is interesting to note how different this stuff were viewed at the time.
- sevensor 1y agoJust from reading the text itself. I’m well familiar with the D&D troll, but Tolkien’s trolls are just big ruffians covered in mutton grease.
- tokai 1y agoTrolls, like Jotun, can be both monstrous or humanlike. In Scandinavian folklore a troll is more of a broad category than a specific 'species'. The main thing is that they are malevolent and supernatural. Some trolls are grotesque creatures with a dozen heads, while others are so human like that they can exchange their children for human children without the human parents ever realizing. Following is from a Danish historic dictionary: «1) according to folk belief: a supernatural being hostile to humans (dangerous) (of a more or less human-like form), especially of supernatural size and strength, ugly (creepy) appearance, thought to live in hills (mountains), forests, etc. (cf. Hill, Mountain, Sea, Forest troll and underground); also of smaller beings such as dwarfs or gnomes (Junge.308. NPWiwel.NS.22. Feilb. cf. Small troll)»
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y agoI love their Gollum. https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/archives/03gGWt8x1MUJtmE1DljZd7m/images-12.fit_lim.size_376x.jpg https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/archives/03gGWt8x1MUJt...
- chkhd 1y agoI still have this book! my mom reading this to me and my brother was my introduction to Tolkien.. very nostalgic.
- CGMthrowaway 1y agoThe illustration style reminds me of the villains from Rocky & Bullwinkle (1959-64), Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale - who were, as it were, Russian.
- HelloUsername 1y ago(2015) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26698736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26698736
- aleyan 1y agoMy sister read me the first chapter of this edition of The Hobbit and refused to read me any more. So I had to read the rest myself to find out what happens. It became the first "grown up" book I ever finished. When I read LoTR a few years later, these illustrations formed the images of what hobbits, dwarfs, and Gollum looked like in my minds' eye. Decades later, having seen the Peter Jackson films several times, Bilbo still looks wrong to me as I expect Leonov; Gollum looks wrong too for that matter.
- Tallain 1y agoSimilar experience for me, except my imagery was influenced by the Brothers Hildebrandt. I collected all their cards and was obsessed with the detail in them.
- teddyh 1y ago> Gollum looks wrong too for that matter. “Down the face of a precipice, sheer and almost smooth it seemed in the pale moonlight, a small black shape was moving with its thin limbs splayed out. […] The black crawling shape was now three-quarters of the way down, and perhaps fifty feet or less above the cliff's foot.[…] They peered down at the dark pool. A little black head appeared at the far end of the basin, just out of the deep shadow of the rocks.” No visual version of Tolkien’s works could ever be made now which depicts Gollum accurately.
- ViktorRay 1y agoWhat do you mean? This seems accurate to how Gollum was depicted in the Peter Jackson movies. Do you mean the skin color? The reference to the color black here is clearly there because Gollum is in the shadows in a darkened cave.
- teddyh 1y agoI grant you that it’s not clear-cut, but nowhere in the book (that I can find) is Gollum described as being pale, or even lightly colored (except his eyes). Instead, Gollum is frequently, as I showed, described as being “black” in color. He is also being misidentified as an Orc, which are similarily described.
- ajd555 1y agoI love this! Anyone else seeing the resemblance to Bill Murray? https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/archives/03gGWt8x1MUJtmE1DljZd7m/images-2.fit_lim.size_376x.jpg https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/archives/03gGWt8x1MUJt...
- malkia 1y agoIn Bulgaria, our longest running comic magazine (Дъга ("Duga") e.g. Rainbow) had version of the Hobbit - https://www.endorion.org/books/comics/ https://www.endorion.org/books/comics/ - This was in fact the first version of the "books" I got exposed in, and then much later read the real stuff :)
- nottorp 1y agoRomanian 1975 edition of The Hobbit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/581457001928701869/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/581457001928701869/ https://tainthemeat.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/o-poveste-cu-un-hobbit/ https://tainthemeat.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/o-poveste-cu-un...
- malkia 1y agoThese are wonderful! Thank you neighbour!
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- clan 1y agoAnother illustrator from the 70's was Ingahild Grathmer[1] which was said to be a favourite by Tolkien himself[2]. Maybe he was polite because of the noteriaty (not sure if known at the time) but I do like them as well. Have a look at the documentary on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rNqVqzIxi3A&t=24m19s https://youtu.be/rNqVqzIxi3A&t=24m19s (Go to 24:19 for Ingahild herself) [1] a.k.a. Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid (https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Margrethe_II_of_Denmark https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Margrethe_II_of_Denmark) [2] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66764/time-queen-denmark-illustrated-lord-rings https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66764/time-queen-denmark...
- bombcar 1y agoTolkien was generally favorable to any illustrations that followed the text; he actually explicitly mentioned that he was creating a “legendarium” which would have different interpretations. What he didn’t like was illustrations by those who never even read the descriptions, or created things based on other media (Tolkien dwarves vs Snow White dwarfs, for example).
- quibono 1y agoI enjoy all illustrations of LOTR & The Silmarillion from BEFORE the Jackson trilogy. I love the film adaptation but one could say that it's been _too_ influential in shaping the portrayal of Tolkien's characters and world. Especially to people born after the movies came out.
- bombcar 1y agoJackson’s heavy reliance on some of the famous illustrators from before the movies at least gives them some connection; but it’s hard to remember how I imagined Moria before I saw the films.
- alexalx666 1y agono they are not brilliant, there were much better ones in Albrecht Durer style
- apples_oranges 1y agoThe Soviets probably identified easier with the fact that someone would embark on a highly experimental adventure when prompted by a bearded guy.
- pgaddict 1y agoThe funny thing is the local communist newspaper "Red Truth" (as if there were non-communist ones, ...) published a review of LOTR in 1977, in which they pretty much took the side of the Mordor. (It might be a made-up joke from the 90s, but the spirit of absurdity is spot on for 1977.) The reasoning was roughly: * Mordor is obviously meant to be USSR, as it's in the east. * The orcs are clearly heavy industry workers, building the world of future. * Bilbo is obviously a son from a bourgeoisie family, disgusted by hard work. * The west is represented by elves = aristocracy, people = bourgeoisie, hobbits = landowners. * The group of reactionaries are afraid of a made up "threat from the east", led by Gandalf. * Gandalf = a reactionary ideologue, keeping people in state of fear of progress and knowledge. * Saruman = protector of the oppressed, declared a traitor and destroyed by the reactionaries. * But socialism can't be destroyed by throwing something in the fire. All the power to Mordor, surrounded by reactionary neighbors.
- mamonster 1y agoMordor revisionism is very popular in Russia(due to the reasons you already outlined). See from example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer as perhaps the most famous from the genre
- trhway 1y agoAnd these days many Russian ultra-patriots are proudly accepting the representation of Russia as Mordor and its soldiers as orcs in the war in Ukraine.
- Mikhail_Edoshin 1y agoThe outlined reasons are cartoonishly communist, but "The Last Ringbearer"'s worldview is not communist. It is more like "the West are liars". And yes, this does resonate in Russia.
- duxup 1y agoThe Soviet illustrations remind me of Samuri Jack. I read my youngest The Hobbit recently and being familiar with Lord of The Rings and knowing there is a little disconnect between LOTR and the Hobbit ... I was still surprised by how much the Hobbit jumps from event to event and leaves things unsaid, but lingers other places a great deal. It feels almost unpolished.
- Ar-Curunir 1y agoTo me it feels exactly the right tone for a children’s book (which it is!)
- lenerdenator 1y agoMight not be a coincidence. Samurai Jack's creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, was born in 1970 in Soviet Moscow. Non-zero chance he might have seen this right as he was getting into drawing.
- usrnm 1y agoI had that book as a kid and it was one of my favorite books at the time. Just seing these illustrations brings back so many memories. Thank you
- bubblebeard 1y agoGotta love that spaghetti Golum, this is truly great stuff.
- WalterBright 1y agoMy favorites are the ones on the 1960s paperback editions: https://www.amazon.com/Towers-Authorized-Revised-Special-Foeword/dp/B000VP93CA https://www.amazon.com/Towers-Authorized-Revised-Special-Foe... I bought the whole set of those.
- ConanRus 1y ago[dead]
- geldedus 1y agoBrilliant? To me they are rather naive, childish
- flohofwoe 1y agoWhich makes a lot of sense sense since The Hobbit is a children's book.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- blacklion 1y agoIt was my first book by JRRT.
- lenerdenator 1y ago"Notice, comrades, how evil dragon sits on hoarded wealth."
- r34 1y agoWould be great to be able to reconstruct the whole story in the style of the images as a comic book or animation. Might be a nice job for the generative models of the future.
- thaumasiotes 1y agoThe cover shows that the book is authored by D-zh. R. R. Tolkin. I'm interested in the J being represented by two characters. When a Russian name starts with a consonant cluster (as "John" does), is it conventional to use the entire cluster as an initial?
- vova_hn 1y agoThis is a very interesting observation. I've only seen using several letters as an initial for foreign names. I think that they sort of translated the English initial "J." rather than first translating the name and then forming an initial from it.
- Mikhail_Edoshin 1y agoYes, there is a principle of phonetic transliteration: the initial represents the sound in the language of origin. E.g. J. K. Rowling would be "D-zh": "Дж. К. Роулинг". This leads to such things as English name "Charles" represented as "Ч." (Чарльз, "Ch"), but French name "Charles" as "Ш" (Шарль, "Sh"): "Ч. Дарвин" (Charles Darwin), "Ш. Перро" (Charles Perrault). Similarly Finnish names with "J" will be represented by "Й" (Joukahainen) and Spanish by "Х" (Juan).
- thaumasiotes 1y agoThree questions: (1) If an author is named Vladimir, would the initial be "В" or "Вл"? Usual English practice is to do initials purely by spelling. So Sharon Stone would be reduced to S. Stone, not Sh. Stone, even though no S-sound is present in the name. (This is also the Chinese practice - Shanghai gets abbreviated SH, which feels appropriate until you realize that it's S for shang, H for hai.) (2) How is Перро pronounced? Would that correspond better to Perrault or Pierrault? (3) Why is Darwin "transliterated" with в rather than у?
- culebron21 1y ago1) No, it's just Russian translators are aware that in English, Daniel and John start from different letters and want to indicate that. I think it's the only case of 2-letter initial in English->Russian translation. Can't recall any other cases, but maybe there are such with translations from other languages. 2) like Spanish perro, but accent on the last syllable, "perró". I think Pierrault would add a "soft sign", Пьерро. 3) There's no equivalent of W in Russian, and different translators take different ways - either В (v) or У (u). E.g. I read two translations of Sherlock Holmes with Watson being Уотсон and Ватсон.