Week 042 - Tolkien Tuesday: Sympathetic Review

We open up the Revised and Expanded edition of Tolkien’s Letters again this series, as we focus on new content about The Lord of the Rings. Today, deadlines and maps, reviews and illustrations - and Tolkien’s apparent disdain for italics.

[@beregond.]

In the first edition, and in every edition I have seen, the translation of the inscription on the Moria gate is given in the text, not printed as caption under the illustration. But clearly what the letter refers to is the transliteration which did become part of the block, in non-cursive calligraphy just as Tolkien wished.

[@tolkientimes]

That's what I meant to say - transliteration, not translation. Thanks, Beregond! :)

[@beregond.]

@@tolkientimes If you allow me to nag: it did, more importantly, become "part of the block", as Tolkien writes. The alternative, to have it "_printed_ in italics below" would have had a version of the illustration without that text, as seen in figure 44 in _The Art of The Lord of the Rings_. And the calligraphy that was included in the block is, as Tolkien wished, upright and not in italics.

[@tolkientimes]

@@beregond. I'm a pedant myself, so I appreciate helpful pedantry! :)