I read that Tolkien didn't want to make the Lord of the Rings three books, and that the only
"natural divisions are the 'books' I-VI (which originally had titles)"
What are those titles?
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2 Answers
I just found this in the Letters of JRR Tolkien, letter 137:
- The Ring sets out
- The Ring goes south
- The Treason of Isengard
- The Ring goes East
- The War of the Ring
- The End of the Third Age
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5+1; this is correct but it should be added that the titles were just suggestions to the publisher and were never formally agreed for use; the original publication was without titles.– user8719Commented May 1, 2013 at 19:55
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5I have a 7 volume "Millennium" edition box set (see mytolkienbooks.com/books-by-tolkien/middle-earth-related/…) that uses these titles for volumes 1-6 plus the appendices. The top of the spines of the books spells out T O L K I E N Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:35
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1I gotta say, those are droll titles. I'm glad he just went with books I-VI Commented May 2, 2013 at 13:14
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I have the same set as Gerry and I have to say it makes a much more natural division. Commented May 2, 2013 at 16:00
Footnote 1 of the "Note on the Text" in the 1987 edition (and later editions?) of The Fellowship of the Ring:
Tolkien's titles for the six books were not used. A contents listing with the manuscript of The Lord of the Rings at Marquette University gives them as follows: Volume I, "The First Journey" and "The Journey of the Nine Companions"; Volume II, "The Treason of Isengard" and "The Journey of the Ringbearers"; Volume III, "The War of the Ring" and "The End of the Third Age." A variant set of titles can be found in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, p. 167.
