The Hobbit, performed by Nicol Williamson

[Rich H]

…stop it Rich, I've got work to do. I can't drop everything and go see the movie again!

Francesco

I've just this second put it on!

[Rich H]

…stop it Rich, I've got work to do. I can't drop everything and go see the movie again!

Francesco

I've just this second put it on!

... One day, a king will come and the sword will rise, again.





Crackin' film.

[Moria Firefly]

I didn't grow up reading The Hobbit, I grew up listening to it after my aunt handed me three battered cassette tapes of the show, recorded when broadcast on ABC Radio maaaaaaaany moons ago. It's the definitive version for me; Nicol Williamson (you'll know him best as Merlin from that old Excalibur movie) narrates and performs all the characters and is fricken brilliant at it too. It is slightly trimmed; mainly a lot of "he said, she said" has been excised so that it reads more like a live performance, but also some of the waffle. It still clocks in at around 4 hours (PJ, you should have taken note), and is (to me anyway) just fantastic. Years after I lost the cassettes I managed to track down the 4 album LP, and converted to MP3 with a chorus of snap crackle pop and hissing. And then a few months ago I found this: the entire recording in pristine condition, available to all through the Internet Archive.

I hope you like it:

https://archive.org/details/NicolWillia ... sTheHobbit

Great find, thank you! I love it, I was just thinking that I wanted to listen to a hobbit audiobook (for drive to work) so I can get into MiddleEarth more so I can run a TOR game better. This was perfect!

MFF

[Rich H]

Bumping this to top of page as it was in danger of dropping off the front page and it's such a good find that I want as few of us to miss it as possible.

[Elmoth]

Put it in the TOR resources, then

[Elmoth]

Elmoth, same page, scroll down to the Torrent link and you can get them all in both the ogg and mp3 format. You'll need a torrent client but a smart lad like you probably has one already

I am not that smart Never used a torrent program myself. Will have to download them one at a time and create an audio archive linking them up, then. Thanks.

[Rich H]

Put it in the TOR resources, then

I agree. Hope Jon reads this, but will PM him too.

[Glorelendil]

Since Merlin has made such a strong appearance in this thread...I highly recommend Bernard Cornwall's Arthurian Trilogy: "The Winter King", "Excalibur", and "Enemy of God."

Unlike most treatments, Cornwall seems to be answering the question, "What could have actually occurred ca. 500 AD that would have been the basis for the Arthurian myth?" In other words, no anachronisms, no magic. And "heroes" quite a bit different from the version we have now, but I won't spoil it beyond that, other than to say that his take on Merlin is great.

There's even a meta-story that emphasizes his point: the story begins with an aged, maimed monk being asked by the wife of a local warlord/thug to tell her about Arthur, because he was there. He starts telling her his version, and she keeps interrupting him saying, "That's not how it happened!"

One generation after Arthur and Britain has already slid further into the dark ages, and the myth has begun forming.

Great stuff.

EDIT: And tying it back to TOR, it's evidence that you can have great adventures without anybody casting Fireball.