This is the first in a series of posts about the textual variants I’ve found in printings of The Silmarillion. In this post, I’ll cover six spelling errors in the original first edition fixed by the latest HarperCollins hardcovers and the ebooks.

For the purposes of this series, I will talk about 40 loci (singular locus), or positions in the text, where I’ve found variants of any kind. Assuming no structural changes between texts, these loci could be referred to by some logical citation scheme independent of page numbers but I have not finalised such as system for The Silmarillion yet.

I will also use the term pagination here to refer to a particular layout of text and where the page breaks fall. Two texts may have the same pagination even if they have small changes to the text but a change in pagination is often accompanied by fixes and the occasional introduction of new errors (because, in some cases, it corresponds to an entirely new setting of the text).

In this post, I won’t try to sketch out a larger history of print versions but I plan to do so in subsequent posts.

Versions Considered Here

Here are the versions I’ve considered here, grouped by pagination. There will be more as I acquire them.

Those marked * are still available new. I will use references like A190 to mean page 190 in a book with Pagination A.

I will use lowercase Greek letters to refer to a particular text form within a pagination. I’ll call the ebook text θ.

Pagination A

  • 1977 George Allen & Unwin 1st Edition hardcover (α)
  • 1977 Houghton Mifflin 1st Edition hardcover (α)
  • 1983 Houghton Mifflin 1st Edition trade paperback (β)
  • 2001 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Edition hardcover (γ)*
  • 2014 Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) 2nd Edition trade paperback (γ)*

(Note the 2001 Houghton Mifflin hardcover and 2014 Mariner Books paperback seem to have the same text but I checked them both; similarly the 1977 UK and US 1st editions have no variants at the 40 loci checked)

Pagination B

  • 1979 Unwin paperback (δ)
  • 1983 Unwin paperback (2nd Edition) (ε)
  • 1990 Unwin paperback (2nd Edition 10th Impression) (ε)

(Note the 1983 and 1990 seem to have the same text but I checked them both)

Pagination C

  • 2006 HarperCollins 2nd Edition hardcover (ζ)*
  • 2007 HarperCollins Deluxe Edition hardcover (in slipcase) (ζ)*

(Note the 2006 and 2007 Deluxe seem to have the same text but I checked them both)

Pagination D

  • 2004 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Illustrated Edition hardcover (η)*

The Initial Six Errors to Look At

In each case the change was from an error in the 1st Edition to a corrected version.

In summary:

  • Locus 20. asssembled > assembled (A190 B229 C173 D190)
  • Locus 35. then > than (A272 B327 C249 D279)
  • Locus 30. besides > beside (A248 B298 C228 D256)
  • Locus 18. Leithien > Leithian (A168 B202 C152 D166)
  • Locus 21. Hador > Haldor (A194 B233 C176 D193)
  • Locus 37. Númeróreans > Númenóreans (A290 B349 C267 D300)

Locus 20. asssembled > assembled

  • Noldor of Hithlum were asssembled — αβ
  • Noldor of Hithlum were assembled — γδεζηθ

(A190 B229 C173 D190)

This error was fixed in the 1979 Unwin Paperback (δ) but persisted in the 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β). It is fixed in all other versions considered here.

Locus 35. then > than

  • stronger then they — αβ
  • stronger than they — γδεζηθ

(A272 B327 C249 D279)

This error was fixed in the 1979 Unwin Paperback (δ) but persisted in the 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β). It is fixed in all other versions considered here.

Locus 30. besides > beside

  • three mariners who had sailed all the seas besides him — αδ
  • three mariners who had sailed all the seas beside him — βγεζηθ

(A248 B298 C228 D256)

This error was still in the 1979 Unwin Paperback (δ) but fixed in subsequent Unwin Paperbacks (ε). It was fixed in the 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β) and it is fixed in all other versions considered here.

Locus 18. Leithien > Leithian

  • the Lay of Leithien — αγδε
  • the Lay of Leithian — βζηθ

(A168 B202 C152 D166)

This interesting misspelling persisted in the Unwin Paperbacks (δε) at least through 1990.

It is fixed in the current HarperCollins hardcovers (ζ) but persists in the 2001 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Edition hardcover and 2014 Mariner Paperback (γ) (although is fixed in the 2004 Illustrated 2nd Edition (η) and was fixed in the 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β)).

I suspect the 2001 Houghton Mifflin regression (relative to the 1983 paperback) is due to the reversion to the HarperCollins 1999 text (which itself I have not yet checked).

Locus 21. Hador > Haldor

  • the house of Hador stood firm — αβγ
  • the house of Haldor stood firm — δεζηθ

(A194 B233 C176 D193)

This was changed inexplicably in the Unwin Paperbacks (δε) and the HarperCollins hardcovers (ζ) but, of the Houghton Mifflins, it’s only changed in the 2004 Illustrated 2nd Edition (η). The original ‘Hador’ remains in the 2001 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Edition hardcover and 2014 Mariner Paperback (γ) and is found in the original 1983 Houghton Mifflin paperback (β).

It is interesting to consider the relative histories of this and the variant at Locus 18. In Locus 21, the 1983 Houghton Mifflin follows the 1977 1st Edition but the Unwin Paperbacks do not. At Locus 18, this is inverted.

Locus 37. Númeróreans > Númenóreans

  • splendour of the Númeróreans — αβγ
  • splendour of the Númenóreans — δεζηθ

(A290 B349 C267 D300)

This is perhaps my favourite of the errors, in part because calling them Númeróreans seems funny.

This was fixed in the Unwin Paperbacks (δε) from the start, but not the 1983 Houghton Mifflin Paperback (β).

It is fixed in the current HarperCollins hardcovers (ζ) but persists in the 2001 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Edition hardcover and 2014 Mariner Paperback (γ) (although is fixed in the 2004 Illustrated 2nd Edition (η)).

Conclusion

Here we’ve only looked at six of the forty variant locations I’ve found but have focused on those that are typographical spelling errors, not changes to the content or differences in punctuation conventions.

Some interesting relationships between editions have been hinted at, which we will get to in subsequent posts.

But significantly, we’ve found two errors that still persist to this day in in-print Houghton Mifflin editions (there’s an error in the current HarperCollins hardcover texts too but we’ll get to that in a subsequent post, to say nothing of the hyphenation errors in the ebooks).

At least as far as the 24th impression of the 2001 Houghton Mifflin 2nd Edition hardcover and the 11th impression of the 2014 Mariner Books 2nd Edition trade paperback,

  • p168 has ‘Lay of Leithien’ for ‘Lay of Leithian’
  • p194 has ‘the house of Hador’ for ‘the house of Haldor’
  • p290 has ‘Númeróreans’ for ‘Númenóreans’

I’d like to acquire (or have someone check the variants at each of the 40 loci in) a hardcover Houghton Mifflin version preceding the 2001 2nd Edition but much later than the 1977 1st impression I have. Also particularly helpful would be the 1999 HarperCollins reset on which so many of the subsequent versions (despite their differences) are supposedly based.