Like millions of other J.R.R. Tolkien fans I have been transfixed by the new televised adaptation of the Middle Earth saga. Waiting for the next episode to drop, I searched out a wonderful set of recordings of Tolkien reading from his beloved classic The Hobbit. 

In 1952, a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien showed him a tape recorder, which the author had never seen before. Delighted, Tolkien sat for his friend and read from The Hobbit for 30 minutes “in this one incredible take”. The audio is split between these two videos (with visuals and music added later).

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