If you’re looking for a gift for a Lord of the Rings fan this holiday, Amazon’s Black Friday sale includes all three Tolkien Illustrated Special Editions for roughly 60% off. These slipcased editions of The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings feature drawings, paintings, sketches, and maps by the author. The Special Editions have high-end features like cloth board covers, quarterbound leather spines, and collectible inserts.
The Hobbit Deluxe Illustrated: Special Edition is on sale for $79 (was $195), The Silmarillion is $80 (was $195), and The Lord of the Rings is $111.55 (was $250). If you don’t want to spend that much on a single book, the standard hardcover editions for all three are eligible for Amazon’s Buy Two, Get One Free Book Sale. You can also save nearly 50% on the recently released The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings: Illustrated by Alan Lee Box Set. Published in October for $150, the four-book set is on sale for $78.33 for Black Friday.
Buy Two, Get One Free Tolkien Illustrated Editions:
$78.92 (was $195)
The Deluxe Special Edition of The Hobbit has numerous unique features not found in the standard edition published by William Morrow in 2023. The 384-page book has a redesigned, premium binding made of cloth board and quarterbound in ribbed green leather. The custom clothbound slipcase and cover have foil-stamped logos and text. While the standard edition has blue stained page edges, the Special Edition opts for gold edges instead, which adds to its luxurious aesthetic. Like the standard edition, you’ll get built-in ribbon bookmark.
This version also comes with a few unique bonuses: two fold-out, poster-sized maps of Thror’s Map and the Wilderland, an 88-page illustrated booklet, and an art card reproduction of the painting Tolkien made for The Hobbit’s original dust jacket.
Both Tolkien Illustrated Editions of The Hobbit feature 50 sketches, paintings, and other artwork created by Tolkien while he drafted the prelude to The Lord of the Rings.
$79.87 (was $195)
The Silmarillion’s Deluxe Special Edition is on sale for roughly the same price as The Hobbit, but it’s worth noting that this isn’t an all-time low. It was briefly on sale for $55 during Prime Day earlier this year.
$111.55 (was $250)
The Deluxe Illustrated Special Edition of The Lord of the Rings is almost always more expensive than the other two, but it’s a significantly larger book that collects all three parts of Tolkien’s masterwork: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. It’s on sale for 55% off, dropping the price to $111.55 (was $250).
The 1,248-page Deluxe Illustrated Special Edition was the first of the three to release–William Morrow published it in 2022–so many of the unique features found in the other two were pulled from here. It includes a pair of fold-out maps of Middle-earth created Chrstopher Tolkien, a quarterbound red leather spine and cloth board cover, clothbound slipcase, and foil-stamped images and text on cover and case. It also comes with a few additional inserts, including Thorin’s letter to Bilbo in Elvish.
The pages of the Deluxe Special Edition have gold edges–the standard edition has red edges–and throughout the text you’ll find 30 full-color illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien. Like the standard edition, this version includes a ribbon bookmark and the complete original text, including the lengthy appendices.
As mentioned, Amazon is also offering a terrific Black Friday deal on a recently released collection of illustrated editions. The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings: Illustrated by Alan Lee Box Set is on sale for $78.33 (was $150). This four-volume hardcover collection released October 14, so the near-50% discount is unexpected.
If you opt for the Alan Lee Box Set, which has the best illustrated editions of both novels, there’s another way to get the artwork Tolkien created while drafting his novels. The Art of The Lord of the Rings and The Art of The Hobbit are featured in Amazon’s Black Friday sale. The LOTR hardcover is 240 pages, while The Hobbit’s art book is 144 pages.
The 2024 Collector’s Edition hardcovers were already budget-friendly from the start, but Amazon’s Black Friday sale drops each part of The Lord of the Rings to $12 or lower. You can also get The Hobbit Collector’s Edition for only $11.32.
The enormous 5,440-page Complete History of Middle-earth Box Set is discounted to $80.65 (was $250) in the Black Friday sale.
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