LOTR ebook erratum and ebook quality

[AprilHare]

I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings in EPUB format. I began noticing the various errors in the text and noting them down, in the hope of shaming the publisher and pushing for at least some proofreading before selling ebooks. In my opinion, we should have them 'upgraded' for free.
I’ve maintained a list of things I’ve noticed; if you notice any more than I have, please feel free to add to the list!
Note some are formatting, some are typos and some are extra characters..

Page 14: Also in The War of the Ring,Christopher Tolkien reproduces a page from the first manuscript of the chapter ‘The Taming of Smeagol’, and the printed text corresponding to this text is on the facing page (see pp. 90-91).
Page 14: that Tolkien at one point considered a romance between Aragorn and É that Tolkien wrote an epilogue to the book, tying up loose ends, but it was dropped before publication (and now appears in Sauron Defeated); and so on.
Page 573: ‘Westu Théoden hál!’’, cried émer.
Page 574: “Go, H!, and seek my own sword!”
Page 579: She is fearless and high-ɣhearted.
Page 581: ‘I will forget my wrath for a while, éomer son of Éomund,’ said Gimli;
Page 581: ‘Were the breath of the West Wind to take a body visible, even so would it appear,’ said éomer, as the great horse ran up, until he stood before the wizard.
Page 581: Here now I name my guest, Gandalf Greyhame, wisest of counsel lors, most welcome of wanderers, a lord of the Mark, a chieftain of the Eorlingas while our kin shall last;
Page 620: ‘I am Strider and Dúna-dan too, and I belong both to Gondor and the North.’
Page 624: Treebeard put us down, and went up to the gates, and began ham mering on the doors, and calling for Saruman.
Page 705: ‘Smeagol,’ he said, ‘I will trust you once more.
Page 706: ‘Yes, yes, master!’ said Gollum. ‘Dreadful danger! Smeagol's bones shake to think of it, but he doesn't run away. He must help nice master.’
Page 710: The ‘escape’ may have been allowed or arranged, and well knownin the Dark Tower.
Page 783: It took his hand, and as Frodo watched with his mind, not willing it but in suspense (as if he looked on some old story far away,
[series of spaces]it moved the hand inch by inch towards the chain upon his neck.
Page 795: Gollum's eyes glinted. ‘He doesn't know what we minds, does he, precious? No, he doesn't. But Smeagol can bear things. Yes. He's been through. Oh yes, right through. It's the only way.’
Page 877: The Firienfeld men called it, a green mountain-field of grass and heath, high above the deep-delved courses of the Snowbourn, laid upon the lap of the great mountains behind: the Starkhorn southwards, and northwards the saw-toothed mass of írensaga, between which there faced the riders, the grim black wall of the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain rising out of steep slopes of sombre pines.

[pidgeon92]

I've been wondering why Amazon pulled the trilogy from the Kindle store. I am going to guess that this is why. Hopefully the publisher will get the errors fixed soon, and Amazon will put it back up for sale.

[Quexos]

I don't know if there are different versions depending where one gets the ebook but I've noticed other errors. Giving the pages would be irrelevant because it is not the same page depending on your device (or so I've heard). In any case here is what I have found:

- Towards the end of "Note on the text":
Tolkien at one point considered a romance between Aragorn and É
(the full word is of course Éowyn)
- Throughout the book you have "Smeagol" when the correct name is "Sméagol" Note that some instances of that name are correct.

PS: would you be so kind as to specify what is the corrected word for each of your instances ? Your spotting those errata is invaluable but the correct form would help even more, I plan to correct the mistakes within my epub version myself. Thank you
(For instance: that second erratum you spotted "go H! and seek my own sword" what is the correct word ? H Home ?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings in EPUB format. I began noticing the various errors in the text and noting them down, in the hope of shaming the publisher and pushing for at least some proofreading before selling ebooks. In my opinion, we should have them 'upgraded' for free.
I’ve maintained a list of things I’ve noticed; if you notice any more than I have, please feel free to add to the list!
Note some are formatting, some are typos and some are extra characters..

Page 573: ‘Westu Théoden hál!’’, cried émer.
Page 574: “Go, H!, and seek my own sword!”
Page 579: She is fearless and high-ɣhearted.
Page 581: ‘I will forget my wrath for a while, éomer son of Éomund,’ said Gimli;
Page 581: ‘Were the breath of the West Wind to take a body visible, even so would it appear,’ said éomer, as the great horse ran up, until he stood before the wizard.
Page 581: Here now I name my guest, Gandalf Greyhame, wisest of counsel lors, most welcome of wanderers, a lord of the Mark, a chieftain of the Eorlingas while our kin shall last;
Page 620: ‘I am Strider and Dúna-dan too, and I belong both to Gondor and the North.’
Page 624: Treebeard put us down, and went up to the gates, and began ham mering on the doors, and calling for Saruman.
Page 710: The ‘escape’ may have been allowed or arranged, and well knownin the Dark Tower.
Page 783: It took his hand, and as Frodo watched with his mind, not willing it but in suspense (as if he looked on some old story far away,
[series of spaces]it moved the hand inch by inch towards the chain upon his neck.

I've just re-downloaded my Mobipocket copy from Fictionwise. I see the same errors. Disappointing.

[viviena]

Originally Posted by Quexos

(For instance: that second erratum you spotted "go H! and see my own sword" what is the correct word ? H Home ?

This one at least is "Go Háma, and seek my own sword!" I've just double-checked it with my EPUB version of The Two Towers, which also has the proper line in lieu of April's 573. Actually, from a cursory search through The Two Towers, it seems to be lacking the errors reported here for the 3-in-1. I think I'll do a more comprehensive comparison in the morning, but I remember reading somewhere on MR once that the individual books had less errors than the 3-in-1. That might have been why I bought them individually at the time, now that I think about it.

Professor Tolkien would be rolling in his grave as well if he knew of how his books were riddled with errors. Many recent print editions of LOTR have the section Notes on the Text, which discusses how Tolkien diligently corrected errors and prepared new revisions of LOTR over the years, in which even nasturtians as opposed to nasturtiums became a concern for him. I wonder if the 3-in-1 ebook version features that particular section...*

* EDIT: It seems that the ebook versions do have a Notes on the Text, so scratch that particular thought of mine.

[CallOfCth'reader]

Thanks for the heads up on the errors. I can fix them in Sigil now.

Edited to add: The inability to correct ebooks is another negative point against DRM. Yay, for stripping!

[Quexos]

Ok Aprilhare, nevermind the correct words, I got them all. It's all fixed. Thank you for this great info.
Viviena thank you for the name "Háma", It would have taken me longer and harder to find out that word (going to a bookstore and painstakingly looking for it on the printed version)

I guess my e-book is (hopefully) now the most up-to-date version around. If anyone spots other mistakes thanks for letting the rest of us know. Don't forget to check your versions for the mistakes I spotted (as mentioned in my first post in this thread).

[KenJackson]

This begs the question of whether they got the eBook input from a previous printing source or by scanning a paper copy. Surely starting with an electronic file, regardless of format, would be easier and produce a more accurate result than physically scanning paper. But errors suggest they scanned a paper copy.

It makes me wonder about what technology was used to print the various printings that have been published over the years. Surely printings in recent decades started with a text file which was fed to a printer.

[AprilHare]

Not sure if 573's error is worse than I've indicated. It does seem a bit mangled in terms of punctuation and I'm unsure if it's hál or hái.. anyone have an original pbook on hand?
I haven't finished. I'll go through the Return of the King, and I'll check out Smeagol/Sméagol..
We really should go back in time and give Tolkien a computer That and the e-publisher needs a hand in the first place too..

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Ok Aprilhare, nevermind the correct words, I got them all. It's all fixed. Thank you for this great info.
Viviena thank you for the name "Háma", It would have taken me longer and harder to find out that word (going to a bookstore and painstakingly looking for it on the printed version)

I guess my e-book is (hopefully) now the most up-to-date version around. If anyone spots other mistakes thanks for letting the rest of us know. Don't forget to check your versions for the mistakes I spotted (as mentioned in my first post in this thread).

You didn't know Wormtongues' original name?

[jgaiser]

Kindle AZW version has the same errors. Maybe letting the Tolkien estate know how poorly edited the ebooks are will light some fires.

[crich70]

Wasn't Wormtongue's first name "Grima"?

Originally Posted by AprilHare

You didn't know Wormtongues' original name?

[Giggleton]

Well, I've read about formatting errors in LOTR beginning with the first edition so this is nothing new. You must be talking about "official" eversions? I suspect the fan produced eversions would be superior to the publisher supplied eversions. I'll probably read LOTR on my ereader in a few years so I do hope these errors get fixed up by then.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

You must be talking about "official" eversions? I suspect the fan produced eversions would be superior to the publisher supplied eversions.

All that I have found on the darknet are as bad (or worse) than the "Official" versions. No where near as beautifully crafted as the Harry Potter books.

[Hellmark]

I find that surprising. Usually it is the pirated ones that look the best, especially of the popular works.

This is sad, since I was wanting to get ebooks of the LOTR series. Why waste the money if they have glaring issues like that?