2006 The Silmarillion (Erin Jones)

Release Date: 2006.02.21
Reader: Erin Jones
Language: English
Organization: Library of Congress
Publisher: American Printing House for the Blind
ISBN: n/a
Duration: 18 hours 58 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: USA
Licenced: Yes
Formats: 4 x C-90 4-track cassettes 15/16 ips, Digital BARD
NLS Book Number: RC 60367

Produced by American Printing House for the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled service of the Library of Congress. This reading was made purely for eligible members of this special library service in the USA and not available for commercial release.

Jones has been a narrator for The National Library Service for over 24 years and has recorded over 1,000 titles. She has also read Unfinished Tales.

This recording was born during the NLS’s transition to the digital BARD system. Erin Jones was tasked with providing the modern, high-fidelity replacement for the 1978 Bob Askey recording. This version is now the definitive “Reference” edition for the Library of Congress and uses the 2nd edition text.

There was often a 1–2 year lag between a recording at APH (Louisville) and the final nationwide distribution by the NLS (Washington D.C.). While she likely recorded it around 2004–2005, the March–April 2006 issue of Talking Book Topics (Volume 72, Number 2) contains the official announcement that marked the release of this production. However, the effective release date (the day the master tapes were finalized and the first copies were shipped to regional libraries) was February 21, 2006.

While the recording was released on cassette in 2006, the Digital Book (DB) version was officially published to the BARD servers on July 10, 2009. The most important difference for a digital user is Navigation. On the 4-track cassette, you had to fast-forward through hours of tape to find a specific chapter. On the BARD release, the NLS added DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) markers.

Jones’s version is significantly longer than the 1978 Bob Askey version (~2.5 hours) due mostly to her reading the full Index of Names. This is a significant undertaking in The Silmarillion, as it serves as a condensed history of the First Age. She includes a word-for-word reading of the Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names. While Bob Askey used a more standardized American delivery, Jones utilizes the specific pronunciation rules laid out by Christopher Tolkien in the Appendix.

In 2015, the NLS did a “Metadata Cleanup” for their digital library. During this process, many titles (including The Silmarillion) were assigned new DB 81XXX numbers or updated timestamps in certain regional databases. However, the audio content is the same 2006 APH master read by Erin Jones.

The format of the digital BARD release is AMR-WB+ (Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Plus) inside a specialized ANSI/NISO Z39.86 container. The files are protected by LCF (Library Corporation Format) encryption, meaning they only play on authorized NLS digital players or the BARD Mobile app. This digital release removed the “background hiss” and “wow and flutter” inherent to the 15/16 ips cassette speed, providing a much crisper representation of Jones’s voice.