2008 Der Hobbit (Gert Heidenreich)

The Hobbit

Release Date: 2008.10
Readers: Gert Heidenreich
Language: German
Translator: Wolfgang Krege
Organisation: © 2008 Der Hörverlag
ISBN: 9783867174435
Duration: 10 hours 53 minutes
Unabridged: Yes
Country: Germany
Licenced: Yes
Formats: CD, Digital

Gert Heidenreich (see profile page) treats the story seriously, avoiding the “squeaky” or overly “cartoony” voices that some narrators use for children’s books. It was recorded early to mid 2008 building on the success of Heidenreich’s The Lord of the Rings reading from a couple of years prior. He had stepped in after Achim Höppner, who was the “voice of Gandalf” in the Peter Jackson films, had passed away unexpectedly in 2006.

There are two main German translations of The Hobbit: the “classic” Margaret Carroux translation and the “modern” Wolfgang Krege translation. Here, Heidenreich reads the Krege translation which was generally well-received because it captures the conversational, slightly whimsical tone Tolkien intended for a younger audience.

The 2008 master was one of the first to be recorded in a high-bitrate digital environment specifically optimized for the then-new “MP3-CD” players, even though it was primarily sold as a 10-CD standard audio set.