{"id":266,"date":"2026-03-22T04:11:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/?p=266"},"modified":"2026-03-22T04:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T04:11:47","slug":"1980-a-tolkien-compass-guide-to-the-names-in-the-lord-of-the-rings-random-house-paperback-edition-mass-market-paperback-random-house-publishing-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"1980 \u2013 A Tolkien Compass\u00a0(Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings) \u2013 Random House Paperback Edition \u2013 Mass Market Paperback \u2013 Random House Publishing Group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Contains an essay titled &#8220;Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings&#8221;.  It has in the first three editions of the book but removed from later editions.  Tolkien originally wrote this guide to assist translators of <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. He was reacting to some early foreign editions (specifically the first Dutch translation) that he felt handled the translation of his invented names very poorly.  The guide provides explicit instructions on which names should be translated into other languages and which should be left exactly as they are. In doing so, it offers an incredibly detailed, candid look at Tolkien&#8217;s thought process regarding the etymology, history, and meaning of the people, places, and things in Middle-earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Full Title<\/strong>: A Tolkien Compass<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Editor<\/strong>: Jared Lobdell<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Artist<\/strong>: N\/A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rarity<\/strong>: Common<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Publisher<\/strong>: \u200e Random House Paperback Edition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Publication date<\/strong>: \u200e 1980<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Edition<\/strong>: \u200e Random House Paperback Edition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Print length<\/strong>: \u200e 201 Pages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ISBN-10<\/strong>: \u200e?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ISBN-13<\/strong>: \u200e 9780345288554<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Item Weight:<\/strong> \u200e ?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dimensions<\/strong>: \u200e ?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"848\" src=\"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s-l1600-16.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-267\" style=\"width:326px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s-l1600-16.webp 500w, https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/s-l1600-16-177x300.webp 177w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contains an essay titled &#8220;Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings&#8221;. It has in the first three editions of the book but removed from later editions. Tolkien originally wrote this guide to assist translators of The Lord of the Rings. He was reacting to some early foreign editions (specifically the first Dutch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,11,9,20,28,14,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-tolkien-compass-edition","category-edition","category-fiction","category-first-state","category-mass-market-paperback","category-middle-earth","category-misc-tolkien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tolkienbibliography.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}