Honestly, I would recommend the audiobook over the book; having someone else figure out how to say the special names makes it much easier to keep track of them in your mind, I find

[–] Godric@lemmy.world 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same, that's how I listened to it. Andy Serkis does a great job!

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

According to my huge Tolkien nerd mom serkis completely botches the elvish pronunciations. Can't corroborate that personally but she's been neck deep in LOTR shit for as long as I can remember

[–] Godric@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, interesting! I can't claim to be enough of an expert to really know either way, do you happen to remember any examples?

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 8 points 6 months ago

Not off the top of my head but I'll be happy to ask her about them in the morning! I'll reply to your comment again when I get an answer

[–] lud@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

I did both.

Audiobook+real book+map and family tree on my PC.

[–] Lizardking13@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

The audiobook names are mispronounced at times, but I generally understand the sentiment here.

[–] ytg@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 months ago

But you can never know if they pronounce them right :(

Then again, Tolkien does describe the pronunciations in enough detail in the Appendix to LOTR (I don't know if it's in every edition though).