Here's a link to Volume One of a Three Volume Set of J.R.R. Tolkien reading (and singing!) the Lord of the Rings that has finally made its way into the public domain. The distributor has asked that I not hard-link to the files, so you'll just have to go there and get them.Also, here's a bonus! The Hobbit audiobook! Here's the source commentary:
Out-of-print audiobook whose adaptation was authorized by professor Tolkien himself, this was originally put out in 1974 as a boxed set of LPs. In my view, this is pretty much the best adaptation of The Hobbit ever, rivaling even the terrific animated film adaptation. It owes its greatness to the wonderful music and simply amazing voice work of Nicol Williamson, who may be better known to some as Merlin from the film Excalibur. If there were a Criterion Collection for audiobooks, this would surely be be one of the first titles.
part I
part II
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"Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ."
Rom 10:17(DRV)
I wonder if these are not copyright infringement and thus theft? I am a huge Tolkien fan and of course I'd love to download the files, but I don't want to do anything sinful. In the comments to the article on the page you're linking to, someone says that these recordings are available on a CD which can be ordered through Amazon, so perhaps it is against the law to link to this file? Please don't be offended, I love your blog, I even have it in my RSS reader so that I won't miss any new posts, but I've read that breaking copyrights is a serious sin and it's a Catholic's duty to warn their neighbours against sin.
I, personally,feel that sharing a file from an old vinyl record is okay. The CD release is surely cleaned up, removing any hiss and pop from the original vinyl. If it was a rip from the recently released CD,i might be less inclined to download it, but I'm thinking on the lines of bootleg video, as well; if the presented material differs significantly from that which is commercially available, there is no significant infringement. I think the quality of the medium (unadjusted vinyl) differs significantly to remastered CDs.