The Lord of The Rings: Unabrdiged Soundscape Project by Phil Dragash - including all original recordings (2026) - Free Audiobook

This collection contains the complete and unabridged audiobook / soundscape project of "The Lord of the Rings", written by J.R.R. Tolkien, with sound design and narration by Phil Dragash. This includes the main audiobook, miscellaneous additions originally released on the creator’s YouTube channel, as well as all original, older, and re-recorded versions of chapters, included here for the sake of completeness and preservation.

The main audiobook presented here is a partially edited version. It has been subjected to light loudness normalization to ensure a more consistent listening experience, as the original source files varied considerably in volume, particularly the later (2013/2014) re-recordings in contrast to the earlier ones, which had not been re-recored. This is not a remaster however, the volume balance between narration and background soundscape has not been touched.

Minor fixes and edits in "The Fellowship of the Ring" were sourced from the 2023 version by android927, which also incorporates the 2022 revision of “A Journey in the Dark” by coffeewithnutmeg. The '22 revision restores a longer missing passage describing the arrival at the Hollin Door and Sam's farewell to Bill the Pony. An interview with Phil Dragash from August 2023 discussing this issue can also be found on the following archive.org page: https://archive.org/details/a-journey-in-the-dark-restored-missing-audio-2022

Additionally, further restoration work was done to "Book III, Chapter 4: Treebeard", as the 2012 revision (with updated Ent voices) was heavily brickwalled and quite loud.

All files provided here are encoded in MP3 at 192 kbps. While many uploads of this audiobook on Archive.org are labeled as 256 kbps or even 320 kbps, spectral analysis indicates that none of the files actually exceed ~160 kbps. If a true encode at 256 or 320 kbps was ever done by Phil Dragash, I was unable to locate it on the net, and it may have been lost to time.

Lastly, for the sake of completeness and preservation, a ZIP archive is included, containing all versions of each chapter, original and re-recorded, preserved in their unedited form.

Words of the Creator ( Phil Dragash )

“J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings unofficial unabridged audiobook. Not only read by me, but with music by Howard Shore (for the film trilogy), and immersive sound effects that provide the written word with a more lifelike experience.”

Excerpt from an interview in 2014:

“This was fun. However, back in 2010 I didn’t set out to do a complete audiobook. I wanted to just read select chapters of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and incorporate sound effects and music – and that would be all.

But I was cleverly convinced to start from the beginning, and that was an invaluably good idea.

The first three or four chapters I am not very proud of, since they were the first ones I recorded; but soon, I think it gets better chapter by chapter.

This is a solo project, and therefore technical and pronunciation errors are inevitable. So I do hope you forgive the bumps in the road while listening.

Other than that, I do hope listening to this makes the story – unabridged and direct from J.R.R. Tolkien’s own mind – become more immersive and possibly even more emotional.

My main goal, really, was to make an audiobook that doesn’t bore you, and keeps you sane during long plane rides.”*

Author website: https://www.phildragash.com/

Sources:

Images and covers taken from https://www.create.green/lotr

Sound files taken from tolkienforum.de by arien

archive.org/details/fellowship-of-the-ring-2023-version by android927

archive.org/details/a-journey-in-the-dark-restored-missing-audio-2022 by coffeewithnutmeg