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❁DAS SILMARILLION❁
Extremely Rare Edition
Verlag Die Drei, Berlin 1978
Extremely rare unauthorized edition, a unique piece for Tolkien collectors
One of the most mysterious and fascinating editions in the entire history of Tolkien publishing.
This is not the common Klett-Cotta edition: this is the infamous \"pirate\" edition, printed in Germany in 1978 without official authorization. A true collector\'s item.
Why is this edition special?
Unauthorized edition: Published without translation rights, outside of official channels.
Extremely limited print run: It circulated for a very short time, and very few copies survive today.
Year 1978: The same year as the official first German edition, but completely different.
Unique cover and layout: Does not match any Klett-Cotta edition.
Verlag Die Drei is a ghost publishing house inextricably linked to one of the most curious chapters in German-language Tolkien collecting.
Key points about its history:
A \"shell\" publisher: Verlag Die Drei was not a real publishing house with a structured catalogue or an actual operational headquarters in Berlin. It was a fictitious label created for the sole purpose of publishing this pirate edition without exposing its creators to legal liability.
The 1978 context: Following the original publication of The Silmarillion in September 1977 by Allen & Unwin, the official German publisher Klett-Cotta acquired the translation rights, assigning the work to Margaret Carroux and Wolfgang Krege. However, translation and printing took time (the official edition was only released in October 1978).
Clandestine publication: Capitalizing on the immense anticipation of German fans, the figures behind Verlag Die Drei independently translated and printed the text, putting it up for sale in early 1978 in West Berlin (hence the Berlin 1978 imprint in the colophon).
Legal action and withdrawal: As soon as Klett-Cotta and the Tolkien Estate discovered this unauthorized volume, they immediately launched legal action for copyright infringement. The print run was seized and pulled from the market almost instantly, forcing \"Verlag Die Drei\" to vanish into thin air without ever releasing another title.
Precisely because of this seizure and the rapid disappearance of this makeshift publisher, very few copies survived to circulate privately—transforming this imprint into a true \"Holy Grail\" for collectors of Tolkien rarities.
