The Tolkien Society Awards, established in 2014, are presented annually by The Tolkien Society to "recognise excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom". The awards are announced at the Annual Dinner during the Society's AGM and Springmoot weekend. [2]
| Year | Artwork | Artist | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | "Eärendil the Mariner" [4] | Jenny Dolfen | [1] |
| 2015 | "Ulmo appears before Tuor" [5] | Fabio Leone | |
| 2016 | "The Prancing Pony" [6] | Tomás Hijo | |
| 2017 | "Maglor" [7] | Elena Kukanova | |
| 2018 | "The Hunt" [8] | Jenny Dolfen | |
| 2019 | "Durin's Crown and the Mirrormere" [9] | Ted Nasmith | [10] |
| 2020 | "The Professor" [11] | Jenny Dolfen | [12] |
| 2021 | "He Beheld a Vision of Gondolin Amid the Snow" [13] | Ted Nasmith | [14] |
| 2022 | "Minas Tirith built from 110000 LEGO Bricks" [15] | STEBRICK (model), Stefano Mapelli (design), and BrickCreation (assembly) | [16] |
| 2023 | "The Party Tree" [17] | Serena Malyon | [18] |
| 2024 | "Frodo's Inheritance" [19] | Donato Giancola | [20] |
| Year | Article | Author | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | "Tolkien and the boy who didn't believe in fairies" [21] | John Garth | [1] |
| 2015 | "A Hemlock by any other name…" [22] | Michael Flowers | |
| 2016 | "Tolkien's 'immortal four' meet for the last time" [23] | John Garth | |
| 2017 | "How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front", [24] in The New York Times, 30 June 2016 | Joseph Loconte | |
| 2018 | "'Tears are the very wine of blessedness': joyful sorrow in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings", [25] in Death and Immortality in Middle-earth: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2016 | Dimitra Fimi | |
| 2019 | "Was Tolkien really racist?" [26] in The Conversation, 6 December 2018 | Dimitra Fimi | [10] |
| 2020 | "Deconstructing Durin's Day: Science, Scientific Fan Fiction, and the Fan-Scholar" [27] in Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 8, no. 1 | Kristine Larsen | [12] |
| 2021 | "Defying and Defining Darkness” [28] in Mallorn 61 | Verlyn Flieger | [14] |
| 2022 | "A Song of Greater Power: Tolkien's Construction of Lúthien Tinúviel”, [29] in Mallorn 62 | Clare Moore | [16] |
| 2023 | "All that glisters is not gold” [30] in Mallorn 63 | Sara Brown | [18] |
| 2024 | "The Tale of 'Aldarion and Erendis': Not Just a Medieval Love Story” [31] in Journal of Tolkien Research, vol. 18, no. 1 | Sara Brown | [20] |
| Year | Book | Author(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Middle-Earth Envisioned ("Best Book") | Paul Simpson and Brian Robb | [1] |
| The Fall of Arthur ("Best Novel") | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien | ||
| 2015 | Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien | |
| 2016 | The Art of The Lord of the Rings | Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull | |
| 2017 | A Secret Vice | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Dimitra Fimi and Andy Higgins | |
| 2018 | Beren and Lúthien | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien | [10] |
| 2019 | Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth | Catherine McIlwaine | [12] |
| 2020 | Tolkien's Library | Oronzo Cilli | [14] |
| 2021 | Unfinished Tales (40th anniversary edition) | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien | [16] |
| 2022 | The Nature of Middle-earth | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Carl Hostetter | [18] |
| 2023 | The Fall of Númenor | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Brian Sibley | [20] |
| 2024 | The Letters of JRR Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition | J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien | [20] |
| Year | Site | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | LOTR Project by Emil Johansson | [1] |
| 2015 | TolkienBooks.net by Neil Holford | |
| 2016 | The Journal of Tolkien Research by Bradford Lee Eden | |
| 2017 | — none — | |
| 2018 | Too Many Books and Never Enough by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull | |
| 2019 | TolkienGuide.com by Jeremy Edmonds | [10] |
| 2020 | The Prancing Pony Podcast | [12] |
| 2021 | Tolkien Experience Podcast | [14] |
| 2022 | The Prancing Pony Podcast | [16] |
| 2023 | Tolkien Gateway | [18] |
| 2024 | Nerd of the Rings | [20] |
| Year | Recipient | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Christopher Tolkien | [1] |
| 2015 | Tom Shippey | |
| 2016 | Verlyn Flieger | |
| 2017 | John Garth | |
| 2018 | Priscilla Tolkien | |
| 2019 | Catherine McIlwaine | [10] |
| 2020 | Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull | [12] |
| 2021 | Dimitra Fimi | [14] |
| 2022 | Brian Sibley | [16] |
| 2023 | John D. Rateliff | [18] |
| 2024 | Charles E. Noad (posthumous) | [20] |
Fingolfin is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, appearing in The Silmarillion. He was the son of Finwë, High King of the Noldor. He was threatened by his half-brother Fëanor, who held him in contempt for not being a pure-bred Noldor. Even so, when Fëanor stole ships and left Aman, Fingolfin chose to follow him back to Middle-earth, taking the dangerous route over the ice of the Helcaraxë. On arrival, he challenged the Dark Lord Morgoth at the gates of his fortress, Angband, but Morgoth stayed inside. When his son Fingon rescued Maedhros, son of Fëanor, Maedhros gratefully renounced his claim to kingship, and Fingolfin became High King of the Noldor. He was victorious at the battle of Dagor Aglareb, and there was peace for some 400 years until Morgoth broke out and destroyed Beleriand in the Dagor Bragollach. Fingolfin, receiving false news, rode alone to Angband and challenged Morgoth to single combat. He wounded Morgoth several times, but grew weary and was killed by the immortal Vala.
The Mythopoeic Awards for literature and literary studies are given annually for outstanding works in the fields of myth, fantasy, and the scholarly study of these areas. Established by the Mythopoeic Society in 1971, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award is given for "fiction in the spirit of the Inklings", and the Scholarship Award for non-fiction work. The award is a statuette of a seated lion, with a plaque on the base. It has drawn resemblance to, and is often called, the "Aslan".
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have served as the inspiration to painters, musicians, film-makers and writers, to such an extent that he is sometimes seen as the "father" of the entire genre of high fantasy.
Do not laugh! But once upon a time I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story... The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd.
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his fantasy writings. These encompass The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, along with his legendarium that remained unpublished until after his death, and his constructed languages, especially the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin. Scholars from different disciplines have examined the linguistic and literary origins of Middle-earth, and have explored many aspects of his writings from Christianity to feminism and race.
Ted Nasmith is a Canadian artist, illustrator and architectural renderer. He is best known as an illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien's works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Tolkien praised and commented on his early work, something that encouraged him in his career.
Songs for the Philologists is a collection of poems by E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien as well as traditional songs. It is the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related book. Originally a collection of typescripts compiled by Gordon in 1921–1926 for the students of the University of Leeds, it was given by A. H. Smith of University College London, a former student at Leeds, to a group of students to be printed privately in 1935 or 1936, and printed in 1936 with the impressum "Printed by G. Tillotson, A. H. Smith, B. Pattison and other members of the English Department, University College, London."
"A Secret Vice", also known as "A Hobby for The Home", is a lecture first presented by English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien in 1931. The lecture concerns Tolkien's relations with and view on constructed languages, in particular on artistic languages. In the talk, Tolkien discusses the human desire to make languages, and his criteria to create a good language – these include phonoaesthetics and the presence of a mythology to accompany the language. Tolkien's presentation was the first instance of him openly exhibiting his hobby of conlanging, and includes examples of several of his languages.
Jeffrey Patrick Murray was an American fantasy artist and author best known for his illustrations of works by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His paintings, illustrations, stories, poems, and essays appear regularly in Tolkien and Inklings-oriented publications and in Catholic publications worldwide. He was Artist-in-Residence for the St. Austin Review, and was artist guest of honor at the 2006 Gathering of the Fellowship in Toronto along with Ted Nasmith. He was nominated for an Imperishable Flame award in 2006, and his work has been exhibited in the USA, Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Jenny Dolfen is a German illustrator and teacher.
The Silmarillion is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by Guy Gavriel Kay, who became a fantasy author. It tells of Eä, a fictional universe that includes the Blessed Realm of Valinor, the ill-fated region of Beleriand, the island of Númenor, and the continent of Middle-earth, where Tolkien's most popular works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—are set. After the success of The Hobbit, Tolkien's publisher, Stanley Unwin, requested a sequel, and Tolkien offered a draft of the writings that would later become The Silmarillion. Unwin rejected this proposal, calling the draft obscure and "too Celtic", so Tolkien began working on a new story that eventually became The Lord of the Rings.
The Tolkien Society is an educational charity and literary society devoted to the study and promotion of the life and works of the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien.
The geography of Middle-earth encompasses the physical, political, and moral geography of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, strictly a continent on the planet of Arda but widely taken to mean the physical world, and Eä, all of creation, as well as all of his writings about it. Arda was created as a flat world, incorporating a Western continent, Aman, which became the home of the godlike Valar, as well as Middle-earth. At the end of the First Age, the Western part of Middle-earth, Beleriand, was drowned in the War of Wrath. In the Second Age, a large island, Númenor, was created in the Great Sea, Belegaer, between Aman and Middle-earth; it was destroyed in a cataclysm near the end of the Second Age, in which Arda was remade as a spherical world, and Aman was removed so that Men could not reach it.
Dimitra Fimi is a Greek academic and writer and since 2023 Professor of Fantasy and Children's Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research includes that of the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien and children's fantasy literature.
Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. A professional philologist, J. R. R. Tolkien prepared a wide variety of materials to support his fiction, including illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books, facsimile artefacts, more or less "picturesque" maps, calligraphy, and sketches and paintings from life. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements.
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings have been said to embody outmoded attitudes to race. However, scholars have noted that he was influenced by Victorian attitudes to race and to a literary tradition of monsters, and that he was anti-racist both in peacetime and during the two World Wars.
John Garth is a British journalist and author, known especially for writings about J. R. R. Tolkien including his biography Tolkien and the Great War and a book on the places that inspired Middle-earth, The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien. He won a 2004 Mythopoeic Award for Scholarship for his work on Tolkien. The biography influenced much Tolkien scholarship in the subsequent decades.
The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth is a 2020 non-fiction book by the journalist and Tolkien scholar John Garth. It describes the places that most likely inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to invent Middle-earth, as portrayed in his fantasy books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Those places include many that Tolkien lived in or visited in his early life, as well as sites from history and literature. Most are real, for instance with England as the counterpart of the Shire, though some, like Atlantis, are mythical, and others, like Mirkwood, probably have roots in real places. He notes the ambiguities in some of the connections, and that others have made superficial comparisons, such as of Tolkien's towers with various modern towers in Birmingham, where Tolkien lived as a child. Garth presents his theories of the likely origins of some of these places, supporting these with maps and photographs.
Although fantasy had long existed in various forms around the world before his time, J. R. R. Tolkien has been called the "father of fantasy", and The Lord of the Rings its centre. That novel, published in 1954–5, enormously influenced fantasy writing, establishing in particular the form of high or epic fantasy, set in a secondary or fantasy world in an act of mythopoeia. The book was distinctive at the time for its considerable length, its "epic" feel with a cast of heroic characters, its wide geography, and its battles. It involved an extensive history behind the action, an impression of depth, multiple sentient races and monsters, and powerful talismans. The story is a quest, with multiple subplots. The novel's success demonstrated that the genre was commercially distinct and viable.
Tolkien Calendars, displaying artworks interpreting J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, have appeared annually since 1976. Some of the early calendars were illustrated with Tolkien's own artwork. Artists including the Brothers Hildebrandt and Ted Nasmith produced popular work on themes from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit; later calendars also illustrated scenes from The Silmarillion. Some calendars have been named "Hobbit Calendar" or "Lord of the Rings Calendar", but "Tolkien Calendar" has remained the most popular choice of name.
Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits is a 2008 book by Dimitra Fimi about J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. Scholars largely welcomed the book, praising its accessibility and its skilful application of a biographical-historical method which sets the development of Tolkien's legendarium in the context of Tolkien's life and times. Major themes of the book include Tolkien's constructed languages, and the issues of race and racism surrounding his work.
