Tolkien News

The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that, in celebration of this momentous year, the theme for this year's Tolkien Reading Day on 25th March will be "75 years of The Hobbit".

Since 2002, every summer a number of Tolkien fans meet up in the city centre of the Professor's home town, Oxford, for an informal weekend of fun, good conversation and the odd pint of beer.

On 22 Feb 2011, the city of Christchurch, New Zealand suffered a terrible earthquake. The number of people who lost their lives is currently 102, but it is expected to go up and there may be hundreds more still in the rubble of collapsed buildings. In the aftermath, we have gathered some information and a few ways that you can help.

This year's Middle-earth Weekend has the theme of the Mariner to tie in with the International Maritime Organization's Year of the Seafarer.

As 2010 is the International Maritime Organization's Year of the Seafarer the theme chosen gives people a chance to read and think about exploring the undercurrents in the Numenorean romance the "Tale of Aldarion and Erendis" from "Unfinished Tales", the journeys and ships of the Teleri, the flight of the Noldor, and the voyages of Tuor and Earendil in "The Silmarillion", or Bilbo's poem about the latter in LotR. There are also the poems "The Happy Mariners" and at a pinch "Bombadil Goes Boating."

As more news of the amount of devastation from the earthquake in Haiti on January 12th becomes available , The White Tree Fund are putting information together for any who would like to assist the aid efforts.

"A town in Mid Wales is to be turned into a bit of Middle Earth next summer with the launch of a festival based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings."

September 22nd marks the birthday of these well-known and world-renowned Hobbits!

Alan Lee is back in New Zealand signing books... and maybe more?