On this day in 1936, Tolkien received a financial boost for his academic research that also, indirectly, seems to have helped him in his work on Middle-earth. We have…

I've identified the manuscript Tolkien used for his landmark 1939 lecture On Fairy-stories – a manuscript previously thought lost.

One of Tolkien’s last changes to The Hobbit was surely his hardest – to kill off the young dwarves Fili and Kili. And it's hard for his readers too. So why did he do it?

The last succession of heatwaves to compete with 2026's saw a coronation, canal-dipping, rioting – and the formation of Tolkien's first, extraordinary fellowship…

In a newly revealed letter, Tolkien says ‘Crickhollow’ in Buckland is modelled on ‘Crickhowell’ in Wales. But what he meant is not so plain…

Like countless other writers, I owe a great debt to libraries in general. Like many, I owe a particular one to the British Library.

A dive into Oxford’s wartime archives puts to rest any question over when Tolkien enrolled as an air raid warden. As a bonus, it also suggests he did not do so alone…

Eighty years ago the Allies invaded France… and Frodo reached Mordor. Now I'm starting the first doctoral project to address how 20th-century war inspired Tolkien's epic.

Eighty years ago the Allies invaded France… and Frodo reached Mordor. Now I'm starting the first doctoral project to address how 20th-century war inspired Tolkien's epic.

The Roving Ranger #188 brings you all the interesting things Tolkienian of the last week and the weeks upcoming, curated by the Tolkienist.

Today, to mark the birthday of a worthy heir to Tolkien – and a formative influence on me – I present an interview-profile of Susan Cooper.

This week we welcome a pioneering collection of essays on the friendship most responsible for laying the path to Middle-earth. …

There are discomforts as well as delights in unexpectedly meeting your own work reflected back at you. Tolkien and the Great War has brought me a few of both...

YouTube video by Oxford Lifelong Learning, University of Oxford

The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce the shortlists for The Tolkien Society Awards 2026. Voting is open exclusively to members of the Society through the Members' Area. Shortlist This year marks...

Think you know Tolkien’s 1,000-page epic? Pit your wits against this quiz, commissioned from me by BBC Arts Digital in 2020 but now with extra questions!

Think you know Tolkien’s 1,000-page epic? Pit your wits against this quiz, commissioned from me by BBC Arts Digital in 2020 but now with extra questions!

‘Going west’ was a new English phrase for dying as the First World War raged. Did it help to shape Tolkien’s wartime idea that the souls of the dead go into the West?

War changes language. The use of “go west” to mean “die” entered recorded English in the trenches – and inspired a packed postbag of ideas about its origins.

Michael D. C. Drout’s new study of J. R. R. Tolkien, The Tower and the Ruin, explores the qualities that make the tales of Middle-earth so much more credible than most works of fantasy. When the under...

I had a busy time with Tolkien in 2025 – in scholarly and popular publications, in talks and lectures, on my crowdfunding blog, and in manuscript archives…

How a tragic 1941 RAF accident shattered the quiet of a north Oxford afternoon and brought the realities of war almost to the Tolkiens’ doorstep…

I have a new biographical article in the latest Tolkien Studies, with Peter Gilliver, filling in an important gap in Tolkien's life at the end of the First World War.

These three men died on 22 November 1963. Starkly different, each gave his energies to universal concerns. Together they form a curious triptych on the mortal condition.

On a summer day in a former age, Robert Quilter Gilson of the T.C.B.S. painted a beach scene. I find it one of the most affecting pictures by this friend of Tolkien's.

Lewis's "All My Road Before Me" promises to be a splendid read. But the distracting thrill of a coincidence uncovered means almost all of it still lies before me.

To mark the publication of The Bovadium Fragments, let’s explore the background to Tolkien’s satire on the motor-car and Oxford…