Just an announcement for all my Tolkien and pop culture people: I’ve started a Substack where I plan to talk about the intersection of and references to Tolkien in various pop cultural artifacts. Would love to hang and get your feedback. Let’s nerd out🤘🏼
I love to see how many people are stoked for Season 2! I’ve seen way less hate online. It’s almost like the outrage from last season was manufactured or something… 🤔
As I read Tolkien scholarship on the Second Age and reread LOTR, the more I come to appreciate ROP in my rewatch. The showrunners and everyone involved in the process have really achieved something special. I’ve truly experienced Middle-earth in this recent viewing
Me: I'm excited for ROP and glad people aren't being negative!
ROP Crybaby Content Creators: Ha! Jokes on you! We just don't care anymore!
ROP Crybaby Content Creators: *proceed to spend hours on my timeline telling me how much they "don't care" anymore*
For this week’s
#TolkienTuesday
#TolkienTrewsday
theme on ‘Dragons,’ I’m going to say that Glaurung is my favorite dragon in the legendarium. He’s just so diabolical. One of the best monsters/villains Tolkien’s ever written
🎨: John Howe
The Silmarillion is really what started the deep love for Tolkien - particularly this Ballantine paperback with cover art by Darrell K. Sweet. The smell of aged pages and notes in the margins always has me returning to it almost every year
You gotta give it to the author and the show runners for doing their research on Tom Bombadil. Regardless of plot and creative freedom, I think we’re in for a treat when Tom Bombadil hits the silver screen!
These three humans were murdered this year. I am longing for a day when individuals who enact hateful murder behind the shield of individuals at the helm of institutions that are supposed to keep other individuals safe are brought to justice
#BlackLivesMatter
#SayTheirNames
The
#Tolkien
Society is a worldwide membership organisation with over 3,500 members in 70 countries. Members get 6 issues of Amon Hen and a Mallorn every year. To get yours, visit
It’s interesting that the “respect Tolkien’ crowd or those who want to preserve his intent are also those who have no issue with twisting Tolkien and his work into being tools for Christian evangelism
The Tolkien Society is an international society devoted to promoting the life and works of J.R.R.
#Tolkien
, with an ultimate aim of setting up a centre to Tolkien. Members support our work and receive our publications. To get yours, join us at
Tom’s article is going to serve as foundational to a particular theological approach to Tolkien Studies. This should be the standard when engaging Tolkien theologically, and I don’t say that lightly. Thank you for this gift and your work, Tom 🤘🏼
I have a new article in Mythlore!
"'It Is 'About' Nothing But Itself': Tolkienian Theology Beyond the Domination of the Author" asks, how can we make space for Tolkien's Catholicism AND the faith of his readers (or lack thereof)?
I'm really proud of this one. Link below!
Hear, hear! You should definitely look into
@TolkienSociety
during this time. You’ll get some inside info on the world of
#Tolkien
fandom as well access to articles by fans, scholars, and even yours truly 😁
50 years after his death, Tolkien continues to influence, inspire, and bring joy to people around the world. He certainly changed my life, continues to influence my life, and has brought me great friendships I never thought I would ever have. RIP, Professor and cheers 🍻
On 2 September 1973 J.R.R.
#Tolkien
died aged 81. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the best-selling book of the 20th Century, and is joined by seminal works The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.
He may have died 50 years ago but his influence and legacy lives on in us all. Namárië.
Being a part of the
@TolkienSociety
is one of the greatest joys of my life. There’s an amazing community and awesome and nerdy goodies that come with the membership. Join us 🤘🏼
You can join the Tolkien Society!
Members support our aim to educate the public in the life and works of
#Tolkien
, including our plan for a Tolkien Centre. Members get 6 Amon Hen and 1 Mallorn a year and become part of a global community. To join visit
Join the
#Tolkien
Society and
@UofGFantasy
as we share readings, reader reactions and reflections on what Tolkien’s characters have taught as about ‘Hope and Courage’ this
#TolkienReadingDay2021
.
Find out more:
@ShaunGunner
It happens on Reddit too. Someone will hit you with some interesting criticism, begin a good discussion about the show, and then just roast you and anyone who likes the show. So strange
@bburton359
I think that there are so many details that the showrunners incorporated into the show from elements of LOTR thematically as well as aesthetically that I think people will keep discovering over the years. With Galadriel, there are so many callbacks to the Lothlórien chapter 1/
Tolkien’s work is not a monoculture or monolithic. It is a work that demonstrates what John Cobb, Jr. calls reconstructive postmodernism. Tolkien is the source of his works, but the meanings within and without it are not fixed, but move in flux throughout its historical context
My all time favorite band just released their 10th full length album and I got to be a part of its existence. We like to hate on the 21st century, but I’ve never been more connected to
@mxpx
than I am now. Give it a listen at midnight on
@Spotify
#MxPx
#Punk
🤘🏼
@M_Rothaus_Moser
That video’s title is actually just clickbait. Martin doesn’t frame Tolkien’s choices as mistakes. He just points out his own departure in approach to Tolkien’s. It’s a good interview on differing approaches to world building
I am once again asking aging millennials to stop pretending we grew up in an age of wholesome culture as if we didn’t grow up with purity culture, 9/11, South Park, Howard Stern, and blink-182
It’s been 3 years since the passing of Christopher Tolkien. The Hobbit and LOTR have always been a part of my life, but it was The Silmarillion that lured me deeper into Middle-earth. That wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Christopher. Thanks and RIP to a legend
Happy
#TolkienTuesday
#TolkienTrewsday
everyone! I’ve been busy and not prepped to participate, but for today’s theme of “other works” I had to share On Fairy-stories. One can return to this essay and come away from it with something new every time. OFS is life-changing 🤘🏼
For all my Tolkien peeps: I am presenting at the virtual The Wisdom of Hobbits Conference at the end of this month along with
@trippfuller
@ThomasJayOord
@mrdavidrowe
and a host of other incredible super nerds. Registration is only $20!
Happy birthday to the man many of us endearingly refer to as The Professor. I’m grateful to have encountered his works, which have built bridges to many an unexpected and welcome friendship 🍻
It’s been four years since the passing of Christopher Tolkien. I continue to remember him with gratefulness for the work he did to give us Tolkienists the gift of Middle-earth. May he rest in peace
I posted my paper Taking Comfort In Virtual Humor: Tolkien Memes as Adaptation and Escape from the
#PPPMoot
on
@academia
which you can read for free here 👇
#Tolkien
Members of the Tolkien Society receive 6 editions of our magazine "Amon Hen" per year. Amon Hen contains
#Tolkien
news, articles, reviews, art, and more. Members of the Society get their copy in print or online. You can get yours by becoming a member at
Today I got to watch papers for
#Tolkien
and Religion hosted by
@RealTomEmanuel
and
@MrWillSherwood
and am currently editing the next issue of Mallorn, both of
@TolkienSociety
, which contains a plethora of theology and religious study texts. It’s an exciting time for Tolkien 1/
It’s been a bit since I’ve contributed to
#TolkienTrewsday
#TolkienTuesday
but I’m done with school now, so I plan to participate more! My favorite character is Gandalf. If I can be half as wise and a quarter as grumpy, all while smoking smoke rings in my old age, I’d be happy
A holiday surprise in the post this morning: the latest issue of Mallorn, the journal of the
@TolkienSociety
! 🎄🌟
I'm delighted to have a new peer-reviewed article in: "By the Waters of Anduin We Lay Down and Wept: Tolkien’s Akallabêth and the Prophetic Imagination."
Oh hey! Looks like the latest issue of the Tolkien Society's Mallorn journal has been released, and lurking somewhere in its pages is this Balrog art I did earlier this year. Exciting! Many thanks to
@NJSPolk
for reaching out for it to be included.
Get excited! We’re hanging out with
#Tolkien
scholar
@MarianaRiosMal1
Mariana is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow researching Ethics and Otherness in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth Narratives. Join us for some super nerdy fun!
Going to DQ and paying with a gift card, an exchange:
Cashier: you have two cents left
Me: YOU KEEP THOSE BAD BOYS *finger guns*
Cashier: no, you OWE two cents
Me: …
Very stoked to be able to present my first Oxonmoot paper entitled “Evaluating Bad Theology and Making a Case for the Ethical Priority of Religious Diversity in Tolkien Studies.” It will be an online presentation & I’m honored to present alongside a slew of amazing people!
@bburton359
with details of preserved aspects of the ages past that we see in the show as well as some character inspiration. I see much of Celeborn in Gil-galad through hasty elvish pride and then we see the origins of the terribly beautiful aspects of Galadriel & I think we’ll see 2/
🚨 HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES from
@empiremagazine
's
#RingsOfPower
World Exclusive! We'll be covering all this AND MORE on our stream tomorrow! Stay tuned for details! (1/5)
My wife just speculated what I think about before falling asleep in bed and summed it up by saying: “Idk, probably something like ‘Symbolism, Sauron, the Road to Damascus’”
And she’s not far off 😂
We've been hard at work finalizing the schedule for OMS (which is less than one month away), and we're excited to share what's in store! Registration is open at:
For today’s
#TolkienTuesday
#TolkienTrewsday
I’m going to highlight the Wargs. I love fantasy beasts and Tolkien’s take on Wargs is fascinating, mysterious, and frightening. Here are some depictions from folks like John Howe and others. Got any favorite Tolkien beasts?
Part of why you should join
@TolkienSociety
is that you get to read some awesome work by
#Tolkien
scholars like Mercury. Pretty proud of producing this year’s issue with an amazing team, talented artists, & killer scholarship
Very excited about this season's Mallorn, as it is my first occasion of being published! I've written a long review of a very dense scholarly work. As is usual for me, the 3000 word version in my drafts is better than the 1500 in print, but I'm incapable of brevity.
Lost my family dog today. If there’s one word I can think of for Cyrene it’s “chipper” even to her last moments. She was one of the most intelligent, loyal, and loving dogs of all time. Heaven’s reserved for the goodest of girls 🙏🏼
Being an adult is cool sometimes because you can oscillate between gathering quality ingredients to make a nutritious home-cooked meal to filling your cabinets with Cinnamon Toast Crunch, marshmallows, and tortilla chips
This is what you miss when you don’t listen to
@prancingponypod
and didn’t sign up for the
#PPPMoot
Thanks for capturing this moment, Lord of the Mark!
#Tolkien
Here are my Christmas
#Tolkien
goods from family and
@TolkienSociety
where you can read my article on Parody, Tolkien, and
@SouthPark
It’s probably my favorite thing I’ve written so far 😊
Got to be a part of a round table on Tolkien fandom and TROP with some absolutely wonderful scholars such as
@AranelParmadil
@srwestvik
@MenelRond
& Robin Reid. Feeling lots of nerdy gratitude
Today was the first time I really felt the reality of a school shooting. I have friends who teach at private, chartered and public schools. I’m currently in the classroom. I texted friends and had family text me to check on my safety. Prayers without action are toothless
Last but not least, we’ll be hearing from the man himself
@trippfuller
! He and
@njspolk
will talk
#Tolkien
and how he may or may not be process friendly. Sign up at
For today’s
#TolkienTuesday
#TolkienTrewsday
“Hobbit” for
#HobbitWeek
I gotta showcase my Smaug tattoo, originally drawn by
#Tolkien
and was on the cover of the first edition of The Hobbit.
Very pumped for our favorite Baggins’ birthday on Friday! 🥳
Today is J.R.R.
#Tolkien
's 131st birthday! As Frodo did for Bilbo, the Tolkien Society continues to celebrate Tolkien's birthday in his absence with our
#TolkienBirthdayToast
. Our tradition: at 9pm your time raise a glass and toast, "The Professor!"
The new issue of Mallorn also contains my review of
@DrAustinFreeman
’s “Tolkien Dogmatics,” whose book has generated a vast theological response in Tolkien Studies