Tolkien fandom is an international, informal community offans of the works ofJ. R. R. Tolkien, especially of theMiddle-earthlegendarium which includesThe Hobbit,The Lord of the Rings, andThe Silmarillion. The concept of Tolkien fandom as a specific type of fan subculture sprang up in the United States in the 1960s, in the context of thehippie movement, to the dismay of the author (Tolkien died in 1973), who talked of "my deplorable cultus".[1]
ATolkienist is someone who studies the work ofJ. R. R. Tolkien: this usually involves the study of theElvish languages and "Tolkienology".[2] ARinger is a fan ofThe Lord of the Rings in general, and ofPeter Jackson'slive-action film trilogy in particular.[3] Other terms for Tolkien fans includeTolkienite orTolkiendil.[4]
Many fans share theirTolkien fan fiction with other fans.Tolkien societies support fans in many countries around the world.
Tolkien'sThe Hobbit, a children's book, was first published in 1937, and it proved popular. ButThe Lord of the Rings, first published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, gave rise to fandom as a cultural phenomenon from the 1960s onwards.[5][6]
Tolkien fandom began withinscience fiction fandom soon afterThe Fellowship of the Ring was published in 1954. Tolkien was discussed inscience fiction fanzines andamateur press association magazines ("apazines"), both as single essays like "No Monroe In Lothlorien!" in Eric Bentcliffe'sTriode, and in extended threads of comment such as by Robert Lichtman in hisPsi Phi. Tolkien-inspired costumes were worn atWorldcons from 1958. An organized Tolkien fandom organization called "The Fellowship of the Ring" came together in Pittcon, the18th World Science Fiction Convention inPittsburgh on 4 September 1960.[7]
England's first Tolkien fanzine wasNazgul's Bane, produced by Cheslin. Many fanzines had little Tolkien content but Tolkien-inspired names such asAncalagon,Glamdring,Lefnui,Mathom,Perian,Ringwraith,Shadowfax, and so on. Others had more meaningful Tolkien content. Ed Meskys' apazineNiekas turned into a full-fledged fanzine during this era. Pete Mansfield's Sword & Sorcery fanzine,Eldritch Dream Quest, included many Tolkien items.[7]
Foster attributes the surge of Tolkien fandom in the United States of the mid-1960s to a combination of thehippie subculture and anti-war movement pursuing "mellow freedom like that of the Shire" and "America's cultural Anglophilia" of the time, fuelled by a bootleg paperback version ofThe Lord of the Rings published byAce Books followed up by an authorised edition byBallantine Books.[8] The hippie following latched onto the book, giving its own spin to the work's interpretation, such as the Dark LordSauron's representing the United Statesmilitary draft during theVietnam War. Tolkien described this as a "deplorable cultus" and stated that "Many young Americans are involved in the stories in a way that I'm not",[1] but nevertheless admitted that "... even the nose of a very modest idol [...] cannot remain entirely untickled by the sweet smell of incense!"[9] Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone number out of the public directory.[10]
The embracing of the work by American1960s counter-culture made it an easy target for mockery, as inHarvard Lampoon's parodyBored of the Rings, whereTom Bombadil becomes "Tim Benzedrine", andBilbo Baggins becomes "Dildo Bugger".[11][12]The Lord of the Rings acquired immense popularity in the emerginghacker culture from the mid-1960s, and the technological subcultures of scientists, engineers, and computer programmers.[13] It figured as one of the major inspirations of the nascentvideo game industry and the evolution offantasy role-playing games.[14]
Isaac Asimov, who had readThe Lord of the Rings three times by Tolkien's death in September 1973, wrote aBlack Widowers short story as tribute to the fellow author. "Nothing Like Murder" (1974) mentions college students forming Tolkien societies at Columbia and elsewhere.[15]
Interest inThe Lord of the Rings led to several attempts to adapt it for the film medium, most of which were largely unsuccessful. FilmmakerRalph Bakshi succeeded in securing the rights to produce ananimated feature film version, part one of what was originally planned as a two-part adaptation of the story. Bakshi produced the film using, among other animation techniques,rotoscoping, shooting a majority of the film in live-action first before transferring the live footage to animation. While the film had, and continues to have, a mixed critical reaction, it was a financial success, costing USD 8 million to produce, and grossing over USD 30 million at the box office. Despite this fact,United Artists, the film's original distributor, refused to fund a sequel, leaving the project incomplete.[16]
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The 1990s saw the conclusion ofThe History of Middle-earth series. A series of minor texts by Tolkien were edited in journals such asParma Eldalamberon andVinyar Tengwar, published by theElvish Linguistic Fellowship since the early 1990s. In the 2000s, several encyclopedic projects have documented Tolkien's life and work in great detail, such as theJ.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (2006) and the twin volumesThe Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion andThe J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide (2005, 2006). The dedicated journalTolkien Studies has been appearing from 2004.
Tolkien discussion took place in many newsgroups from the earliest days ofUsenet. TheTolklang mailing list was started in 1990. The alt.fan.tolkien and rec.arts.books.tolkiennewsgroups have been active since 1992 and 1993, respectively. Notable points of contention in online discussions surround the origin oforcs, whether elves have pointy ears, whetherbalrogs have wings, and the nature ofTom Bombadil. Following the announcement of Jackson's movies (from 2001), online fandom became divided between "Revisionists" and "Purists" over controversy surrounding changes to the novel made for the movies, such as those made to the character ofArwen and the absence of Tom Bombadil.[17][18]
Tolkien fandom changed in character with the release ofPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy between 2001 and 2003, attracting both a wide audience of existing fans ("book-firsters") and many people who had not read Tolkien's books ("film-firsters").[20][a] The large audience made theartistic conception of Jackson's artists influential, indeed creating a stereotyped image of Middle-earth and its races of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Hobbits shared by fans and artists alike.[21] Some fans, known asTolkien tourists, travel to places in New Zealand to visit sites where scenes in the films were shot.[22]
A "Tolkien Reading Day", held annually on 25 March, an anniversary of the fall ofBarad-dûr,[23] was proposed by Sean Kirst, a columnist atThe Post-Standard inSyracuse, New York, and launched by the Tolkien Society in 2003.[24]
In 2025, the Tolkien scholar Tom Emanuel proposed a framework which treats Tolkien fandom as "the activities of a secondary faith community", something that in defined ways resembles a religion. He then describesEnyalië, the visiting of Tolkien's grave, as "a powerful collective experience that takes religious form without carrying overt religious content."[19]
Four websites are described as "essential"[25] inStuart D. Lee's 2014 scholarly handbookA Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien: theTolkien Gateway, The One Ring.Net, The Tolkien Library (which is mainly a book site),[b] andThe Tolkien Society (which is aneducational charity andliterary society).[25][26]
TheTolkien Gateway is a factual site that documents all Middle-earth characters, places, objects, and events, with citations to Tolkien's texts. It provides some coverage of related non-Tolkien items such as films, actors, games, music, images, and scholarly books.[27] The site is described inA Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien as "the main source to start a review of the plethora of Tolkien-based online materials."[26] It is referenced in scholarly works such asVII,[28]Journal of Tolkien Research,[29] andSocial Science Computer Review.[30]
Afansite of Jackson's movies is TheOneRing.net (TORn), which was popular with the cast and crew of the film series. TORn was originally a small movie-news site. The filmmakers put effort into winning over fans, actively supporting sites forRingers. The site was founded in 1999 by a group of Tolkien fans eager for the upcoming trilogy. In 1998, Michael 'Xoanon' Regina and Erica 'Tehanu' Challis started a website related to the filming, including "spy" reports from Tehanu's visit to the New Zealand set. This activity got her escorted off the set, and then invited back on to take an official look around and meet directorPeter Jackson. In early 1999, a designer by the username of Calisuri came across the site and offered technical help. Calisuri's friend Corvar, who he was acquainted with from the NightmareLPMud, was brought aboard to provide server and business help. Xoanon, Tehanu, Calisuri and Corvar then formed The One Ring, Inc. and are the sole owners/founders of TheOneRing.net.[31]
The site is unique in having had a mutual working relationship between its crew and that ofThe Lord of the Rings films, and later ofThe Hobbit films. This enabled the site to bring its readers exclusive news from the set, as whenPeter Jackson emailed TheOneRing.net to get his side heard when a lawsuit threatened his chance to filmThe Hobbit.[32]
In 2003, Cold Spring Press released TORn's bookThe People's Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien with essays defending fantasy as a genre, discussions of Tolkien's views of good and evil, and an examination ofcultural norms.[33] The foreword by the Tolkien scholarTom Shippey says: "The Internet, the experience of continually answering questions and receiving comments ... give the organizers of TheOneRing.net a perspective which is uniquely broad, and uniquely full of surprises, some of which would have pleased Tolkien very much, but which he could not have expected." A second volume was published in 2004.[34] Over 1,500 "Ringers" (Lord of the Rings fans) came to the TheOneRing.netOscar party at the Hollywood,American Legion on 28 February 2004, attended by Jackson,Fran Walsh,Elijah Wood and other cast and crew.[35] On 2 September 2004, eleven commemorativekauri trees, paid for by TORn members, were planted in Willowbank Park inWellington, New Zealand, Peter Jackson's home town. The number eleven represented the nine members of theFellowship of the Ring, plus one each for Jackson and Tolkien.[36] TheOneRing.net teamed up withCreation Entertainment to present The One Ring Celebration (ORC) in 2005,[37] 2006, and 2007. Its sister convention, Eastern LOTR Fan Gathering (ELF), met in the eastern U.S. in 2005 and 2006.[38] These conventions included panels and signings by leading members of the cast. In November 2008 and December 2011, TheOneRing.net and Red Carpet Tours staged a 14-night cruise between Auckland and Sydney, including excursions to film locations.[39]
TheOneRing.com (TORc) is a Tolkien fan site that caters more to the fans of Tolkien's literary works than Jackson's films. It was founded by Jonathan Watson, Ted Tschopp and David Mullich in April 1999. As of 2025[update], Watson has continued to run the website.[40] The site is referenced byTolkien Studies.[41]
TheEncyclopedia of Arda provides a detailed online reference to Middle-earth, mirrored at GlyphWeb.[42]
Afan edit of the theatrical cut ofThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers exists, calledThe Two Towers: ThePurist Edit.[43] Most of the changes in 2007 were incorporated intoThe Lord of the Rings – The Purist Edition, a fan edit which turns the entire trilogy into an eight-hour film without most of the changes.[43][44]
"Tolkienology" is a term used by fans to describe the study of the works ofJ. R. R. Tolkien treatingMiddle-earth as a realancient history, conducting research from an "in-universe" perspective. This differs fromTolkien studies in that it ignores the real-world history of composition by the author, and assumes an underlying internally consistentMiddle-earth canon. Tolkienology may include topics such as the astronomy, ethnology, geography, and history of Middle-earth.[45] Fans may speculate on "internal" questions such as the nature of each race and of individual characters.[46] An issue discussed "many times" since the 1980s is whether Frodo and the Ring could have been carried into Mordor by the Eagles.[47] Equally, fans may discuss "external" matters such as Tolkien himself, whether the setting of Middle-earth is medieval or European, and whether the Shire is England, and to what extent Tolkien succeeded in placing himself as thesupposed translator ofThe Lord of the Rings.[46]
The study of Tolkien'sconstructed languages (notablyQuenya andSindarin) is a field where fandom and scholarlyTolkien studies overlap. The resulting friction between scholarly students of the languages focusing on their conceptual evolution and fandom-oriented students taking an "in-universe" view became visible in the "Elfconners" controversy of the late 1990s, involving among others the linguistsDavid Salo andCarl F. Hostetter, the editor ofVinyar Tengwar.[48][49] There is a "reconstructionist" camp, which pursues thereconstruction of unattested Elvish forms, and a "philological" or "purist" camp which focuses entirely on the edition of the fragments in Tolkien's unpublished papers. By its nature, reconstructionism aims for a "canon" of "correct" standard Elvish (Neo-Eldarin), while the philological study of the evolution of Tolkien's conceptions cannot assume that the languages had ever reached a complete or internally consistent final form. The "reconstructionist" camp is represented by Salo, who translated the poems in thelibretto byFran Walsh andPhilippa Boyens for theMusic ofThe Lord of the Rings film series, creating additional words in languages including Sindarin where necessary, while the "purist" camp is represented by Hostetter.[50][51][52]
Tolkien fan fiction is fantasyfiction, often published on theInternet, by Tolkien fans. It is based either directly on some aspect of Tolkien's books on his fantasy world ofMiddle-earth, or on a depiction of this world, especially inPeter Jackson'sLord of the Rings film series or otherfilm depictions of that world. A wide range of types of writing have resulted, including homoeroticslash fiction and several strands offeminist storytelling.[53][54][55]
Jackson's films made the work of the artists involved influential, indeed creating a stereotyped image of Middle-earth and its races of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Hobbits shared by fans and artists alike.[56] Some fan artists draw inspiration from other sources; Anna Kulisz states that she based her painting ofArwen sewingAragorn's banner onEdmund Leighton's 1911 paintingStitching the Standard.[57] The German illustratorAnke Eißmann started out creating fan art,[58] illustrating the German Tolkien Society'sDer Flammifer von Westernis from 1991.[59][60] She went on to make numerous paintings of scenes fromThe Silmarillion.[61]Jenny Dolfen too has made paintings of scenes fromThe Silmarillion,[62] making the transition from self-taught fan art to becoming a recognised and published artist.[63]
Dedicated Tolkien Societies provide platforms for a combination of fandom and academic literary study in several countries.
The exhilarating packed paragraph detailing the ring's history may invite readers to spend a long time among the indexes (with or without a visit toTolkien Gateway)
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