Tolkien Week is celebrated annually during the calendar week containing September 22. For more information: Hobbit Day and Tolkien Week.
As a university professor, J.R.R. Tolkien produced a number of scholarly works, including:
J.R.R.Tolkien wrote children's fiction, fantasy novels, and poetry. Some of the works published during his lifetime are:
Works published posthumously include:
J.R.R.Tolkien was also an accomplished, amateur artist. Some of his work can be found in the following volumes:
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy
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The Lord of the Rings is intended to be applicable to the real world of relationships, religion, pleasure, pain, and politics. Tolkien himself said that his grand tale of wizards, orcs, hobbits, and elves was aimed at truth and good morals in the actual world. Analysis of the popular appeal of The Lord of the Rings (on websites and elsewhere) shows that Tolkien fans are hungry for discussion of the urgent moral and cosmological issues arising out of this fantastic epic story. Can political power be wielded for good, or must it always corrupt? Does technology destroy the truly human? Is it morally wrong to give up hope? Can we find meaning in chance events? In The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, seventeen young philosophy professors, all of them ardent Tolkien fans and most of them contributors to the four earlier volumes in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series, address some of these important issues and show how clues to their solutions may be found in the imaginary world of Middle-earth. The book is divided into five sections, concerned with Power and the Ring, the Quest for Happiness, Good and Evil in Middle-earth, Time and Mortality,and the Relevance
The Ring and the Cross
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"The conversation, sometimes heated, about the influence of Christianity on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien has a long history. What has been lacking is a forum for a civilized discussion about the topic, as well as a chronological overview of the major arguments and themes that have engaged scholars about the impact of Christianity on Tolkien's oeuvre, with particular reference to The Lord of the Rings. The Ring and the Cross addresses these two needs through an articulate and authoritative analyses of Tolkien's Roman Catholicism and the role it plays in understanding his writings. The volume's contributors deftly explain the kinds of interpretations put forward and evidence marshaled when arguing for or against religious influence. The Ring and the Cross invites readers to draw their own conclusions about a subject that has fascinated Tolkien enthusiasts since the publication of his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings."
Tolkien and the Great War
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How the First World War influenced the author of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: "Very much the best book about J.R.R. Tolkien that has yet been written." --A. N. Wilson As Europe plunged into World War I, J. R. R. Tolkien was a student at Oxford and part of a cohort of literary-minded friends who had wide-ranging conversations in their Tea Club and Barrovian Society. After finishing his degree, Tolkien experienced the horrors of the Great War as a signal officer in the Battle of the Somme, where two of those school friends died. All the while, he was hard at work on an original mythology that would become the basis of his literary masterpiece, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In this biographical study, drawn in part from Tolkien's personal wartime papers, John Garth traces the development of the author's work during this critical period. He shows how the deaths of two comrades compelled Tolkien to pursue the dream they had shared, and argues that the young man used his imagination not to escape from reality--but to transform the cataclysm of his generation. While Tolkien's contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day. "Garth's fine study should have a major audience among serious students of Tolkien." --Publishers Weekly "A highly intelligent book . . . Garth displays impressive skills both as researcher and writer." --Max Hastings, author of The Secret War "Somewhere, I think, Tolkien is nodding in appreciation." --San Jose Mercury News "A labour of love in which journalist Garth combines a newsman's nose for a good story with a scholar's scrupulous attention to detail . . . Brilliantly argued." --Daily Mail (UK) "Gripping from start to finish and offers important new insights." --Library Journal "Insight into how a writer turned academia into art, how deeply friendship supports and wounds us, and how the death and disillusionment that characterized World War I inspired Tolkien's lush saga." --Detroit Free Press
