Tolkien Society Awards 2019

The Tolkien Society Awards 2019 were presented at the Society’s annual dinner in London on April 6.

The Tolkien Society Awards recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom, highlighting their long-standing charitable objective to “seek to educate the public in, and promote research into, the life and works of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE”.

The winners were determined by Tolkien Society members voting on shortlists prepared by the Trustees, which they based on public nominations.

Best Artwork


Best Article

Best Book

  • Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine McIlwaine

Best Website

Outstanding Contribution Award

  • Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford

The Tolkien Society Awards 2019 Shortlist Announced

The Trustees of The Tolkien Society have released the shortlist for The Tolkien Society Awards 2019. Members have until March 29 to cast their votes.

The shortlist for the Awards is as follows:

Best Artwork

Best Article

Best Book

  • Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine McIlwaine
  • The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien
  • A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, ed. by John D. Rateliff

Best Website

Outstanding Contribution Award

The recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award 2019 has been selected by the Trustees and will be announced in due course.

2018 Tolkien Society Awards

Best Artwork 2018: “The Hunt” by Jenny Dolfen

The winners of The Tolkien Society Awards 2018 were announced April 22. The awards were voted by members from shortlists prepared by the Society’s Trustees.

The Society’s awards —

recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom, highlighting our long-standing charitable objective to “seek to educate the public in, and promote research into, the life and works of Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE.”

Best Artwork

Best Article

Best Book

  • Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien

Best Website

Outstanding Contribution Award

  • Priscilla Tolkien

The Tolkien Society Awards 2018 Shortlist

The Trustees of The Tolkien Society have released the shortlist for The Tolkien Society Awards 2018. Members have until April 13 to cast their votes.

Best Artwork

Best Article

Best Book

  • There Would Always Be a Fairy Tale: Essays on Tolkien’s Middle-earth by Verlyn Flieger
  • Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien
  • The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide, 2nd edn, by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond

Best Website

Outstanding Contribution Award

  • Alan Reynolds
  • Priscilla Tolkien

2017 Tolkien Society Awards

The winners of the 2017 Tolkien Society Awards have been announced. The awards “recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom.”

This year, for the first time, Tolkien Society members picked the winners, by voting on shortlists prepared by the Trustees.

Best Artwork

  • Maglor” by Elena Kukanova

Best Article

Best Book

  • A Secret Vice, ed. Dimitra Fimi and Andy Higgins

Outstanding Contribution

  • John Garth

2017 Tolkien Society Awards Shortlist

The ballot for the fourth annual Tolkien Society Awards is now online and members have until April 8 to vote.

The Tolkien Society Awards recognize excellence in the fields of Tolkien scholarship and fandom. The winners will be announced April 22 during the Annual Dinner at the Springmoot and AGM in Warwick, UK.

Best Artwork

Best Article

Best Book

  • A Secret Vice, ed. Dimitra Fimi and Andy Higgins
  • The Elvish Writing Systems of J.R.R. Tolkien, by Matthew D. Coombes
  • The Hobbit Facsimile First Edition, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, ed. Verlyn Flieger

Outstanding Contribution Award

  • John Garth
  • Hammond and Scull

In the Best Website category, the Trustees “felt there was no clarity amongst the nominations, so have decided that there will be no award in this category this year.”

2014 Tolkien Society Awards

The winners of the inaugural Tolkien Society Awards were announced at the Tolkien Society’s Annual Dinner in Hay-on-Wye, UK on April 11.

Best Article
John Garth, ”Tolkien and the boy who didn’t believe in fairies”

Best Artwork
Jenny Dolfen, “Eärendil the Mariner“

Best Book
Paul Simpson and Brian Robb, Middle-Earth Envisioned

Best Novel
J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Fall of Arthur

Best Website
Emil Johansson, LOTR Project

Outstanding Contribution Award
Christopher Tolkien

Commenting on her award, artist Jenny Dolfen said, “I was delighted to hear that my watercolour piece ‘Eärendil’ had been voted Best Tolkien Artwork of 2013 by the wonderful people of the Tolkien Society. To see that people who are so deeply into Tolkien’s works, ideas and philosophies see the same sort of connection in one of my paintings is wonderful, and the greatest support that any artist can wish for – thank you!”

Best Website winner Emil Johansson said, “It was a huge honor to receive the TS award and I was very humbled by the recognition. Knowing that people enjoy what I do is what keeps me going.”

[From the press release.]