The Tolkien Newsgroups' Links Collection.

Links directly related to the newsgroups or by posters to the newgroups:

The main FAQ-site of the Tolkien newsgroups. Edited and maintained by Steuard Jensen, it contains FAQs by Steuard and William D. B. Loos, as well as various essays by Steuard Jensen and Conrad Dunkerson.

The topic-specific FAQ of the Great Rings; the Rings of Power. Created, written and maintained by Stan Brown.

FAQ-like guide to the contents of Humphrey Carpenter's (editor) The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien by Mike Brinza (Stug).

The old (‘Last modified: Mon Jan 8 17:07:55 1996’) newsgroup FAQ

Page by Mike Brinza (Stug), including guides to U.S. and U.K. editions of Tolkien's works etc.

A chart on the relationships of the Germannic languages by The Softrat, George Freeman. Often of relevance to the discussions in the Tolkien newsgroups.

O. Sharp's page of Tolkien Sarcasm, including the newsgroups' electronic version of The Lord of the Rings (remember to read the small print!)

Groups of the groups. If ever you should despair at the groups, fraction, factions, fragments and fronts of AFT and RABT, then recall the life of poor Brian in the People's Front of Judea:

Reg: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah …
Judith: Splitters!
P.F.J.: Splitters …
Francis: And the Judean Popular People's Front.
P.F.J.: Yeah! Oh, yeah! Splitters! Splitters …
Loretta: And the People's Front of Judea.
P.F.J.: Yeah! Splitters! Splitters …
Reg: What?
Loretta: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.
Reg: We're the People's Front of Judea!
Loretta: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.
Reg: People's Front! C-huh.
Francis: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?
Reg: He's over there.
P.F.J.: Splitter!

From Monty Python's Life of Brian — quotation borrowed from http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~starbug/brian.htm

Proceed to peruse at your own risk, but don't say I didn't warn you …!

Home of TEUNC …
Tolkien Eccentric Unusual Nut-Cases

Related links:
Bubbles of TEUNC another TEUNCy Sait (with obligatory obeiscances to Tyope!)
A TEUNC Wiki?

Home of UFAT …

The Fredonian Academy of Tolkien Studies — Yet another society of subversive research …
Whether FATS is a breakaway faction from TEUNC, a linear descendant of TEUNC or the ‘real’ TEUNC continued is anybody's guess, but they are related …

Parody of The Silmarillion by Flame of the West.

Tolkien scholars and scholarly writings:
If anyone should know of websites or pages for more Tolkien scholars than are listed here (e.g. Douglas A. Anderson and Gergely Nagy), the page editor will be happy to hear about it.

The site of the Tolkien estate is still (towards the end of 2010) showing the ‘temporary mini-site’ that was promised to be replaced by a full site some time in 2009. However, what is there is still interesting and relevant, and includes, for instance, a 12-page prose summary by Christopher Tolkien of the plot of the story of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún to make it easier for those not familiar with the story to follow the poetic version.

Verlyn Flieger is a specialist in comparative mythology with a concentration in J.R.R. Tolkien. (from the site). Also the author of many books on Tolkien and myth-making as well as co-editor of the annual Tolkien Studies (see below) together with Douglas Anderson and Michael Drout.

Author of The Road to Middle-earth and J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century as well as countless articles and other writings about Tolkien, Tom Shippey is also a renowned Tolkien scholar.

Michael Drout, a recognized Tolkien scholar, author of many articles, editor of J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment and co-editor of Tolkien Studies

A professor in English with a special interest in mythology and myth-making, Jane Chance has written and edited numerous books and articles on Tolkien.

Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull. Authors of several books and articles about Tolkien and his writings. The web-site includes their invaluable addenda and corrigenda, where they continue to provide updated information on the subjects of their many books on Tolkien.

A group of linguistic Tolkien scholars, notably Carl F. Hostetter (editor of the E.L.F. journals), Christopher Gilson, Arden R. Smith, Bill Welden, and Patrick H. Wynne. A special-interest group of the Mythopoeic Society.

Author of Tolkien and the Great War and focusing on Tolkien's early years before and during the first world-war.

The web-site of Dimitra Fimi, a specialist on Tolkien and on fantasy literature in general. Her book, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits won the 2010 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inkling Studies.

Corey Olsen of Washington College has gained

An annual scholarly journal on its title subject. Jointly edited by Verlyn Flieger, Douglas A. Anderson and Michael Drout.

Volume one of the Tolkien Studies annual can be freely downloaded. If it doesn't work at first, then click around a bit, and perhaps try one of the links below (from this journal).

Verlyn Flieger, Do the Atlantis story and abandon Eriol-Saga, Tolkien Studies vol. 1, West Virginia University Press, 2004

T. A. Shippey, Light-elves, Dark-elves, and Others: Tolkien's Elvish Problem, Tolkien Studies vol. 1, West Virginia University Press, 2004

Ethan Gilsdorf, The Trouble with Tolkien, The Common Review 2, 4, Winter 2004 (PDF file)

Electronic version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, made available by the University of Virginia.

Sample issues of Mythlore, the ‘academic’ journal of the Mythopoeic Society.

Reference sites about Arda (Story-internal references):
In general the information found in such reference sites should be verified against more reliable sources.

The J.R.R. Tolkien Information Page is a 1997 collection of links and articles on Tolkien, now only to be found on Archive.org. A snapshot of Tolkien on the world-wide web from just a few years after its conception — Tolkien fandom proves to have been fast to embrace this new technology to communicate. The primary value of this archive is its worth as a snapshot of Tolkien on-line fandom in the early years of the world-wide web.

A general reference site about Tolkien's sub-created universe. Very impressive and with a wide range of articles, it suffers mainly by a lack of references to the sources of their information, and to a much lesser extend by omitting to mark debatable interpretations as such.

A list of astronomical objects (planets, stars and constellations), their Elvish names and their English names.

A general-purpose reference site about matters Tolkien and in particular about his sub-created world. One very big advantage about The Thain's Book is that there are source references for all, or nearly all, entries, so that it is much easier to verify the information against the books.

The portal for the extensive Wikipedia category devoted to J.R.R. Tolkien. The category contains six sub-categories, and in total there are several hundred articles relating to our favourite author. The subcategories are listed below .

• Tolkien fandom

• Tolkien lists

• Middle-earth

• Reception of Tolkien

• Tolkien studies

• Works by J. R. R. Tolkien

As far as Wikis go, this one ‘ain't half bad’, so to speak. It suffers from the same problems as any wiki when the subject is one of some fame or notoriety and in particular when the subject lends itself to strongly held opinions …

The Tolkien Gateway wiki is trying to add thorough references to their articles, but has still a way to go. However, the wiki does give an overview of Tolkien's unpublished letters and other interesting material outside the Tolkien books published by HarperCollins Publishers.

The Tolkien Wiki mainly distinguishes itself by a number of essays on various, mainly story-internal, subjects of Middle-earth lore. No less reliable than most other sites, but an interesting way to present the material. The essays are all (those that I have looked at) clearly written with a ‘from fan to fan’ perspective, which is arguably a more honest

Blogs with regular Tolkien content:

John D. Rateliff, author of The History of the Hobbit as well as many papers and essays on Tolkien.

Jason Fisher, editor of the Mythopoeic Society's monthly bulletin, Mythprint and author of a great many papers, essays etc. on Tolkien.

Michael Drout, co-editor of Tolkien Studies, editor of J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment and Tolkien scholar of renown. Unfortunatly Drout only rarely has the inclination to write on Tolkien-related matters, but the entries on medievalist issues should also be interesting to most Tolkien enthusiasts.

Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull, authors of many books on Tolkien, including The Tolkien Companion and Guide and The Lord of the Rings: a Reader's Companion and generally highly respected scholars and experts on Tolkien.

Douglas A. Anderson et Al. Despite the fact that this blog is generally not about Tolkien, the essays on rare fantasy and science fiction literature are often captivating.

David Bratman. Again a well known and highly respected Tolkien scholar whose blog is often interesting despite not being about Tolkien.

Larry Swain is a contributor to the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment and a regular of the Tolkien newsgroups. When not writing about Tolkien, Larry is often writing on medieval issues that will also interest Tolkien enthusiasts.

Wellinghall, a member of the Tolkien Society, among other items also has some blog entries sarcastically titled ‘Tolkien slept here’ in which he exposes some of the attempts to cash in on Tolkien's fame through tenuous or even non-existing links.

Members of the Northeast Tolkien Society (NETS), in particular the heads, Anthony S. Burdge and Jessica Burke, bloggin on matters of interest to the society members.

As indicated by the title of the blog, Bruce Charlton's blog is devoted to a study of Tolkien's ‘The Notion Club Papers’. While one may agree or disagree on any particular point, Charlton's entries are usually quite interesting.

Andrew Higgins

Troels Forchhammer. The title of this blog means ‘enquiry into the books’ and it is dedicated into just that: enquiries into books by or about J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tolkien Bibliographic Links:

The story of how the Marquette University came to be one of the two main repositories of Tolkien's manuscripts (the other being the Bodleian in Oxford) is interesting enough in itself, but more interesting is, of course, the material actually held there, including the manuscripts for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Marquette University Library has catalogued their Tolkien collections and made the cataologue available on-line.

Basically ‘what it says’. Including not just works published under the name of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also many works on and about Tolkien.

A bibliography of books by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien with pictures of covers.

The contents of all volumes in the History of Middle-earth series, with short descriptions. Also with links to listings sorted chronologically (by date of creation) and by content types. An excellent ressource.

This excellent page lists both a chronological bibliography of books by J.R.R. Tolkien as well as a chronological bibliography of books about Tolkien. Both lists have last been updated in 2003 (status per January 2008).

The Tolkien web-site by his UK publisher, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. The Tolkien site has been updated and much refreshed as of 5^th of April, 2007.

Another excellent bibliographic site, this one with a good deal of information about The Hobbit, including a gallery of cover-pictures.

Though with a primary focus on book-collectors, this site also sports advice for collectors of other Tolkien-related items. An excellent starting-point for those who would start any kind of serious Tolkien collection (collecting is, in this context, seen as something other than simply wanting to own some edition of the books in order to be able to read them all).

‘Tolkien Library: bibliography, biography, resource, reviews, articles, essays on J.R.R. Tolkien books and collecting Tolkien’

Promoting various bibligraphic news, including interviews with authors and collectors of Tolkien-related books, and selling some collectible Tolkien books, Pieter Collier's Tolkien Library has grown to be one of the primary web-sites for collecting Tolkieniana.

A curious statistics on publications by and about Tolkien as well as other, mostly bibliometric, information.

Societies, clubs etc. focusing on Tolkien's universe.
Most of these societies have various reference-sections with information about J.R.R. Tolkien, his work, secondary literature, the films etc. etc.
Not all of this is possible to refer to specifically, but explore these sites and discover all the wonderful content.

The Tolkien Society. Based in the UK, but with ‘smials’ all over the world. The society is known for its annual ‘Oxenmoot’ gathering and for several of its publications.

The Swedish Tolkien Society, with many special-interest groups providing excellent research results.

‘An international society of Tolkien appreciators and gamers’ according to the web-site, which also features a Tolkien encyclopedia.

An organisation whose aim is the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. The society publishes the journals Mythlore, Mythprint and Mythic Circle.

Links to linguistic matters:

The home-page of Helge Fauskanger, devoted to the Languages of Arda. Home of the ‘Quenya Course’, which will teach you Quenya in twenty easy? lessons.

Home of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a special-interest group of the Mythopoeic Society, who also publishes the journals Vinyar Tengwar and Parma Eldalamberon (see under scholarly journals).

The TolkLang e-mail list is an e-mail discussion forum on matters relating to Tolkien's invented languages.

‘The Noble Tongue’ a site devoted to Sindarin.

Home of an on-line and downloadable Sindarin-English dictionary (the application for MS Windows is called ‘Dragon Flame’).

Hosted on the site of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, but independent of ELF, the Fellowship of the Word-smiths, Gwaith-i-Phethdain (a part of the Polish Tolkien Society), includes on their web-site a thorough examination of all passages in Tolkien's sub-created languages found in the film-trilogy by Peter Jackson et Al.

Gl?mscrafu, ‘Tolkien's Linguistic Cellar’ also includes (some of) the old languages of the real world that Tolkien is known to have worked with or which have in some other way influenced his writings, Old English, Old Norse, Gothic, Finnish, Welsh and Latin.

Ardhon Ellammath, the Realm of the Elf-languages, is distinguishing by not trying to teach you Elvish grammar or how to read and write Círth or Tengwar, nor to provide long word-list, but to give you an opportunity to hear what Tolkien's invented languages are supposed to sound like. While there is no doubt more to Tolkien's sense of linguistic aesthetics than just phonology, phonology was nonetheless an important part of it.

Parma Tyelpelassiva, ‘the Book of Silver Leaves’ offers a course in Sindarin, as well as various articles on Tolkien's invented languages. There are also modern compositions in Sindarion and Quenya.

Essays, articles, analyses etc.:

Overview of articles on J.R.R. Tolkien and his Middle-earth in Suite101.

‘The Tolkien Archives’: A collection of articles, reviews and other pieces published in The New York Times, from the first review of The Hobbit and onwards.

Article at The Catholic Exchange by Christine O'Donnell, discussing the role of women in Tolkien's writings (in particular in The Lord of the Rings).

Essays by Michael Martinez (the all-time top poster to RABT) at MERP.com (‘Middle-earth Role-Playing Community’).

Personal home-pages by regulars of the Tolkien Newsgroups:

The home-page of the inimitable Softrat; considerably more intelligent than the average man — and with considerably less patience.

The personal home-page of our esteemed Keeper of the FAQs, Steuard Jensen.

Apart from the Ring FAQ there are other articles with good advice on netiquette and other stuff.

By Troels Forchhammer.

‘The world's most truthful J.R.R. Tolkien website’
By Noel Q. von Schneiffel

The veracity of the autodescriptive tag-line is beyond the simple learnings of the list-collecting archivist to verify …

On-line discussion fora:
Of course there is, and likely never will be, no other forum with the qualities that characterize the discussions in the Tolkien Usenet Groups. Still, some might find that it is good to supplement the discussions there with things that are going on elsewhere.

Google provides RSS and Atom feeds from newsgroups. It may be a rotten reader, but at least it'll allow you to see when there are new posts in your favourite newsgroups.

Alt.fan.tolkien, or AFT, is the oldest internet discussion forum dedicated to Tolkien. Google, having bought up DejaNews long ago, have archived discussions back to November 1992.

In some ways a rather excentric place, but with some rather good and intelligent discussions of Tolkien-related matters. Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull are known to post here under their ‘Findegil’ handle.

The so-called ‘Scholars Forum’ can be particularly recommended. Here the LotR Plaza invites known Tolkien scholars to write essays, which the users afterwards discuss (unfortunately the scholars themselves rarely participate in the discussions).

The forums associated with prof. Corey Olsen's podcast series and his Tolkien courses at Washington College. One of the advantages of this forum is that prof. Olsen requires of his students that they participate in the forum, which gives some very interesting perspectives on the books he teaches (of course some of the posts have a clear ‘I-am-writing-this-for-my-points’ perspective, but those are fortunately few).

Another forum with some fairly solid discussions.

The forum at the One Ring dot Net does have some excellent discussions on Tolkien's works, you just have to find them (but that can be said of all relatively active Tolkien forums).

Various other sites of interest:

What it says> a list of music more or less directly inspired by Tolkien's writings.

A collection of graphic artwork inspired by tolkien's writings.

General Tolkien site associated with the Taiwan Tolkien Society

Michael Drout, Becoming a "Tolkien Scholar", blogging on Wormtalk and Slugspeak.

The home-page of David Bratman, a long-time member of the Mythopoeic Society. The site includes, among other writings, various bibliographic lists.

Recordings and transcript of an interview with J.R.R. Tolkien by Dennis Gerrolt, first aired in January 1971 on BBC4 ‘Now Read On …’
Alternatively the interview can also be accessed at the Tolkien Library: 1971 BBC radio interview with J.R.R. Tolkien.

Gene Hargrove's classic essay on the identity of Tom Bombadil. Unfortunately Hargrove does not take all the available information into account, so he ignores e.g. information in ‘Ósanwe-kenta’ that would disprove his theory. Still, the essay is a classic, and an essential must-read for anyone interested in the history of this question.

Fan sites

‘Annals of Arda, the source to J.R.R.Tolkiens imaginary world and the Lord of the Ring.’

A fan-site with an encyclopaedic section.

‘Welcome to the Council of Elrond! You have stumbled upon one of the largest resource sites on the web offering a variety of unique features based on the creative works of J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Lord of the Rings.’

One more fan-site with community features and a strong film-related section.

As Pippin is kind enough to point out to Bergil: ‘Don't believe what strangers say of themselves either!” This is not really, as it claims, one of the largest ressource sites, but it does sport some special features, including a series of short articles of literary critique (by fans, not by professionals).

‘J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Rings Fanatics welcome to your new home! We have everything a true Lord of the Rings Fan could ever dream off ranging from an amazing community plaza, to excellent Tolkien research and background information to the most extensive Lord of the Rings Shop on the internet:’

One more fan-site with community features and a strong film-related section.

Neat site allowing the choice of a flash version and an HTML version.

‘You have found your way to the UK's largest resource for J.R.R. Tolkien literature discussion and fan information. Enter Friends and Experience Middle-Earth.’

One more fan-site with community features and a strong film-related section.

What Planet-Tolkien does seem to have is a very large discussion-board with many threads.

Yet another fan-site making some attempt at an encyclopaedic section and with community features (discussion boards) and a strong relation to the films by Jackson. It's debateable whether this should be listed among the film fan-sites, but now it has ended up here.

‘This page is meant to contain infmormation and discussions about all the characters from J.R.R. Tolkiens novels. Both those who lived/live in Middle-earth and who lived/live in the rest of Tolkiens Arda. ’

This appears to have been intended as a kind of wiki-like database, but unfortunately the practical execution doesn't quite follow the high ideals.

‘This page is a gateway to the Tolkien resources available at Xenite.Org. ’

This is a news-site and discussion board. The site is created by Michael Martinez and heavily advertises his work on Tolkien's writings.

Film fan-sites

‘Hobbit Movie News and Information - TheOneRing.net - Forged by the Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien:’

A large fan-site with discussion fora and news-sections with primary focus on the Peter Jackson films. Their own description is, ‘TheOneRing.net brings together news, rumors, and discussion concerning the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Movies.’ The patient surfer will also find some good information about Tolkien's world.