Dr Hannah McDonald

Society calls for Tolkien to feature on a new bank note The Tolkien Society has today written to the Bank of England to suggest that J.R.R. Tolkien should feature on a future bank note. In a letter to Victoria Cleland, Chief Cashier of the Bank of…

Responding to @bankofengland.bsky.social's consultation, The Tolkien Society calls for world-renowned author J.R.R. #Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, to feature on new bank notes. @birminghamlive.bsky.social #Booksky www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/07/soci...

Oh how interesting! Happy to talk any time! ☺️

Very interesting thoughts! I am a freelance editor of science books and have been described as an “under editor” as I normally strive to preserve the author’s voice while ensuring the writing is technically correct. It can be a hard balance to achieve!

The latest edition of Amon Hen is landing in Tolkien Society members' inboxes and mailboxes!

Published every 2 months since 1972, Amon Hen includes #Tolkien news, reviews, articles, quizzes, artwork and more. You can get Amon Hen by becoming a member at www.tolkiensociety.org/join #BookSky

Congratulations!! 🥳

Tolkien Reading Day 2025 Tuesday 25th March is Tolkien Reading Day 2025 and the theme is Fellowship and Community. What will you be reading? What is Tolkien Reading Day? Tolkien Reading Day is held on the 25th of March each…

25 March is #Tolkien Reading Day and this year's theme is Fellowship and Community. What will you be reading?

We shall be updating our website with details of events we are hosting for #TolkienReadingDay - look out for more details!

www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolki...

On 16 February 1974: on the advice of Christopher Tolkien, the Tolkien Society members appoint J.R.R. #Tolkien as Honorary President. He remains President to this day.

So sorry to hear this James. Take care of yourself and put your health first X

Tolkien Birthday Toast 2025 To celebrate Tolkien's 133rd birthday on 3 January 2025, the Tolkien Society invites all Tolkien fans to raise a toast to the Professor. The Toast After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birt...

Tomorrow is J.R.R. #Tolkien's 133rd 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!" www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolki...

Hooray! Happy anniversary! And wishing you all the very best for 2025 ❤️

The Great Tales Never End is one of my favourites ❤️

I also spent my Boxing Day eating my body weight in cheese. It must be done! Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas!

Get a Christmas gift! You can join a worldwide organisation dedicated to Tolkien.

Join the Tolkien Society and receive 6 Amon Hen a year, our annual journal Mallorn,and support our mission to educate the world on J.R.R. #Tolkien. Visit www.tolkiensociety.org/join and join from anywhere in the world

Thanks Brian! Hope you like the card!

Photo of the 2024 Tolkien Society Christmas mailing: the bulletin Amon Hen, peer-reviewed journal Mallorn and the Christmas card with art by Donato Giancola

The Tolkien Society Christmas mailing has started winging its way to our members across the world! Looking forward to reading these over the festive season!

The Christmas card this year features a beautiful piece by Donato Giancola ❤️

#Tolkien #Mallorn #AmonHen

Oh absolutely! In some ways Jackson’s films are like a love letter to Bakshi’s movie. It’s definitely weird at times but I still think it’s very impressive!

I love this movie! And it’s so cool to see how much it inspired PJ’s trilogy. The prologue and the hobbits hiding from the black rider in particular!

Yes I am in the U.K. and the postage is steep… My husband got it for me for Christmas a couple years ago

Absolutely. But it breaks my heart when I read Morgoth’s Ring and he starts throwing out the beautiful myths of the creation of the sun and moon and the flat earth because he can’t make it consistent with the real world…

It’s either a work or art or an illegible scrawl 😂

It is just astonishing when you realise the depth of Tolkien’s creation!

It’s from The Art of the Manuscript catalogue from the Marquette exhibition 🙂

Photo of Tolkien’s handwritten timelines and chronologies reproduced in The Art of the Manuscript

The amount of work that Tolkien put into the timelines and chronologies for The Lord of the Rings is breathtaking. I think one of the reasons we love this work so much is because the care and love of the author shines through with every word.
#Tolkien #LOTR #LordoftheRings

In a departure from my usual posts about Tolkien, I am currently reading An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro and it is excellent.

Haha absolutely! We all benefit from the beauty of Tolkien’s words!

Here’s another #Tolkien question: What is your favorite quote (can be books or adaptation)?

Some of mine are:

“Aurë entuluva” [day shall come again] from The Silmarillion

“Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not” from RotK

What about you?

Reskeet for more answers!

And also: ‘Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope! Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!’

And he sang to them, now in the elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.

Photo of the Revised and Expanded Edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien with a map of Middle-earth in the background

“Part of the attraction of The L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist.”

#Tolkien #LOTR #LordOfTheRings

I say this to my kids when I take a snack away from them in an attempt to help them open it 😂