18 March 2015

Mark your calendars for Tolkien Reading Day

My small collection in Rome.
I've lent a friend my copy of his letters
As is recorded in The Tale of Years (Chronology of the Westlands) - found in Appendix B to The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings - the 25th of March is significant in the Professor's great legendarium of Middle-earth.

The simple and straight-forward entry for this day in the year 3018 of the Third Age - written in the manner of the annals of old - reads as follows:
The host is surrounded on the Slag-hills. Frodo and Samwise reach Sammath Naur. Gollum seizes the Ring and falls in the Cracks of Doom. Downfall of Barad-dûr and passing of Sauron.

For this reason, the Tolkien Society has chosen to celebrate the 25th of March each year (since 2003) as Tolkien Reading Day to "to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages."

To help you celebrate Tolkien Reading Day, in the coming days I will offer a list of suggested passages from which to choose to read next week (even the most avid of Tolkien readers couldn't get through everything!) which I hope will be of use to you and maybe point you to some of his works you have not read.

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