The Society Archives contain books, pamphlets, posters and a host of other material which may be of interest to scholars of Tolkien's works.

It is a repository both for source material, including papers relating to the history of the society and the society's collection of memorabilia.

It contains over 500 books in 28 languages, around 400 from the published canon and 100 or so of criticism, analysis, essays and biography. In addition there are photocopies of privately published essays by or about Tolkien, academic works, early essays and commentaries, and newspaper cuttings.

Memorabilia includes correspondence with JRRT, books autographed by him, family photographs, one or two personal items and a collection of material connected with Tolkien events over the years.

There is a large collection of Fanzines, both current and extinct, containing complete or partial runs of approximately 100 magazines. There are further examples on microfilm.

The artwork collection, primarily illustrative in its content, includes calendars, books, postcards, posters, sculptures and commercially produced figurines, as well as some original sketches by published and unpublished artists. It is backed up by a continually increasing slide record now consisting of around 650 slides.

Naturally the archives also contains a complete record of the Society's seminars, proceedings, events and transactions in its almost thirty years of existence.

The catalogue is not, currently, complete. We are planning an online version, and welcome your views.

The collection is not loaned out (as we do with our Library collection), but it may be visited, at the Surrey History Centre, Woking by prior arrangement with the Archivist (please give the archivist as much notice as you can).

Among items in the archives are three volumes of The Lord of the Rings in Hebrew, presented to the society by the translator in memory of Lester Simons, who had given assistance with the translation. Here are images of the book covers.

Hebrew Lord of the Rings 1
Hebrew LotR volume 1
Hebrew LotR Vol 3
Hebrew LotR volume 2
Hebrew Lord of the Rings 2
Hebrew LotR volume 3

Stunning pictures! That's definitely Hibernia's current favourite Balrog pin-up.

Cover art (and internal map rendition) by Eyal Ofek. Published by:

Zmora, Bitan Publishers, PO Box 22383, Tel Aviv, Israel