We are pleased to announce the winners of The Tolkien Society Awards 2021.

The Tolkien Society Awards recognise 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”.

Tolkien Society members were invited to vote on shortlists prepared by the Trustees, which was based on nominations submitted by members of the public.

Congratulations to all winners!

The Tolkien Society Awards 2021

Best Artwork

• “A Year at Bag End” by Soni Alcorn-Hender
• “Elf-warrior: Sam at the Tower of Cirith Ungol” by Jay Johnstone
• WINNER – “He Beheld a Vision of Gondolin Amid the Snow” by Ted Nasmith
• “Inside Information” by Norloth/Wenjin Lu

Best Article

• WINNER – “Defying and Defining Darkness” by Verlyn Flieger in Mallorn 61, winter 2020
• “The Forest Haven Episode: How Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s Hautdesert Shaped The Lord of the Ring’s Caras Galadhon” by Andoni Cossio (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, December 2020)
• “Greed and Blood: Powerful Objects in The Silmarillion and Javanese Book of Monarchs” by Putri Prihatini
• “Letting images speak for themselves: Tolkien’s rebus letter to Fr. Fancis Morgan, August 8, 1904” by Denis Bridoux (Beyond Bree, December 2020)
• “Tolkien’s Work on the Oxford English Dictionary: Some New Evidence From Quotation Slips” by Rachel Fletcher (Journal of Tolkien Research, issue 10, vol 2, 2020)

Best Book

• Fantasies of Time and Death: Dunsany, Eddison, and Tolkien, Anna Vaninskaya
• Gleanings from Tolkien’s Garden, Renee Vink
• Hither Shore 14: Literary Worldbuilding (ed. Thomas Fornet-Ponse)
• WINNER – Unfinished Tales (illustrated edition), J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, John Garth

Best Online Content

• The Alliance of Arda (allianceofarda.org)
• Tolkien Art Index (tai.tolkienists.org)
• TolkienBooks.US (tolkienbooks.us)
• WINNER – Tolkien Experience Podcast (luke-shelton.com/tolkienexperiencepodcast/)
• Music of Middle-earth Podcast (facebook.com/musicofmiddleearthpodcast)

Outstanding Contribution Award

Dimitra Fimi
Tolkien Scholar

About the Author: Shaun Gunner

Shaun is the Chair of The Tolkien Society. First elected in 2013, Shaun has overseen the Society's expansion from 600 to 3,500 members. Shaun regularly speaks about adaptations of Tolkien's works and the future of Tolkien scholarship whilst passionately believing the Society needs to reach out to new audiences. In his spare time he can be found playing video games and Lego, or on Twitter. He chaired another charity, Mankind, and is a local councillor.