For those of you booked (or considering booking) for the 50th anniversary event of the Tolkien Society "Tolkien2019", Luna Press Publishing is offering free delivery (no additional shipping charge) of their books to the event. Certainly this is a great deal for international attendees like me.



Of particular interest are the Tolkien Society publications such as the Return of the Ring proceedings, Bru's "Uncle Curro" - J. R. R. Tolkien's Spanish Connection, and Oronzo Cilli’s forthcoming Tolkien Library: An Annotated Checklist - the latter not quite ready for pre-ordering yet on the website, but I am told it will be soon. Of course there are lot more Tolkien related titles available too, as you can see.

https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/shop

For those who nominated TolkienGuide.com to the shortlist for the Tolkien Society award for best website in 2018, my most humble thanks. This is a community, so the honor goes to all of you who share your experiences, ideas, and fun discussions here!

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2019/03 ... kien-society-awards-2019/

All of the nominees (in all of the categories) are quite worthy of your vote. And if you aren't a member of the Tolkien Society, you should consider joining, it is well worth it.

I am getting organized and found the following duplicate calendars that I have and would like to sell on to other happy collector homes. Please let me know if you are interested, I can ship USA ($4), International (at cost, please enquire) or hand carry to Tolkien2019 in Birmingham in August.

Heren Istarion, also known as the Northeast Tolkien Society, was founded in New York in 2001. While not as active as they once were, they still have occasional events such as this weekend in conjunction with the Morgan Library.

Heren Istarion Calendar for 2008

(resuable in 2036 ) This one has some small creasing to a few corners of the cover. The calendar follows the Shire Reckoning but has the standard months indicated as well. This calendar is signed by artists Ted Nasmith and Jef Murray, and also has art from Catherine Sparsidis. Jef has signed for the month of Forlithe and his illustration "The Lonely Mountain". I only have the one copy available signed on Forlithe (June). $40 Read more about this issue at TolkienCalendars.com

Heren Istarion Calendar for 2008

(resuable in 2036 ) This copy is in fine condition. The calendar follows the Shire Reckoning but has the standard months indicated as well. This calendar is signed by artists Ted Nasmith and Jef Murray, and also has art from Catherine Sparsidis. Jef has signed for the month of Thrimidge and his illustration "Shire Dreams". I have two copies available. $50 each Read more about this issue at TolkienCalendars.com

Heren Istarion Calendar for 2008

(resuable in 2036 ) This copy is in fine condition. The calendar follows the Shire Reckoning but has the standard months indicated as well. This calendar has art by Ted Nasmith, Jef Murray, and Catherine Sparsidis. This copy is in fine condition and is not signed by anyone. $30 Read more about this issue at TolkienCalendars.com

Heren Istarion Calendar for 2009

(This calendar is reusable in 2026). Fine condition, with unused mailing envelope.
Art is by Catherine Chmiel, Colin Williams and Jef Murray. Multiple copies available. $30 Read more about this issue at TolkienCalendars.com

Heren Istarion Calendar for 2011

(This calendar is resusable in 2022). Fine condition, with unused mailing envelope. Art is by Jef Murray, Anke Eissmann, Sue Wookey and Catherine Sparsidis. Only one copy available. $35 Read more about this issue at TolkienCalendars.com

The Tolkien Society has just announced that they have filled out most of the earliest issues of their publications in their trove of digital downloads available to members on their website.

Here is what's added:

* Belladonna’s Broadsheet, issues 1–3 (1969–70)
* The Tolkien Society Bulletin, issues 1–4 (1970–71)
* Anduril, issue 2 (1972)
* Amon Hen, 1–34 (1972–78), 43 (1980), 129 (1994)

This is a major achievement and a welcome bonus (amongst many) for being a member of the Tolkien Society. If you aren't already a member, I highly recommend joining.

I've been digging in to the Tolkien canon (as published by JRRT and Christopher) to compare with the maps that Amazon has released in a set of marketing events for their upcoming TV show.

These are in addition to the Compass Rose problems in Map 1, which Amazon kindly fixed. 😁

Note that these "errors" are all quite minor, and I think the team at Amazon did an amazing job creating a Second Age map in particular as there is often contradictory information in all of the published materials (between books, editions, addenda and corrigenda) and there is no "correct" map to compare against, but they and we can get pretty close by close examination of the texts.

I am going to ignore (for the most part) forest placements (or lack thereof, as Tolkien often did the same) and sizing and other minor geographical differences such as small variations in coastline shapes and minor river variations. No two cartographers ever drew the same exact map...

If you see other errors in the maps, please let me know here or on social media @TolkienGuide.

Map 4

Map 4 of Middle-earth from Amazon Prime, used with permission

This map likely covers the end of the Second Age to possibly the middle of the Third Age based on landmarks shown. As there are numerous maps from this timeframe from JRRT and CJRT, there's not a lot to point at.

Barad-Dûr should be Barad-dûr (small D). Tolkien never used a capital D for the dark tower.

Map 5

Map 5 of Middle-earth from Amazon Prime, used with permission

This map likely covers the middle of the Second Age based on landmarks shown.

Ost-in-Edhil is misplaced. On this Amazon map, it is outside the region of Eregion (of which it is supposed to be the capital). Tolkien always has the Númenorean town of Tharbad near this location (where the road crosses the Gwathló and near the junction of the two rivers). Ost-in-Edhil should be much closer to Khazad-Dûm based on the level of interaction between those two cities and where Tolkien places Eregion and Hollin on his various map drafts. I am told that Ost-in-Edhil is located near where the Sirannon joins the Glanduin river, but I haven't been able to find confirmation of this in Tolkien's writings. That is definitely where Karen Wynn Fonstad places it (see below), however - the three dots in a triangle are where she marks the location of Tharbad and Ost-in-Edhil. (Anyone know the source for this exact placement?)

Ost-in-Edhil from The Atlas of Middle-earth, revised edition, by Karen Wynn Fonstad, © 1991 Houghton Mifflin

Rómenna should be on the southern shore of the bay. See Unfinished Tales p. 168 (text) and Tolkien's map tipped in between p. 168-9 (below).

Romenna from Unfinished Tales by J. R. R. Tolkien, © 1980 George Allen & Unwin

Tol Himling - In all of Tolkien's writings and maps, it is always labeled Himling (without Tol). As Tol just means "island" this probably shouldn't be considered an error, but Tolkien had every opportunity to use it and never did. On "The first map of The Lord of the Rings" (Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth item 179, p. 399 - see below) he even labels one island "Tol Fuin" and the other one "Himling".

Himling from Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine McIlwaine, © 2018 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

Nîn-In-Eilph - Should be Nîn-in-Eilph - the "-in-" is never capitalized in any of Tolkien's works.

The river Ninglor is always called Sîr Ninglor by Tolkien in his texts (never without the "Sîr" ("River"), though occasionally on other rivers he does use both ways). This one is probably ok either way but I think the preferred is with.

Timeframe related errors

As we do not know when these maps are "made" (in-story), it is impossible to say if there are errors in time-frame (or fudging of timelines for adaptation purposes). This section will have to remain blank until we learn more from Amazon.