2018/19 Event Calendar:

Note: We are listing NY Tolkien Conference Events alongside Tolkien related events taking place in the NYC area
We want these events to be Free to the Public. However, if you would like to help support our 2018 Budget please see our DONATE PAGE

Friday March 23rd 2018

Time:
12pm – 4:30-pm

This Event is Free but Registration is required:

Where:

Baruch College Vertical Campus
Room 7-155
One Bernard Baruch Way
(55 Lexington Ave at 24th St)
New York, NY 10010

CLICK HERE For Maps & Directions

Note:
See link for global Tolkien Reading Day 3/25 event
Tolkien Reading Day Event

Doors Open 12pm
Presentation begins: 12:30pm

Q&A after Presentation
Followed by Readings from the work of Tolkien
(See below to register)

A Great Burden Without Guidance: The Six Mortal Ringbearers
Presented by: Nicholas Birns

The One Ring was made by and meant for Sauron, the malevolent Maia gone rogue.  But Sauron’s great defeat at the end of the Second Age, and the ‘accidents’ of history, cause it to be borne by six very different individuals, of very diverse origins, social status, and moral character: the Númenórean king Isildur, the river-halflings Déagol and Sméagol/Gollum, and the Hobbits Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, and Sam Gamgee. On March 25, the ‘anniversary’ of the final relinquishing of the Ring’s great burden, we will compare and discuss the lives and personalities of these six ringbearers as a way to come to grips with Tolkien’s fascination with special items or tokens (Palantiri and Silmarilli as well as the Rings of Power) and how they illuminate his understanding of creativity and possessiveness.

ABOUT:  Nicholas Birns first read The Lord of the Rings in the early months of 1975, finishing very near to the memorable day of March 25. He has published on Tolkien in Tolkien Studies, Mythlore, and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. He is also the author of Understanding Anthony Powell (University of South Carolina Press, 2004), Theory After Theory (Broadview, 2010) Barbarian Memory (Palgrave, 2013), and Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead  (Sydney University Press, 2015),  as well as many other books and journal articles. including contributions to Exemplaria, Science-Fiction Studies, Leviathan, Victorians Institute Journal, and Extrapolation. He currently is Associate Professor at the Center for Applied Liberal Arts, New York University.

May 22nd-June 14th 2018
Lewis and Tolkien: Of Wardrobes and Rings
Wardrobes & Rings is a play set in Oxford’s Eagle & Child pub. Aging and legendary authors, J.R.R. Tolkien and his great friend C.S. Lewis, meet for what turns out to be the very last time.

Sheen Theatre, New York City
Stay Tuned for more news on this show
READ MORE

FALL NY TOLKIEN CONFERENCE 2018 EVENT TBA

2019:

The Shores of Faery, MS. Tolkien Drawings 87, fol. 22r
© The Tolkien Trust 1995

January – May 2019
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
The Morgan Library and Museum
225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY

This exhibition is premiering at opening at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries
1 June-28 October 2018
Read More of the Bodleian Exhibition

The Tolkien Collector’s Guide has further details of the NY Exhibit. READ MORE

PAST EVENTS:

Wednesday January 3rd, 2018
Tolkien Birthday Toast: To the Professor!

Wednesday, January 31st, 2018
7pm to 9pm.
Hauser and Wirth Gallery
(Not a NY Tolkien Conference event)

J.R.R Tolkien and the Related functions of language and mythology.
Presented by Jessica Burke
For Tolkien, the construction of language bred a mythology, which we know today as Middle-earth with its historical tales of Rings, Hobbits, Elves, Wizards & Dwarves. What did he mean when Tolkien said, “to give your language an individual flavour, it must have woven into it the threads of an individual mythology”? How did Middle-earth come to life via languages of his Secondary World? This talk shall explore the languages of Middle-earth, the cultures that speak them, the effect language has within the world and stories, and their place within our modern world.

ABOUT: Jessica Burke is Editor in Chief at Myth Ink Books, Co-Chair of the New York Tolkien Conference, recipient of the 2012 President’s Gold Medal for her work on The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman, was awarded the Beyond Bree MENSA Award in 2005 for her Tolkien Scholarship, is currently an adjunct lecture for the City University of New York