University of Wisconsin Tolkien Society

Welcome to the web page of the University of Wisconsin Tolkien and Fantasy Society!

Last modified: June 25, 2009


Who we are | Meeting schedule | How to join | For more information | Constitution | Links and items of interest


Who we are

The Tolkien Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was founded in September 1966. It has been meeting once a month ever since (during the first several years, twice a month), with a very few misses here and there (e.g., there were a couple of years when the group did not meet during the summer, but usually it did). In January, 2001, we changed our name to the Tolkien and Fantasy Society to reflect our broad interests better.

We discuss:

  • The work of Tolkien (fiction, poetry, scholarly work, drawings and illustrations)
  • Critical essays about Tolkien
  • Adaptations of Tolkien's work (movies, plays, radio drama, comics)
  • The work of the Inklings and his other friends (such as C. S. Lewis, W. H. Lewis, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield)
  • Other fantasy and science fiction (e. g., E. R. Eddison, Kenneth Morris, William Morris, T. H. White, Peter S. Beagle, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robin McKinley, Patricia Wrightson, et al.)
  • The literature of the Middle Ages (especially the works that Tolkien himself studied, such as the Old English Beowulf and the Middle English Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
  • World mythology (Tolkien was particularly interested in Germanic and Celtic myth)
  • Language (invented languages like Quenya and Sindarin as well as primary world languages)

Our journal, ORCRIST, appeared irregularly, and has not been published since 1977, though we still may revive it sometime. Eight issues were published, now mostly out of print, though copies of numbers 3, 4, and 5 (which were co-published as TOLKIEN JOURNAL numbers 11, 13, and 14 respectively) may still be available from the Mythopoeic Society, for those who are interested. There is a set in the Memorial Library on the UW-Madison campus, as well as in a number of other libraries across the U. S.


Meeting schedule

 

Summer Semester, 2009

 

Meetings will be held on Sundays beginning at 7:30 p.m. and concluding between

9:30-10:00 p.m. (CST). Union South, 227 N. Randall Avenue, on the UW-Madison

campus, has now been closed for rebuilding (expected to open in 2011). Meetings will be held in various places.

 

 

JUNE 28 – EDGAR ALLAN POE

The second centenary of Edgar Allan Poe (January 18, 1809-October 7, 1849) provides a good opportunity to discuss his work. Poe's stories and poems are widely available in many editions, and naturally there have been a number of hommages published this year (e.g., In the Shadow of the Master, ed. Michael Connolly, which reprints several of Poe's classic stories with commentaries by modern authors). This meeting will be held in Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street. Check "Today in the Union" for the exact room.

 

JULY 12– LEGUIN'S LAVINIA AND VERGIL'S AENEID

Discussion of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel Lavinia (2008) and its source, Vergil's Aeneid (available in numerous translations). This meeting will be held in Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street. Check "Today in the Union" for the exact room.

 

AUGUST 9– SUMMER MOVIES

Many summer movies are science fiction or fantasy, we all see one or more of them, and it has become a tradition to devote one meeting to discussing them. Possibilites this time include the new beginning of Star Trek directed by J. J. Abrams, Wolverine, Transformers 2, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, perhaps some films released earlier this year such as Inkheart, and probably others that people will bring up. This meeting will be held in a member's home. Contact our advisor, Richard West, for directions or to arrange rides.

 

 

SEPTEMBER 13– TOLKIEN'S CHILDREN OF HURIN

To help our discussion of this posthumously published (2007) romance, Richard West will read his paper on "Lack of Counsel Not of Courage: J. R. R. Tolkien's Critique of the Heroic Ethos in The Children of Hurin". This meeting will be held in room 301 of the Kurt F. Wendt Library, 215 North Randall Avenue.

 

 


 

How to join

Simply show up to meetings! There are no dues, no requirements, no hazings, no pledges. If you are active in the fantasy and/or science fiction community, feel free to bring items of interest to meetings; we always have a "News and Notes" time in each meeting.


For more information

For more information on the UW Tolkien Society, feel free to send us email at tolksoc@stdorg.wisc.edu.


Links and items of interest

Here is a listing of the contents of all published issues of Orcrist, the UWTS's journal.

And here is a listing of past meeting topics.

UWTS member Dorothea Salo runs a mailing list on the topic of Tolkien's invented languages. To learn more, read the Elfling list's web page.


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