University of Wisconsin Tolkien Society

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

Last modified: September 23, 2008

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

Fall Semester, 2008

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

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

campus. Consult "Today in the Union" for the exact room either on the bulletin boards

in Union South, or on their website at http://www.union.wisc.edu/TITU/index.html.

SEPTEMBER 14– CELTIC AND NORSE IN TOLKIEN

Discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's use of Celtic and Norse elements in his fiction. Focus on the critical study by Marjorie Burns, Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth(2005).

OCTOBER 12– PHILIP PULLMAN

We will show selections from one or more DVD documentaries on fantasy author Phillip Pullman. Discussion of Once Upon a Time in the North (2008), his prequel to the "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

NOVEMBER 9– TALES BEFORE NARNIA

Discussion of an anthology of stories relating to C. S. Lewis, Tales Before Narnia (2008), edited by Douglas A. Anderson.

DECEMBER 14– MELIES

We will show selections from a DVD of movies by pioneering French filmmaker Georges Melies (1861-1938). You may wish to read Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), an illustrated novel in which Melies is a major character.

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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