National Tolkien Reading Day

25 March is National Tolkien Reading Day and is a favourite among all fans of the renowned author.

JRR Tolkien, who was born on 3 January 1892, and died on 2 September 1972, was an English writer, poet, philologist and university professor, and is best known as the author of the classic works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarrillion, Roverandom and Farmer Giles of Ham.

Although this day was founded in 2002, the first Tolkien Reading Day did not happen until 25 March 2003. A New York journalist wanted to know in January 2002 whether there was such an event for Tolkien, and the Tolkien Society liked the idea it so much they adopted it. But, they did not have enough time to prepare anything, so they postponed it and only launched it the next year.

The day was started in an attempt to encourage people to read Tolkien’s works, as the society wanted to get more people reading them, and to discover that there was more to him than just The Lord of the Rings.

The date (25 March) was chosen by the society to honour the fall of Sauron, who was a character in The Lord of the Rings.

To celebrate today read some of Tolkien’s work and use #NationalTolkienReadingDay to post on social media.

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