Tolkien Resources
Siân Echard, University of British Columbia
There are many sites on the web with information about Tolkien, and many more with information about the medieval subjects we will be discussing (be sure to check the specific resources pages linked to each week from the Course Page as well). The list below is only a sampling; I hope you will suggest additions as the term progresses. You can e-mail me with your suggestions. Use the menu below to jump to specific sections of this links page.
November 2012: I have put the links you found during the Research Tools assignment on their own page, here.
Tolkien: General/ Reference
Tolkien: Languages
Tolkien: The Films
Tolkien: Art and Collecting
Tolkien: Miscellaneous/ Humour
Norse and Norsemen
Old English and Anglo-Saxons
Welsh and Wales
The Tolkien Society, a UK-registered educational charity: not pretty, but full of information and links
TheOneRing.net : one of many fan sites; currently featuring plenty of news about Peter Jackson’sThe Hobbit
The One Ring : this one calls itself the ultimate Lord of the Rings site; also currently preoccuped with The Hobbit
Planet-Tolkien.com, the UK's largest fan site: the home page includes weather for Hobbiton, Rivendell, Moria...
Tolkien Gateway is a wiki encyclopedia devoted to Tolkien and his works; many useful links as well
The Encyclopedia of Arda is a growing illustrated encyclopedia of Tokien’s realms and peoples
A Silmarillion Chronology is very useful for keeping track of events and names: a rather visually busy site, but there are illustrations
The Tolkien Music list is a discography of Tolkien-inspired music: a bit clunky, and beware irritating pop-ups ads
The Council of Elrond : a weird collection, but endless fun - there is, for example, a Decorating section
LOTR Project, dedicated to "creative web projects" - there's a nice timeline, for example
Tolkien’s Oxford : avery old site (not updated since 2003), but a useful collection of photographs of places in and around Oxford associated with Tolkien
The J.R.R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University: no pictures, but it is interesting to read the descriptive inventory of the collection. Most of Tolkien’s drawings and papers are at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, but again images are tightly controlled; searching on Tolkien in the Bodleian Shop will show you reproductions of a few items
Ardalambion is a huge site full of information about Tolkien’s languages: it’s a bit hard on the eyes, though
Dan Smith’s Fantasy Fonts are Windows fonts based on Tolkien; last updated in 2006, but the font files are still there
The Elvish Linguistic Fellowship is a good collection of materials related to Tolkien’s invented languages
Glæmscrafu: Tolkien’s Linguistic Cellar includes sound files of people reading Tolkien’s languages aloud
Omniglot is a site decoted to languages and writing-systems world-wide, both real and created; very useful script-tables
Parma Tayelpelassiva includes original poetry and translations by the site author in Tolkien’s languages, as well as guides to, and essays about, the grammar of the languages
The Hutts Realm includes a page collecting various Tolkien-themed fonts
The Tolkien Language List is a (membership-based) discussion list; there are links, and an archive of messages to the list that contains some useful material
The Hobbit is the official site for the films by Peter Jackson; The Battle of the Five Armies is the current focus
Lordoftherings.net is the official New Line site for the Lord of the Rings trilogy
National Geographic’s Beyond the Movie offers a great deal of Tolkien-related information; nice language and myth sections
TolkienMovies.com is an enormous fan site for the films; it does not appear to have been updated to reflect the release of all the Hobbit films
An Illustrated Tolkien Bibliography is useful for both collectors and readers
John Howe’s website includes a blog and portfolios of his work
Ted Naismith’s website includes many images of his Tolkien-related work
Tolkien Library is site for collectors, with a great deal of useful information about Tolkien books and Tolkien-related artwork
Dagorhir Battle Games : “You’ve seen the Lord of the Rings. We live it!” was their pitch when the films first came out
Grudge Match: Gandalf versus Dumbledore
The Hobbit Name Generator : find out your hobbit name
The Lord of the Rings Tours : a New Zealand-based company
The Tolkien Sarcasm Page is very old now, but it includes such gems as William Shakespeare’s Tragedie of Frodo Baggins and the Tolkien Crackpot Theories Page
TolkienTown : bills itself as the world’s largest Tolkien store
Bright Weavings, the official Guy Gavriel Kay website, includes a section on the novel we are reading, The Last Light of the Sun (as well as on his other works, of course)
The British Columbia Viking Ship Project is an account of how it is that there came to be a Viking ship down parked outside the Maritime Museum in Vancouver; the ship has its own page at The Munin Viking Ship
The Encyclopedia Mythica has an extensive section on Norse myth (you may also find their Celtic section useful)
Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas : very useful essays and links
Heimskringla is a vast collection of Old Norse material, along with background material, images and so on: note that parts of the site are in Norwegian only
The Jomsvikings are an Elite Warriors Brotherhood : you can hire them
The Legends and Sagas page of the Internet Sacred Texts archive includes links to translations of materials from Germany, Iceland, Norway and so on; these are usually old (that is, out of copyright) texts, but still very useful
Old Norse Online is an online course whose lessons include readings from Voluspa (note the other languages on the site)
Viking Voyage is a site maintained by The Smithsonian
The Vikings was a Nova program broadcast in 2000: the accompanying website has much useful material, though the design is very dated
Bede’s World at Jarrow is a museum of early medieval Northumbria
Beowulf on Steorarume has been around for a very long time: a great resource for Beowulf, including texts and many images
The British Library has an ever-growing collection of completely Digitised Manuscripts; you can see the recently-acquired St Cuthbert Gospel, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Old English Hexateuch, among many others
The British Museum includes an entry on the Sutton Hoo ship burial in its Top Ten British Treasures; you can also Search the Collections for many, many more Anglo-Saxon objects
The Electronic Introduction to Old English: everything you need to know to teach yourself the language
The Labyrinth, one of the first medieval studies sites on the web, has an extensive Old English section
Netserf is the other big medieval studies links site, and it too has an Anglo Saxons section
Kemble: The Anglo-Saxon Charters Website: a huge site, full of materials for the study of Old English and of the Anglo-Saxon world; see also PASE: Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
The Sutton Hoo Society maintains a site with a picture gallery and interactive tour of the site
BBC Wales has a great Learn Welsh site, with links to many online courses and resources
BBC Wales also has an extensive Wales History site
Cadw is a Welsh Government organization that oversees historical sites in Wales
CastleXplorer has many pictures of castles around Britain, including in Wales
Castles of Wales is a huge amateur site with many wonderful photographs: it is still being updated, though the site design is very old
The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru) has digitised many important Welsh manuscripts; a recent site redesign has made these a little harder to find: look under Collections, and then Digital Gallery, and then Manuscripts
The North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History
The Red Book of Hergest (Jesus College Oxford MS 111), a major medieval Welsh manuscript, is available online in its entirety