J.R.R. Tolkien’s works have inspired and brought together legions of fans, and since the late 1960s, one of the most prominent groups has been The Tolkien Society, an organization devoted to promoting his life and works, functioning both as a fan club and academic organization.
For years, its members have organized and released an annual academic journal, the Mallorn, a peer-reviewed periodical that gathers up the latest scholarship on Tolkien and his work. Now, the organization has opened up access (h/t to TolkienExperience on Reddit) to its archives for the general public, and you can read some of the scholarship on Tolkien’s body of work.
Tolkien’s life and works have inspired a devoted following of literary academics, who have held conferences, meetups, and written countless papers about Middle-earth. Mallorn‘s issues contain a lot of that, with in-depth, academic papers bearing titles like “Realism in fantasy: The Lord of the Rings as ‘history… feigned’,” “The Lovecraft Circle and the Inklings: The ‘Mythopoeic Gift’ of H. P. Lovecraft”, “The Harrowing of Hell Motif in Tolkien’s Legendarium,” and “The Holy Fellowship: Holiness in The Lord of the Rings.”
Members of the organization get print copies once a year, and the latest two issues, #60 and #61, are still behind a paywall for members. Membership in the organization runs £30.00 for a single person, and in addition to getting Mallorn, they also get the organization’s regular newsletter, Amon Hen, which is published six times a year. While members can access the archives online, it doesn’t look like those have been made public.
At the very least, it could make for interesting reading for the dedicated Tolkien fan after their latest re-read.
