Tolkien Thing

The Tolkien Thing has run since 1999 and is the oldest recurring Tolkien gathering in Germany. It is two things at once: the society's annual general meeting, with the vote on its board, and four days of workshops, papers, games and music around it.

Two fixtures shape each year: a guest of honour and an invited sister society. Past guests include the artists Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Cor Blok and Jay Johnstone, and the scholars Tom Shippey and John Garth; the societies of eleven countries have been received.

The venue used to move — Cologne, Kloster Marienthal, Burg Hohensolms, Schloss Diez, Burg Rieneck, Burg Breuberg, Burg Hessenstein — and has now settled at the Rittergut Lützensömmern in Thuringia, where 2027 will be the eleventh time.