📚 Tolkien Reading Day Giveaway 2026
Read till the end for details on the NEW Lord of the Rings Movie announced just last night!
Happy Tolkien Reading Day!
What is Tolkien Reading Day, you may ask? Well, according to the Tolkien Reading Day page on the Tolkien Society website:
Tolkien Reading Day is held on the 25th of March each year.
It has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages.
Why March 25th? Because that is the day in Middle-earth history that the One Ring was destroyed and the Dark Lord Sauron was defeated.
In order to celebrate Tolkien Reading Day, I’m giving away a whole bunch of Tolkien’s works!
That’s right, dear readers, it’s time for another Jokien with Tolkien giveaway!
This year, I’m trying giving away a boxed set of The Lord of the Rings and also an illustrated edition of The Hobbit!
The Prizes
Second Prize: one copy of The Hobbit Illustrated by Jemima Catlin
First Prize: one copy of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by Alan Lee Box Set
The Hobbit Illustrated by Jemima Catlin is the version that I just read to my boys. All of us adore it and I am excited to share it with you all. The hardcover book contains numerous illustrations in a style that perfectly fits the book and the age of the intended audience. I love the mix of full-page illustrations and smaller illustrations that are peppered throughout!
The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Illustrated by Alan Lee Box Set collects The Hobbit and each volume of The Lord of the Rings in a beautiful package that is filled to the brim with illustrations by renowned artist Alan Lee. I received this set as a gift from my wonderful wife and it’s my favorite edition I own!
Here’s how to enter
Enter the giveaway by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post!
You can complete various actions to earn additional entries detailed on the giveaway page (including sharing it on social media or via email). You can also find the contest rules there. No purchase necessary to win.
Some more details:
The giveaway will run from today, March 25th, through Tuesday, March 31st
The winners will be selected April 1st
I will announce the winners after I get in touch with them to inform them that they’ve won and they claim the prize (likely in the championship Middle-earth March Madness post on April 6)
Tolkien Reading Day Extended Edition Sale
I’d like to say a special thank you today to all the paid subscribers to this newsletter. It’s your generosity that funds all the fun things like these giveaways that I host here on the newsletter as well as covering all the back-end support (web domain hosting costs, graphic design/logo expenses, etc.) and investment I do in this publication. This wouldn’t be possible without your generous support. Thank you!
If you would like to join the Jokien with Tolkien Extended Edition and help support this newsletter while also receiving exclusive access to the monthly Paid Subscriber features, full access to the Discord server, and more, I’m running a “Tolkien Reading Day” sale this week on paid subscriptions.
For the majority of the year, the cost to join the Extended Edition is $5 a month or $50 a year. But during this sale, that goes down to $3.75 a month or just $37.50 for the year (which is is 40% less than paying $5 monthly for 12 months). And the deal isn’t just for one year: it’s good every year forever!
As an added bonus, new paid subscribers immediately receive a copy of my collection of paid subscriber essays from the first year of my newsletter (a $40 value!) free immediately in their welcome email!
I only run sales like this twice a year, so don’t miss your chance if you’re interested:
Get 25% off FOREVER by using this link to sign up!
And here’s the link to the giveaway: good luck!
NEW Lord of the Rings Movie—“Shadow of the Past”—in development at Warner Bros.
Last night Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert announced that for two years they have been working together on a new Lord of the Rings film with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. Watch the announcement here:
Colbert shared that he wanted to fill in some gaps (specifically from Chapter III “Three is Company” through VIII “Fog on the Barrow Downs”) that Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring never developed.
So essentially, we’re getting Tom Bombadil written by Stephen Colbert and produced by Peter Jackson!!
There’s a good chunk here in these chapters that didn’t make it to the screen in Jackson’s version, so I think there’s definitely potential to the story. Colbert is obviously a Tolkien super-nerd and seems to want both to stay faithful to the books and also fit in with the version that Jackson told twenty years ago.
Colbert also shared that he and his son (who is a screenwriter) worked out a frame for the story. Combine that fact with the synopsis and it sounds like there’s the potential to get some of the original Hobbit actors from The Lord of the Rings to return for this film as well: "Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo - Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began."
I’m excited about this (more so than for The Hunt For Gollum, actually). What about you?
📚 You can read more of my writing by reading my books! My latest is a collection of essays on The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and more of Tolkien’s works (and their adaptations). You can also find it and more of my books on Amazon or Gumroad
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Happy Tolkien Reading Day! And all I hear from that film announcement is Tom Bombadil and Goldberry! Finally!