Tolkien Reading Day and Venice
oday is Tolkien Reading Day, hosted by the Tolkien Society ! Tolkien Reading Day is held each year on 25 March, the date of the downfall of Sauron the Lord of the Rings and the fall of Barad-dûr, and the day of the New Year in Gondor. "The theme for Tolkien Reading Day 2016 is life, death and immortality. 'To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939... by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.' — J.R.R. Tolkien, Foreword to the Second Edition, The Lord of the Rings The theme was chosen for 2016 to coincide with the one-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Tolkien fought and survived this dreadful battle, but lost his close friend and fellow T.C.B.S. member Rob Gilson. With the death of G.B. Smith later that year, the First World War undoubtedly shaped Tolkien's outlook on life and death, with mortality and immortality looming large in the Middle-earth legendarium." The TCBS was, from the hindsight of h...
