Happy Birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!
featuring
Willamette Radio Workshop presents: Hobbits Greatest Hits
Garcia Birthday Band
11 a.m. ’til late
Free
All ages welcome
Please bring a can of food to donate to the Oregon Food Bank
Elves, wizards, orcs and all others are invited to join in this all-day celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien, one of the 20th Century’s most influential authors. We’ll have live music, The Lord of the Rings on the big screen, Willamette Radio Workshop performing live, a costume contest, Hobbit-inspired food specials and more!
Schedule
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Follow Frodo through the epic series – in the Theater, 11 a.m. ‘til late
Willamette Radio Workshop
Live radio, performing “Hobbit’s Greatest Hits” – in the Gym, 3 p.m. & 5 p.m.
Costume Contest
Wear your beastly best – in the Gym, 4:30 p.m.
Garcia Birthday Band – in the Gym, 7 p.m. ‘til 10 p.m.
About J.R.R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (born January 3, 1892, died September 2, 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C.S. Lewis – they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
After Tolkien’s death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father’s extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda, and Middle-Earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term “legendarium” to the larger part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the “father” of modern fantasy literature – or, more precisely, of high fantasy.
In 2008, The Times of London ranked him sixth on a list of “The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945.” In 2009 Forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning deceased celebrity.