Seminar - Tolkiens Werk auf dem Buchmarkt / Tolkien’s Works on the Book Market
In the organizer's words:
The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and co. have long been more than just fantasy classics - they are real perennial favorites in the book trade. They are long-sellers that are constantly being reissued and redesigned - and which nobody initially thought would have such a lasting impact on the book world and the fantasy genre. But what is behind this enduring success? Why are Tolkien's books always at the forefront when it comes to favorite literary worlds? And why are new editions of the same story still coming onto the market?
At the Tolkien Seminar 2025, we will take a scientific look at the interplay between literature, marketing, materiality and fan culture - from the first editions to current cross-media trends - under the heading "Tolkien's works on the book market". At this event, you will hear presentations in German and English about Tolkien, his publishers, his works and their media manifestations.
The seminar of the Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft e. V. takes place in cooperation with the Department of Book Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Walking Tree Publishers.
Admission is free of charge. Registration: informal mail to tolkienseminar25@uni-mainz.de
The program
Friday, October 31, 2025
15.00 Registration open
16.00 Opening
16.15 Allan Turner (p): Tolkien and his Publishers
17.00 Jonathan Nauman (p): Tolkien and the Unwins - Creation and Commercial Negotiation
Dinner at Mali&Milo (Große Bleiche 29; pre-registration required by October 24 at tolkienseminar25@uni-mainz.de)
Saturday, November 01, 2025
09.30 Norbert Schürer (p): Advertising Tolkien in Newspapers and Magazines
10.15 Ralf Tornow: Tolkien - A look into the publishing engine room
11.00 Break
11.15 Robin Auer: A Book of Both Worlds - The Lord of the Rings and the Primary World Experience of Secondary Worlds
12.00 Lunch break
14.15 Magdalena Mączyńska (p): Reading Arda and its Inhabitants - Tolkien's Book of Stories
15:00 Break
15.45 Filip R. Zahariev (p): Tolkien on the Tabletop Role-Playing Game Market: Free League's The One Ring™ (2021) Adaptation
16.30 Annika Röttinger & Tobias Eckrich (p): Between footnote and fandom: The podcast Tolkien's Letters as an annotated edition of works for the ears
17.30 Presentation of new publications and award of the honorary doctorate
Dinner at Wirtshaus Zenz (Bahnhofsplatz 4; pre-registration required by October 24 at tolkienseminar25@uni-mainz.de)
Sunday, November 02, 2025
9.30 Sonja Virta (v): Different ways of revising Finnish Tolkien translations:
the case of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion in Finnish
10.15 Marius Wagner (v): Waiting for a classic: The German translations of Tolkien's The (Little) Hobbit
11.00 Break
11.30 Final discussion
This content has been machine translated.Price information:
Registration: informal mail to tolkienseminar25@uni-mainz.de
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