{"id":10711,"date":"2026-05-30T00:01:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=10711"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:18:31","slug":"the-tower-and-the-ruin-and-other-tolkien-society-award-winners-recognize-the-enduring-influence-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-related-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-tower-and-the-ruin-and-other-tolkien-society-award-winners-recognize-the-enduring-influence-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-related-works\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Tower and the Ruin\u2019 and other Tolkien Society Award winners recognize the enduring influence of The Lord of The Rings and related works\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/p>\n

Recognized in the Prometheus Awards as a classic for its cautionary libertarian theme about how power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts even the good, The Lord of the Rings <\/i>has become one of the most popular and enduring works of modern fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, I hadn\u2019t fully grasped until recently just how enduring and influential J.R.R. Tolkien and his bestselling works have become to modern culture.<\/p>\n

So many books and articles analyzing Tolkien\u2019s life and fiction have been published and continue to appear that the Tolkien Society, founded in 1969, is able to sustain annual awards with full slates of finalists in several categories.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most significant work recognized is The Tower and the Ruin, J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Creation, <\/i>by Michael Trout, which <\/i>won the 2026 Tolkien Society Award for Best Book.<\/p>\n

Trout\u2019s book was selected in a vote by Tolkien Society members from a slate of five finalists. The other finalists: Tolkien among the Theologians<\/i>\u00a0ed. Austin Freeman; Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc\u00a0<\/i>by Joel Merriner; Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation\u00a0<\/i>by Giuseppe Pezzini; and The Bovadium Fragments together with The Origins of Bovadium\u00a0<\/i>by J.R.R. Tolkien and Richard Ovenden.<\/p>\n

Trout, a leading scholar, drew on fifty years of reading and studying Tolkien to explain how he created an entire world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFrom the publisher\u2019s description of The Tower and the Ruin:
\n<\/i>
\n‘No writer has surpassed the epic achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien, who spent decades refining his Middle-earth\u2014a world that has felt so real to so many readers that it is almost impossible to imagine that any single person could have simply created it, seemingly out of thin air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> “In The Tower and the Ruin, <\/i>Michael D. C. Drout takes us deep into Tolkien\u2019s genius, allowing us to glimpse the making of not only The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit,<\/i> and The Silmarillion<\/i> but also lesser-known books such as The Fall of Gondolin<\/i> as well as Tolkien\u2019s poetry and innovative scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrout, who has spent decades reading, studying, and teaching Tolkien, allows us to understand the author\u2019s methods and to embrace his works as never before. With great erudition and sparkling prose, Drout shows us how Tolkien invented myths, legends, cultures, languages, histories, and an intricate, multivocal narrative.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
J.R.R. Tolkien in 1925 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe come to understand how Tolkien drew upon and modified material he found in Beowulf,<\/em> the Kalevala, and other medieval literature from northern Europe, using the subtle qualities of those famous works as inspiration for his own. We also see the process by which he created the complex form of sorrow that is the primary emotional effect of his mature works, a sadness \u2018blessed without bitterness,\u2019 carefully woven through a tapestry of themes that has resonated with generations of readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSweeping and hugely perceptive \u2014 and enhanced throughout by Drout\u2019s personal reflections on how Tolkien has shaped his own life and relationships \u2014 The Tower and the Ruin<\/em> illuminates Tolkien anew and will come to be seen as an essential work for anyone who has journeyed to Middle-earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Launched in 2014, the Tolkien Society Awards recognize several other categories, including Best Artwork, Best Article, Best Online Content and Best Contribution.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit tolkiensociety.org<\/b><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Read the Prometheus Blog review-essay Appreciation<\/a> of The Lord of the Rings,<\/i> inducted in 2009 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

Also worth reading is LFS President William H. Stoddard\u2019s seminal essay \u201cWhat Do You Mean \u2018Libertarian\u2019?<\/a> (and why Tolkien\u2019s trilogy deserved its Prometheus.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of the 106 works that have won a Prometheus since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Recognized in the Prometheus Awards as a classic for its cautionary libertarian theme about how power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts even the good, The Lord of the Rings has become one of the most popular and enduring works of modern fiction. Yet, I hadn\u2019t fully grasped until recently just … Continue reading \u2018The Tower and the Ruin\u2019 and other Tolkien Society Award winners recognize the enduring influence of The Lord of The Rings and related works\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,1585,1863],"tags":[2845,825,2844,2843],"class_list":["post-10711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-fiction-in-the-news","category-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-michel-drout","tag-the-lord-of-the-rings","tag-the-tower-and-the-ruin","tag-tolkien-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2ML","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10711"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10714,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10711\/revisions\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}