On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings, the Italian Tolkien Society and the Tolkien Society are promoting the international event Tolkien’s Fifty Years.

The event will take place on March 22-28 in Brussels, the capital city of Europe. The venues will be the European Parliament (for the first time the names of Tolkien and of The Lord of the Rings will be present in the most important European institution) and the Italian Cultural Institute. As we already said, the Italian Tolkien Society and the Tolkien Society UK are responsible for the project, but they will avail themselves of the collaboration of numerous Tolkien associations world- wide. As to now, the associations involved are the Bulgarian Tolkien Society, the New York Tolkien Society, the Asociatión Tolkien Argentina, Elanor, the Sociedad Tolkien Chilena, the Peruvian Tolkien Society, the Philippine Tolkien Society, the Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft, the Sociedad Tolkiendili Mexico, the Dutch Tolkien Society, the Tolkien 1 Fantasy Society, Tol Eressea (Smial of the Lonely Isle), the Società Tolkieniana Svizzera, the Finnish Tolkien Society.

There are also numerous institutions that are involved in the project: the European Parliament, the Presidency of the Italian Cabinet of Ministers, the Italian Ministries of Communication and of Culture, the New Zealand Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of New Zealand in Italy, Lazio’s regional administration (Regione Lazio), the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels. Other partners are New Zealand Post, the International Film Festival of Flanders/Gand, Games Workshop-Italy?, RAI SAT for Young People, the publishing house Bompiani and Medusa Film.

Among the many events in the programme, I would especially like to mention the conference of March 24 in Room PHS 5B01 of the European Parliament headquarters. As guest speakers there will be Andrew McMurry? (Tolkien Society), Christopher Garbowski, Brian Rosebury, Paolo Paron (President of the Italian Tolkien Society), Oronzo Cilli, Mike Foster, Marco Respinti, Jimmy Chavez, Gianfranco De Turris, Adolfo Morganti, Stefano Giuliano, and possibly others. However, the programme also includes readings from The Lord of the Rings (March 24), two concerts (Giuseppe Festa with Lingalad and Edoardo Volpi Kellerman on March 23, and Myrddin on March 24), a play (Angelucci’s Gollum’s Ring on March 23), a film marathon and the European premiere of Dan Timmons’ documentary The Legacy of The Lord of the Rings (March 26) – as well as Tolkien-themed evening entertainment.

In the Exhibition Hall of the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels there will be an international exhibition of works of art inspired by The Lord of the Rings; an exhibitions of copies of the book in various languages such as English, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Turkish, Bulgarian, Russian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Norwegian, Dutch and Portuguese; an exhibition of records inspired by Tolkien’s world from 1964 until the present day; objects, sculptures and the complete series of stamps produced by New Zealand Post on the occasion of the release of Peter Jackson’s film trilogy.

It should also be mentioned the collaboration with the International Film Festival of Flanders/Gand, promoter of the European premiere of Howard Shore’s performance of The Lord of the Rings Symphony.