Pembroke College, Oxford, has unveiled a memorial in honour of Tolkien.
J.R.R. Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College, 1925–45. It was during this time that he wrote The Hobbit and much of The Lord of the Rings.
The memorial is a relief sculpture created by Tolkien’s great-nephew, Tim Tolkien, and located in Pembroke’s Old Quad just outside staircase 4.
It features a cast bronze relief bust depicting Tolkien as he would have looked at the time. It is set against a design that blends Tolkien’s ink drawing and painting The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water and his dust jacket art for The Hobbit.
The project was developed and pursued by Pembroke postgraduate students Will Badger and Gabriel Schenk.
The Tolkien Society was pleased to support the project with a donation. Other donors included the Tolkien Estate and the Pembroke JCR, MCR and wider college community.
The memorial was unveiled before donors and guests at a reception on 12 June and followed by the annual J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature — delivered this year by Neil Gaiman.
