Dr Hannah McDonald
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drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Dr Hannah McDonald
@drhannahmcd.bsky.social
1.5K followers 320 following 340 posts
Chair of The Tolkien Society @tolkiensociety.org | PhD in chemistry | Mostly posting nice pictures of #Tolkien books
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Happy Hobbit Day to all who celebrate!

#Tolkien #TheHobbit #LOTR
Photo of a miniature hobbit hole ornament from Weta Workshop in from of a copy of the book The Hobbit
September 22, 2025 at 5:18 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Happiest of birthdays to The Hobbit! Published on this day in 1937!

#Tolkien #TheHobbit
Photo of 6 different editions of The Hobbit
September 21, 2025 at 5:10 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Well, I’m back
September 8, 2025 at 9:42 AM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
The Tolkien Society Christmas mailing has started winging its way to our members across the world! Looking forward to reading these over the festive season!

The Christmas card this year features a beautiful piece by Donato Giancola ❤️

#Tolkien #Mallorn #AmonHen
Photo of the 2024 Tolkien Society Christmas mailing: the bulletin Amon Hen, peer-reviewed journal Mallorn and the Christmas card with art by Donato Giancola
December 18, 2024 at 6:16 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
The amount of work that Tolkien put into the timelines and chronologies for The Lord of the Rings is breathtaking. I think one of the reasons we love this work so much is because the care and love of the author shines through with every word.
#Tolkien #LOTR #LordoftheRings
Photo of Tolkien’s handwritten timelines and chronologies reproduced in The Art of the Manuscript
December 8, 2024 at 5:13 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
In a departure from my usual posts about Tolkien, I am currently reading An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro and it is excellent.
Photo of the book An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
December 8, 2024 at 10:30 AM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
“Part of the attraction of The L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist.”

#Tolkien #LOTR #LordOfTheRings
Photo of the Revised and Expanded Edition of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien with a map of Middle-earth in the background
December 7, 2024 at 6:35 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
“It is best to love first what you are fitted to love, I suppose: you must start somewhere and have some roots, and the soil of the Shire is deep.”
-The Houses of Healing, The Lord of the Rings

#Tolkien #LOTR #LordoftheRings
Photo of Tolkien’s illustration of The Shire from Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien
December 6, 2024 at 4:12 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Had a lovely time at the War of the Rohirrim world premiere in London last night! ☺️ #Tolkien #LOTR
Photo collage from the War of the Rohirrim world premiere in London
December 4, 2024 at 4:03 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
It’s December - that can only mean one thing! It’s time for Letters from Father Christmas!🎄

#Tolkien #LOTR #LordOfTheRings #TheHobbit
Photo of two editions of Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R Tolkien with some Christmas decorations
December 3, 2024 at 2:44 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
All women want is a guy who will 3D print them a Smaug toothbrush holder ❤️
Photo of a 3D printed black toothbrush holder with a red Smaug design. Map of middle-earth in the background
November 29, 2024 at 8:01 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
A very emotional end to the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference. It has been an indescribable weekend and I hope we were able to create an event that truly honoured Christopher Tolkien ❤️ Thank you to everyone who joined us ❤️
Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference logo by Jay Johnstone
November 24, 2024 at 8:05 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Day 1 of the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference has just finished! It was inspiring, deeply moving, fascinating and just incredibly special. Looking forward to tomorrow! #Tolkien #ChristopherTolkien
Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference logo designed by Jay Johnstone
November 23, 2024 at 9:33 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
“Of the world of Tolkien, the founding books had been published
They prospered like tall trees, but it is you who revealed the forest”

Today marks 100 years since the birth of Christopher Tolkien.

#Tolkien
Photo of the book “The Great Tales Never End” signed by the editors on a wooden table
November 21, 2024 at 9:56 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Huan, the Hound of Valinor, didn’t just appear fully formed in the tale of Beren and Lúthien - he had a clear forerunner in Musti, the OG magical good dog in Tolkien’s “The Story of Kullervo”!

#Tolkien
Photo of the book “The Story of Kullervo” by J. R. R. Tolkien
November 18, 2024 at 4:57 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley.

#Tolkien #TheHobbit #Rivendell #LOTR
Photo of a framed print of Tolkien’s illustration of Rivendell.
November 16, 2024 at 3:28 PM
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November 16, 2024 at 6:40 AM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
Bakshi forever
November 15, 2024 at 11:22 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
I’m still completely in awe of all the amazing snippets of information we were given in The Nature of Middle-earth. I mean, #Tolkien considered atoms, molecules and the concept of isotopes in his metaphysical writings, and had Quenya terms for them!
#LOTR #LordoftheRings
Photo of the book The Nature of Middle-earth edited by Carl Hostetter
November 15, 2024 at 3:52 PM
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'A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age-group. It comes from reading books above one'
Tolkien, 1959 (Letter 215)

#Tolkien
Photo of the book Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien surrounded by autumn foliage
November 14, 2024 at 8:12 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
One of my favourite editions of The Silmarillion. Ted Nasmith’s illustrations are so beautiful and dramatic ❤️

#Tolkien #LOTR #TheSilmarillion
Photo of the hardback edition of The Silmarillion illustrated by Ted Nasmith. With some autumnal red leaves behind it
November 12, 2024 at 5:41 PM
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“Defeat is the theme. Triumph over the foes of man's precarious fortress is over, and we approach slowly and reluctantly the inevitable victory of death.”

-J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics

#Tolkien #Beowulf #LOTR
Photo of the books Beowulf A Translation and Commentary by J. R. R. Tolkien and The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the background is Alan Lee’s illustration of Meduseld.
November 11, 2024 at 7:23 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
5yo: I’m writing a story!
Me: What’s it about?
5yo: Smaug and Ancalagon the Black team up and fight Gandalf and the dwarves!
Husband: …What have you been telling her?
Me: The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-earth and Over-heaven
GIF of Pippin with his pipe from the Jackson film trilogy
October 24, 2024 at 3:12 PM
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The first Tolkien book I owned 📚

Beautiful cover art by John Howe ❤️

#Tolkien #TheHobbit #LOTR #LordOfTheRings
Photo of a paperback edition of The Hobbit with cover illustration by John Howe. Autumn leaves in the background because it looks nice.
October 15, 2024 at 3:30 PM
drhannahmcd.bsky.social
And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin’s sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.

-The Siege of Gondor, The Lord of the Rings

#Tolkien #LOTR
Photo of the book The Lord of the Rings open at the chapter The Siege of Gondor. Alan Lee’s illustration of The Siege of Gondor is in the background
October 13, 2024 at 4:45 PM