📚 GIVEAWAY For Tolkien Reading Day 2024 and 🏀 Final Round of Middle-earth March Madness
Vote for the winner of Middle-earth March Madness and enter in a Tolkien Reading Day Giveaway! PLUS: a sale on Extended Edition memberships!
Mae govannen!
Happy Tolkien Reading Day! What is Tolkien Reading Day, you may ask? Well, according to the Tolkien Reading Day page on the Tolkien Society website:
Tolkien Reading Day is held on the 25th of March each year.
It has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages.
Why March 25th? Because that is the day in Middle-earth history that the One Ring was destroyed and the Dark Lord Sauron was defeated.1
In order to celebrate Tolkien Reading Day, I’m giving away a whole bunch of Tolkien’s works! Enter to win one of FOUR prizes below!
But first, we’ve got some equally important business to attend to. Because today is the FINAL ROUND of Middle-earth March Madness!
“Middle-earth March Madness” — Final Round: The Middle-earth Championship
The board is set. The pieces are moving. We come to it at last: the great battle of our time.
Characters from all across Middle-earth have faced off in the first few rounds of Middle-earth March Madness. And what was once a group of 32 contestants narrowed to the Company of 16, then to the Fellowship of the 8, and most recently to the Four of Power!
Just two characters remain, the Champion of the Heroes facing off against the Champion of the Villains for the chance to become the Champion of Middle-earth March Madness!
In the Four of Power, Gandalf the Grey took on Samwise Gamgee and Smaug faced Sauron: who won each matchup and advances to the finals?
The Four of Power Results
Heroes Championship
Gandalf’s fondness for Hobbits is well-known and he observed to Frodo that, “You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you at a pinch.” Well his words were truer than he knew because Samwise Gamgee, Samwise the Brave, Samwise the STRONG came through with yet another upset and defeated Gandalf 57 to 43!
Sam is now the champion of the heroes, having bested all his opponents in the Heroes of The Lord of the Rings bracket and now taking down the champion of the Heroes of The Hobbit bracket. He proceeds to the Finals as the representatives of all the Good that is in Middle-earth. Who will meet him there as the Champion of Evil?
Villains Championship
It was a clash of titans, as Smaug took on Sauron in a battle of villainous champions. Smaug had not yet faced an opponent who took more than 9% of the vote, but he met his match in the Dark Lord Sauron. It was the closest contest yet for Sauron, but he still came out on top 63 to 37 and stopped the dragon’s rampage once and for all.
Now Sauron moves on with just a simple Hobbit between him and covering the entire bracket in darkness.
Sam vs. Sauron
Sam comes into the matchup the clear underdog by most conventional standards. He was only ranked #4 in his own bracket, is not a mighty warrior or a wise sage, and he has never done anything like this before. But he is brave and kind and stout of heart. Will that be enough for “Cinderella Sam”?
Sauron, by contrast, is right where he feels like he belongs. He was the top-seeded contestant, as he is perhaps the most powerful and intelligent of all the contestants to have entered this tournament when judged by raw talent and ability. Now his ambition has taken him within a single match of ordering all the lands of Middle-earth in his own image. He has conquered kingdoms before, caused the downfall of entire civilizations, deceived the wise and created one of the most powerful artifacts in the history of Middle-earth. But he is proud, arrogant, and cannot conceive that anyone would act in a way that is contrary to their own benefit or gain. Will he once again meet his downfall at the hands of a hobbit? Or will he rule them all?
Vote here to choose the CHAMPION of Middle-earth Madness!
25% off Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition
In honor of both the conclusion of Middle-earth March Madness and of Tolkien Reading Day, I’m running a sale on paid memberships this week!
Paid memberships to the Extended Edition of Jokien with Tolkien are 25% off until 3/31! It’s the first sale I’ve run this year and likely the only one until Hobbit Day in September, so take advantage of it while it’s still here!
With a paid membership in the JwT Extended Edition you’ll receive exclusive Extended Edition essays and behind-the-scenes posts each month, full access to the JwT Discord Server, the ability to DM me directly on Substack, and access to the monthly Extended Edition subscriber discussions here on Substack. Plus you’ll help fund fun like the giveaway below!
Hit the button below for more info:
And now, for the giveaway details…
Tolkien Reading Day 2024 GIVEAWAY!
In honor of Tolkien Reading Day today, I’m giving away some of Tolkien’s works! What better way to encourage people to read Tolkien than to give them some of his books?
And while I’ve done giveaways in the past, this year I’m going bigger than ever before.
FOUR lucky individuals who enter this year’s giveaway will win a prize!
Three winners will receive a box set collecting various volumes of Tolkien’s works, while the grand prize winner will win a copy of each of the three box sets plus a shirt of their choice from the Jokien with Tolkien store!
Third Prize: one copy of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Hardcover boxed set
Second Prize: one copy of The Great Tales of Middle-earth boxed set, containing the three greatest of the tales from The Silmarillion in their expanded forms
First Prize: one copy of the first History of Middle-earth Boxed Set, including The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Book of Lost Tales Parts One and Two
GRAND Prize: All three of these boxed sets plus the shirt of your choice from the Jokien with Tolkien merch store!
The giveaway will run from today, March 25th, through Wednesday, March 27th. The winners will be selected immediately after the giveaway closes and I’ll announce the winners in the next day’s newsletter (as well as contacting them directly).
Enter the giveaway here:
That’s all for today, friends! Look for the results of today’s Middle-earth March Madness Championship as well as the winners of the Tolkien Reading Day Giveaway to hit your inboxes with the newsletter this Thursday, March 28th.
Namárië,
Josh
Appendices
Special shout-out and thank you to the Claire H, who joined the Extended Edition of Jokien with Tolkien this week by becoming a paid subscriber!
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Okay, are we going off of who we want to win or who would actually win?? Bc Sauron would wipe the floor with Sam, as much as we all love him... let's be real XD
Wow. Didn't expect that