The Tolkien Mailing Competition ("TLV" abbreviated from its Hungarian equivalent "Tolkien Levelező Verseny") takes place for the 15th time this year—and it is international for the 8th time. In the first years it was organised only in Hungarian, and only for groups of Hungarian students aged 10–18-years. As many people above this age group became interested in the competition, we launched a separate category for individuals in Hungarian, and at the same time we decided to go international. The outcome was definitely encouraging. In the past few years the international Quendi category had many participants (and recently an organiser) from various foreign countries: you can check out our bilingual blog to see their works and also the results of the previous competitions.

(Click here for the Hungarian article about all categories.)

The international Quendi category is open to individual participants. Both the challenges and the communication will be entirely in English—but don’t be afraid. You won’t need to be fluent in English for taking part in the competition. You only have to be able to understand the texts by Tolkien, and maybe to write an essay—it won’t need to be of university level.

The competition is recommended for the "young adult" age group, since it originally addressed middle and high school students, and we did not make big changes in the style. Still, the competition is open to anybody who feels young enough for it.

There is a maximum limit of 60 for the number of participants in this category. The number of applications were far below this limit in the previous years, but we kindly ask everyone interested in the competition to apply as soon as possible and thus leave us time to plan the process.

Participation in the Quendi category requires a thorough knowledge of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Other works by Tolkien may be needed occasionally, as some questions (riddles, quizzes, etc.) can refer to those, but you will have about four weeks for each round, that is, plenty of time to look up in the books everything you might need.

There will also be some creative challenges. For example, you may be asked to describe a situation, write a short poem, make a drawing or take a photograph, etc. We would like to be proud of our participants, so we ask you to share the rights of your creative productions royalty-free (and you accept this condition by your registration for the competition). The best of your works—with due credit to authors/artists—might be published by the Hungarian Tolkien Society, e.g. on our website, www.tolkien.hu, or in our journal, Lassi Laurië. Please do not publish these works yourself without consulting us first, and especially not before the deadline of the round in question.

In each round you can make the decision to solve only the quizzes or only the creative tasks: besides the absolute winner of the category, the separate winners of the lexical and the creative parts will also be announced.

The contest starts in November and continues until April. Every month you will receive the questions of the next round, and you will have to submit your solutions until the indicated deadline. Communication will be via e-mail. Our e-mail address is tlv[at]tolkien.hu. Questions and comments are always welcome. We are happy to answer all your questions about the competition—except disclosing the solutions of the actual tasks.

Not submitting your solutions for two consecutive rounds means quitting the competition.

There will be no prizes in the international category, only the public announcement of your achievement and a certificate sent by e-mail. There is no registration fee, either.

If you want to participate, please fill in this online registration form. The application deadline has been prolonged, but meanwhile the competition will start, so apply as soon as possible to have enough time for the tasks of the first round. The new deadline is:

4 of November, 2020

15 of November, 2020