Cultus Dispatches: Becoming Bookverse

The new Amazon Rings of Power series is on many of our minds. With the Super Bowl trailer drop, releases of a series of posters, and articles and teasers cropping up across the Tolkien fandom like mushrooms after a rain, the new series has become impossible to ignore. And for many existing Tolkien fans, they wonder: How will this new show shape the fandom communities that I love?

Over the next few months, Cultus Dispatches will look at this question by analyzing the impact of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies on the fandom. "Becoming Bookverse" is the first article in this series, in which Dawn uses Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to make the case that, in the fic fandom, the films brought in fans in droves—and then they became fans and authors of fic based on the books.

You can read April's column here: Becoming Bookverse: Jackson's Films as an Initiation Point for Tolkien's Book Fandom.

As part of this series, we are seeking to hear from fans who were part of the Tolkien fandom before one or both of the film trilogies. How do you think the fandom changed (or did it)? If you'd like to contribute a fandom memory, you can do so here.

Cultus Dispatches is always looking for contributors to our column about Tolkien fandom history and culture. Find out more about writing for this column here.

Posted on 2 April 2022 (updated 14 May 2022) by Dawn Felagund