The Lord of the Rings Fanatics Award Winners
These are the sites that have won the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Award. We use a detailed review and scoring structure that you can use to pick out the site that you like the most. Important keywords relating to the site are in bold. If you have a Tolkien related site then click here to apply for review. Note that only Sites are awarded when they receive a score over 75 points.
Probably the most complete General Tolkien Fansite on the internet. Includes about every kind of material that a fan site can have like artwork, information resources, polls and forums. All this is combined with some truly original features like name generators, different contests, special themes, an encyclopedia, etc. The extremely complete art collection supports search on keywords which makes it very easy to find the interpretations different artists gave to different Tolkien issues. Site scores very good on every aspect and especially on content and originality. A High bonus is given for completeness.
An amazing online encyclopedia that must have taken years and years to create. Although it is not totally completed yet, it already contains a very, very large amount of data. Descriptions are very detailed for the most popular entries and contain interesting extra's like a Timeline, Pronunciations, Interactive Maps and great miscellaneous information. The site scores best on content and originality of content. A high bonus is given for the obvious love that has gone into creating such a massive source of Tolkien related data.
The Tolkien Trail has a very original approach to introduce and inform you off the world of J.R.R. Tolkien as Gandalf takes you on a Tour that takes your through the whole site. The site has been divided into sections that are named after the famous places in Middle-earth. The site features very original artwork created by one of the site's co-founders, a lot of great Fan Fiction & Art and extensive sections on games, music, songs, poetry and products. Another attraction is "The Entmoot", the site's popular Messageboard. The Site scores best on originality in design, content and approach.
A very nice Flash-powered site that focuses on Information about Arda. The site's mayor assett is the Tolkien Encyclopedia which has massive archives about the characters, creatures, races, places, events, etc of Middle-Earth. This Encyclopedia is further powered by very detailed Time Lines of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Age. A must see, is the Flash-powered Map of Middle-earth with links to the entries in the encyclopedia. The Site also has a very strong Links section with reviews of very many different Tolkien sites. The site scores best on originality and content and has a slightly lower score for Ease of Use as the Flash-site is quite heavy to load and the site is designed for 1024x768 resolutions.
A fairly diverse website which contents focuses on the upcoming Movies. Movie-related content include very up-to-date news coverage, very large picture archive and cast listing. A lot of the menu items that point to more 'traditional' Tolkien content, like information about the Writer or the Books, have no or little content yet. This results in about a quarter of the menu items being empty. Original content include: original artwork, songs and music, downloads including previews, ICQ skins, games, etc. The site further offers free e-mail, chat and has a fairly busy forum. Site scores very well on Ease of Use and has a very clear menu structure with very good search facilities.
A Site that has dedicated itself to the Dark Side of Middle-earth. Within this theme the site is very complete giving encyclopdic style information on the Dark Races (Balrogs, Orcs, Trolls, Wargs, etc), Dark Places (Moria, Mordor, Isengard, etc), the Dark Language and Dark Items (Iron Crown, One Ring, Grond, etc). Besides this the site offers a Tolkien Biography, Information on Dark Music, Fan Fiction, ever growing Art Gallery and a pretty active Discussion Board. The Site scores best on Ease of Use with a very easy navigation and gets a fairly high bonus for being very complete in its theme.
This site focuses on the fans of the Lord of the Rings and the Tolkien Books. Towards this purpose the site's main features are the large collection of Fan Art, Music and Writings. All of these are definitely worth while and give a good idea of the way in which Tolkien inspires people to express themselves. The site also features a messageboard and even Hosting Plans for fans who want to start their own website. The offers are very good! The site recently changed its look & feel and the site is very easy in use. The site scores best on the originality of the work.
This site has some information on the books, the movies and some original artwork. The site has a nice golden look and an introduction movie. The site also has a poll, random quotes and a messageboard. When the site review was requested the site clearly just started out and there was not really a lot to see or do. Perhaps if the site has more to offer in the future it might receive the reward. At this moment there is simply too little added value to be awarded.
