It holds five annual events, namely a Birthday Toast, a Tolkien Reading Day, an AGM and Springmoot, a Seminar, and the Oxonmoot conference-and-convention.

It has local groups called "smials", one of which, the Cambridge Tolkien Society, publishes the open access journal Anor.

[T 1] Since this would have hit news-stands a day before publication, the Tolkien Society's informal beginning has been placed at Thursday 6 November 1969.

This was conceived as a quarterly publication, and the first issue was joined by The Tolkien Society Bulletin, which was to be produced on a six-weekly basis.

In the December 1973 issue of the fanzine Nazgul, contributor John Abbot asked, "[w]hat do you think of the idea of Oxford Moot this year?

"[T 1] The 1974 AGM approved the idea, and the first Oxonmoot met at The Welsh Pony on George Street, later that year between 13–15 September.

[T 2] The more informal "Summermoot" was held on an irregular basis in the 1980s and 1990s, occasionally hosted by Joanna Tolkien and Hugh Baker at their farm in Wales.

[6] "The Return of the Ring: Celebrating Tolkien in 2012" marked seventy-five years since the publication of The Hobbit at Loughborough University, and received a special video message from director Peter Jackson and artists John Howe and Alan Lee.

[T 9] Its "Peter Roe" series of books are published irregularly, and tend to print proceedings of seminars and talks by guest speakers.

This involved the installation of a bench by the River Cherwell with an accompanying plaque and the planting of two trees representing Telperion and Laurelin from The Silmarillion.

[19] Past winners include authors Christopher Tolkien, Tom Shippey, Dimitra Fimi, John Garth, and artist Jenny Dolfen.