Fans of JRR Tolkien will be raising a glass to toast the author's 111th birthday on Friday.

The age has a special importance to fans as it is the age of Tolkien's famous hobbit creation Bilbo Baggins at the start of The Lord of the Rings fantasy.

Tolkien described the "eleventy-first" birthday party - which is when Bilbo leaves The Shire and the ring - as "a rather curious number and a very respectable age for a hobbit".

The Tolkien Society is asking fans to toast the author, who was born on 3 January, 1892, at 2100 GMT local time.

'Intellectual hero'

Meanwhile, one enthusiast will be celebrating the author's birthday by starting to edit a previously unpublished manuscript by the author.

Professor Michael Drout, an American academic, uncovered Tolkien's translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf in Oxford's Bodleian Library.

Prof Drout said: "I was looking at Tolkien's draft of an essay that he wrote in 1936 and I realised that there was a full four volumes of handwritten material that I knew nothing about.

"I was walking down Cat Street screaming to my wife: 'I have found this manuscript'.

"Tolkien has been an intellectual hero of mine since I entered the field and since I saw what he did in his scholarship which was to combine absolutely rigorous theological linguistic scholarship with an amazing poetic sensibility."

As well as raising a glass, Tolkien fans are being encouraged to celebrate at parties or by visiting the cinema to see Peter Jackson's version of The Two Towers.

The recent success of the Lord of the Rings films has doubled the membership of Britain's Tolkien Society, organisers say.

Chris Crawshaw, chairman of the society, which has members in 43 countries, said: "I'm looking forward to raising a glass of single malt to the memory of the Professor and in fellowship with fans around the world."

Tolkien died in Oxford on 2 September 1973, aged 81.