The One-hundred and tenth Roving Ranger

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Life and Works

The Collected Poems Arrive (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Too Many Books and Never Enough]; interview with the authors (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), start at 26:25 [BBC]

First publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s collected poems offers new insights into the Lord of the Rings author’s personality (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tom Emanuel]

Full of sound and Faërie (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [John Garth; TLS (paywall)]

The review by the team of the Tolkien Collectors’s Guide (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Michael Drout (Beowulf and the Critics (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and co-editor of Tolkien Studies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)) had this to say:

Events & Shows

Tolkien and His Editors (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - the German Tolkien Society’s hybrid seminar [Oct 11-13]

The National Children’s Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, is showing The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) until October.

David Bratman has a short report (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on The Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The wonderful Mike Foster has been remembered with a A Party of Special Significance (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Centre for Fantasy Literature Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has a Call for Papers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the online conference MAGIC FARE: Gastronomic Dimensions of Fantasy Worlduilding. [PDF with Google Drive; deadline: Dec 10]

The Abilene Public Library is offering events for Hobbit Week (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (adorable colouring sheets!)

Forodrim (Sweden) are celebrating their 54 year anniversary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and are giving plenty of advance notice for their four days of festivities - it’s in 2026!

TORn are doing their LA Baggins Birthday Bash (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), as is their wont!

A new Tolkien documentary is coming Dec, 5th (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and I’m in it [thetolkienist.com]

For all events (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

‘Never trust a Philologist’: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Place of Philology in English Studies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Simon Horobin, h/t Carl Hostetter)

Ryszard Derdziński has shared his latest version of his Tolkien Ancestry | Research Summary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Academia.edu (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

John D. Rateliff has I.C.E. / E.Q. books (pick a path books (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)).

The Hungarian Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has recently published another edition of its Lassi Laurië - most is in Hungarian but there are summaries (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) & general info (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Tom Hillman has The "Real Reason"® Hobbits Don't Like Boats (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Woven Layers of Myth and History (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Volume 19, Issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research has been adding more material, including Christian Trenk’s “And each day after they did likewise.” Looking at Life Together as the Fulcrum of Éowyn’s and Faramir’s Love Story (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

David Bratman has two more reviews, on Ordway and Horobin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thorin’s the nickname: Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cell Genomics]

→ Now, the net dumbs this down, of course, particularly on the headlines: "An ancient Neanderthal lineage remained isolated from other populations for over 50,000 years—up until the species extinction" (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) turns into → "Meet Thorin: A Cave-Dwelling Population Of Neanderthals Were Isolated For 50,000 Years" (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) → and finally Genetic analysis of Neanderthal named for Tolkien character reveals history of inbreeding (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Nota bene It is often time-consuming to find the best summary to the original.

Merchandise & Franchise

The Lord of the Rings Star Sir Ian McKellen Says The Hunt for Gollum Will Be A Two-Parter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [SFF Gazette] | Will The Hunt for Gollum really be two movies? That’s got to be a stretch (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

The Daily Heller: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Together Again (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [PrintMag]

Tales of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Sept 22 showcase) and other projects beside by Weta Workshop will be doing things for ‘Hobbit Week’. The official Xitter account announced that the game will be delayed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) until 2025.

LotRO Before the Shadow is now Free – and a free gift! (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [redeem by Sept 25] 

Amazon Touts ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Ratings as Strong, Yet Below First Season (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter] | ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Reaches 40 Million Viewers in 11 Days, Amazon Says (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety] | Hell on Middle-earth? The Rings of Power fails to spin streaming gold (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian] | ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ Facing Epic Headaches (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter] | The Rings of Power: season two is a vast improvement – and a meditation on the dangerous allure of AI (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Conversation] | The Real Reason Tolkien Fans Can’t Stand ‘The Rings Of Power’—It’s Not Just ‘Trolls’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Forbes] | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Has an Accent Problem [TV Guide]

Why is no one talking about this glaringly obvious problem with prequels? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cosmopolitan]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

James Earl Jones has passed away [Star Wars (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); People (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Variety (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Wikipedia (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

‘Good Omens’: Production Paused On Amazon Drama From Neil Gaiman [Deadline (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

New Harry Potter series launches casting call (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [BBC]

Ryan is always enlightening: AI Bots Have Taken Over Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is coming in November. [Blackwell’s affiliate link]

Industrial Light & Magic’s Everlasting Star Trek III Starship Designs (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [ILM]

The Emmys ignored the genre completely but Shogun certainly won (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [File770]

Inside Out 2 Was the Hit Pixar Needed, but the Laid-Off Employees Who Crunched on It Are Still Hurting (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [IGN]

According to German law I have to infom you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) or Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the bookshops of my personal trust.

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As this is 2024 I would like to note that this newsletter is 100% human-made, curated by me, Marcel R. Bülles. This also holds true for everything I write with my blog and here at Steady. Also, the average time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours.