The Eighty-fifth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 30, 1915. Tolkien writes the poem Kôr (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
April 30, 2001. Tolkien Studies: Volume 1 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published.
May 2, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 302 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A photograph of me pretending to be at work would be entirely bogus. [#302]

May 5, 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published in the UK.
~, 2009. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published.
May 6, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 303 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

I lived in a small cottage almost immediately beside it, and the old miller of my day and his son were characters of wonder and terror to a small child. [#303]

May 10, 1966. Tolkien was bothered by fan phone calls as his number was still in the directory; writing to Joy Hill he said:

Removing the number from the directory seems better than the method adopted by Major W. H. Lewis in protecting his brother, which was to lift the receiver and say 'Oxford Sewage Disposal Unit' and go on repeating it until they went away. [#287 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

May 11, 1922. A Middle English Vocabulary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)'s first book, is published.
[Note: Tolkien was fairly consistent in when he wrote letters. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Tolkien Guide)]

Events & Shows

A Swiss theatre in Zürich (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is doing LotR. Early reviews suggest it does not really have much to do with the book but it seems to be quite the experience.

The Hobbit opened at the National Children's Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in South Africa.

The Sir Gawain event in Glasgow recording is online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The San Francisco Symphony (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will be playing the LotR: Fellowship score in 2024.

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

Scholarship and Fandom

A small yet fun detail noted in Tolkien’s wartime fireworks (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

An interview with Craig Williamson brings up a lot of Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and hints at a "study of the nature of riddles (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and riddlic play in Old English poetry and the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien."

John D. Rateliff provides information (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the University of Glasgow Sir Gawain event. He also has some thoughts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the recent fanfic author sues Estate/ PV for copyright infringement case (see link below). In addition to this the suggestion that the second Doctor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) might be an inspiration for McKellen's Gandalf?

Mike Foster passed away, a stalwart Tolkienist, amazing teacher/professor, musician, and friend to many. [obituary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and notes by David Bratman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Marquette University Libraries (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Jessica Burke and Anthony Burdge, (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Melody Green (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), John Garth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Douglas A. Anderson (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Mike's daughter with wishes how to honour her dad (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).]

A review on Inkling, Historian, Brother: A life of Warren Hamilton Lewis by Bruce Charlton (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The proceedings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of the Tolkien Seminar 2021 of the Tolkien Society will soon be available.

Stephen C. Winter has some thoughts on Gandalf and the Awakening of the Ents (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Read up on the AMA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas.

Franchise and Merchandise

The LotR: War of the Rohirrim (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) anime will have a preview section at Annecy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

If you have asked yourself where all of these LotR:RoP drone photos are coming from - reddit user Jake Reed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is providing them.

Elijah Wood makes interesting comments on the upcoming Middle-earth films (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in an interview. [GQ]

LotR: Gollum has published another trailer, this time with 4K RTX on (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Their social media team has also started sharing character cards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Barry Humphries has passed away. He may have played the Great Goblin but was better known as Dame Edna Everage (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [NZ Herald]

Someone sued the Estate and Prime Video for copyright infringement (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [PCGamer]

You may believe it or not, the WB Discovery ad did not troll (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) LotR: RoP. [AdWeek]

Given the fact all franchises work like this these days the cosmological nostalgia content (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) should be mentioned. [xkcd]

A couple of months ago Weta Workshop asked for design suggestions - and are now turning them into reality (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Weta with FB]

LotR:RoP has been very quiet on the publicity front in recent weeks but they are part of the Prime Video FYC experience (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the Emmys (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); May 7 has a panel [DailyRoP (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Lord of the Rings: Online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has turned 16 this week, congratulations.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Streaming data (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for March 13-19 by Nielsen will give you a few ideas what people have been watching recently [Hollywood Reporter]

All the things Star Wars (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) coming up. [Collider]

Carrie Fisher will receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) posthumously.

Twitter is upping its creepiness by giving the dead (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) blue ticks [Inquisitir; Forbes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)].

Kudos to this study of the GRRM Winds of Winter timeline (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [The Week]

Lord of the Flies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is going to be adapted for the BBC.

If you want to know more how "AI" and things like ChatGPT have come into being - the Washington Post has done research (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the actual data sets that made some of this possible. Also, the Independent (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) gives a short introduction whether it is time to panic over "AI".

On Jim Henson's fantasy film classic, The Dark Crystal, in an almost overlooked interview with director Bernard Rose (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [YT, ca. 4 mins]

Somehow it seems hard to believe that Walt Disney Studios have been founded 100 years ago (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Why do we eat popcorn - a short history (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [YT, ca. 5 mins.]

Hogwarts Legacy has made the OST (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) available.

The Witcher (season 3) offered a teaser trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Dune 2 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) had also something to offer.

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, the bookshop of my personal trust.

If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Twitter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Tolkien-Discord (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [de/en]

Additional news provided in recent weeks to my members at Steady

RR+: The Bod is archiving tweets (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - including me 🤩
RR+: Tolkien Society Awards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - vote now open!
RR+: 70 years after (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - Tolkien's lecture on Sir Gawain in Glasgow
RR+: Tolkien and Smith Conference (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Corpus Christi College, Oxford
RR+: 'Lord of the Rings' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) musical tickets now available
RR+: New Illustrated Edition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of 'The Hobbit' Announced
RR+: "Tolkien letters (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) shine new light on writer’s life and work"

What to look forward to in 2023 if you like Tolkien and all things Tolkienian

Meet and greet with the Tolkienist in 2023