The Eighty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Mar 10, 1950. Tolkien writes Letter 125 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), part of the fascinating and often disappointing (to Tolkien) publication history of The Lord of the Rings.
March 13, 1956. Tolkien receives a letter from Sam Gamgee - see Letter 184 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
March 16, 1916. Tolkien receives his degree from the University of Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in a much delayed ceremony.
March 21, 1967. Tolkien writes a letter to Humphrey Carpenter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) who had asked for permission of turning The Hobbit into a children's musical play.
March 22, 1968. The Daily Telegraph publishes an interview (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of Charlotte and Denis Plimmer with J.R.R. Tolkien titled The Man Who Understands Hobbits.

Events & Shows

A Colloquium on developing digital critical edition of Tolkien Fanzines (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will be happening March 29th with the Raynor Memorial Libraries (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Marquette University.

I am not sure why the Dalles-Wasco County Public Library (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is going all out nuts on The Hobbit from March 1st - April 29th but I love it - and I would love to participate (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in The Floor is Mt Doom as well as Stocking Bilbo's Pantry. 😍

The Lord of the Rings Musical (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will return, this time to the English countryside at the Watermill Theatre close to Newbury, from Jul 25 - Oct 15, 2023; it is not clear yet which version of the musical this will be or what changes may have been made to it; however, the original London cast number was 68, this one is supposed to have about 20.

A theatre in British Columbia will bring The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to the stage in July.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) mentioned on LinkedIn (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that he was involved in the making of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth | MTG (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). 

• [Corey Olsen mentioned (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) he was involved with LotR: Return to Moria so it is good to see expertise is being asked.]

A review of The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Carolyne Larrington.

One of the best fannish calendars for 2023 can still be ordered with Beyond Bree (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Laura Burke (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has an exhibition in Portland (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Oregon, called Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

#TolkienTrewsDay on Twitter is starting to be a thing and I wrote a piece on trees for its second edition, talking about the legendary Pinus Nigra (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at the OBGA.

John D. Rateliff recently celebrated the deluxe edition of HotH (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Franchise and Merchandise

I was invited to a presentation with Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Hamburg last week and I am very happy to see a new trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and a first dev diary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) have found their way online since then. I will be able to write more about this soon.

The situation as of right now when it comes to the franchise might be summarised like this: ‘Lord of the Rings’: Amazon, Warner Bros. Ready for Tolkien Battle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Hollywood Reporter; see quote below]

The result could leave two behemoth studios feeling like they’re spending billions to fight over Tolkien’s creative lembas bread crumbs.

Having said this, Warner Bros. are 'only just starting to expand (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)' on the LotR & Harry Potter IPs. [Variety]

Streaming has changed the business but now the mega-IPs have to reconsider some of their plans - see Star Wars (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Variety]

A fairly decent post on Where the Lion and the Witch Met the Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [New York Times]

I was ready to blow a fuse when reading the headline - but it is not quite that bad 😅 10 Literary Quotes To Inspire You As A Startup Founder (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Forbes]

The New Zealand Mint is also cashing on... Poster coins (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)! 

If you want to know all there is to know - so far - on the Magic version of the LotR franchise here we go (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Meet the award-winning (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) legal advice team that helped the Embracer Group buy Middle-earth Enterprises: Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The company behind The One Ring RPG, Free League Publishing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), has announced the expansion Tales from the Lone-Lands (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Inter alia & Back in the day

Brian Sibley has kindly enough shared Microphones in Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a behind the curtains look at the possibly best adaptation of The Lord of the Rings yet.

It is always interesting to see how years' old posts and art get a revival somewhere on social media - like this Nick Kohney/ The Other End comic from 2019.

Or Nathan W. Pyle's Strange Planet from 2021.

Tolkien gets an article with the Country Life special edition of March 8, 2023 as Lord of the Shires (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Charlie Connelly takes a 'new' Terry Pratchett book as inspiration to ask Should undiscovered Terry Pratchett stories, and other posthumous work, be published? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [New European]

Star Trek: Discovery (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will finish with season 5, Picard with season 3. [EW]

‘It’s Kind of Embarrassing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’: Why Animators Are Unhappy With the Oscars. [Vulture]

Another Alien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) film is in the making. [The Wertzone]

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]

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