The One-hundred and sixth Roving Ranger
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Events & Shows
Register now (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the Austrian Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s Lasse Lanta. (Sept 13-15)
Same for this year’s EstelCon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of the Spanish Tolkien Society. (Dec 4-8)
The Hobbit is coming to Philadelphia (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). (April-May, 2025)
Boston’s Crystal Ballroom will have A Long-Expected Party (Second Breakfast!) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in September.
The Hobbit is being played at a youth theatre in Iowa (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
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 and Fandom
The Tolkien Society’s Education Officer, Lucy Angel, has provided materials on The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Tom Hillman - talking to John Garth - has some thoughts on Mani Aroman, Tolkien's Beardless Men (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Artist Miriam Ellis is now with Patreon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Digital Tolkien has a video on How to use Search Tolkien and Cite Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]
Tom Bombadil and the Anti-Matter of England: A Proposal to Explain an Insolubility (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by J.G.A. Pocock (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). (first published Sept 2020; unp. letter, 1982). I particularly love this quote in an obituary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster):
He was also mildly addicted to the fantasy realms of J.R.R. Tolkien; evoking then another realm of the British post-colonial imaginary, our sadly depleted Middle Earth has said a final farewell to Treebeard.
An interesting piece with Literary Hub: A Visa for a Hobbit: How the Tools of Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Can Help Immigrant Writers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Surely of interest to many: Fantasy Aesthetics. Visualizing Myth and Middle Ages, 1880–2020 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including articles by scholars Thomas Honegger & Judith Klinger. [Free download as PDF (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) thanks to the DFG (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s SFB 1472 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]
Do watch this Maedhros animatic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by French animation student Flavie Schmitz.
An interview (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with Guy Gavriel Kay with a paragraph on helping CJRT with The Silmarillion. (h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster))
(…) The model in [Christopher’s] mind, I suspect, was that of the academic and his graduate student assistant. The actual process turned out to be radically otherwise, but that’s a long, other tale.
Tolkien fandom will have to face even worse right-wing attempts at appropriation if this man becomes vice-president: How Lord of the Rings Shaped JD Vance’s Politics (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Politico]; see Rachel Maddow’s comments (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[NY Post]
Please do note: “Given his abhorrence of modernity in general…” is one of those lines on “J.R.R. Tolkien” that you should always take with a grain of salt.
Franchise and Merchandise
The SDCC trailer for LotR: Rings of Power has been published (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]
Amazon has bought Bray Film Studios (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), home to Hammer Films (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).[BBC]
Viggo Mortensen has some very clear positions on franchises in this extensive Vanity Fair interview (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Inter alia & Back in the day
Looking back Jackson to talk Hobbit ( (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)with Del Toro); Jan 2009.
Star Trek: Section 31 has a trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]
See Stratofanatic for D&D Fantasy Fiction by TSR Publications (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The shortlist for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fictionhas been announced (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Star Trek: Voyager documentary to be out on DVD/Blu-ray sooner than you think (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Redshirts always die]
An opinion piece: Tourists have wrecked Edinburgh – they need to feel uncomfortable (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Express]
George R.R. Martin has a lot to say on dragons (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Fantasy needs to be grounded. It is not simply a license to do anything you like. Smaug and Toothless may both be dragons, but they should never be confused. Ignore canon, and the world you’ve created comes apart like tissue paper.
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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.
