The Eighty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 10, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 208 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (LotR has 'no message'.)
April 14, 1950. Tolkien writes Letter 127 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ('feud' with the Unwins begins.)
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Glasgow University.
April 15, 2007. The Children of Húrin Release Party (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) starts; (book out (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)April 17.)
April 20, 1973. Tolkien writes to John Higgins (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Arts Editor of The Times.
April 23, 1925. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published.
April 27, 1915. Tolkien writes You and Me / and the Cottage of Lost Play (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Events & Shows

The Kentucky Opera (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will have two showings of The Hobbit in June.

Westmarch Smial in Swansea will be having their first Smial Moot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on April 23rd. [Waterstones]

One of the longest-running Tolkien fan events - 24 years - has announced its date after a successful 2023 get together at Castle Stahleck, Germany: Lure of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [card gaming]

The Tolkien Lecture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Maria Dahvana Headley will happen at Pembroke College, Oxford, on May 16th. If everything goes according to plan I'll be in Oxford.

The Birmingham Tolkien Lecture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will happen on May 12th - John Garth.

I had the great pleasure and honour to be a guest host to the Prancing Pony Podcast episodes 285 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and 286 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as this year's Tolkien Reading Day (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) edition.

If you feel like meeting up with the Tolkienist this year these are some dates (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (so far, more are coming).

Reading Tolkien in the 21st Century, a conference at the University of Bonn, Germany, will happen on Sept 7-8. (CfP as pdf download (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)).

The Council of Westmarch (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is holding its second Tolkien Mini Film Festival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on April 22nd.

Scholarship and Fandom

TolkienGuide have an incredibly entertaining and insightful (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 🧵 on contemporary criticisms of Tolkien.

A Reddit AMA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas will be happening on Monday, April 17th.

As a good friend of mine has been saving birds in NZ as well I need to share this GiveALittle project by The Lost Hobbit - for NZ Birds (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). The run is finished since April 1st but you can still donate (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Congratulations to the winners of the Tolkien Society Awards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The occasion of the Tolkien Sir Gawain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) lecture will be celebrated at the University of Glasgow, 70 years after the fact.

Verlyn Flieger and Carl Hostetter will be teaching Tolkien's Time Travel Stories (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Mythlore 41:2 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been published.

John Garth made an ass of himself (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) but at least he is now with Steady (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (I may have had a hand in this 😄)

A course I would desperately love to attend: Tolkien Illustrated: Picturing the Legendarium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

LotR characters in camp by (c) Lucas Prokopowich (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Franchise and Merchandise

The One Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) RPG by Free League Publishing is coming in a 5E adaptation on May 9th. Have a look at the trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the LA Comic Con live play.

Howard Shore is warning fans not to visit the Star Entertainment organised concerts in the UK and Germany on his website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The award-winning VFX team of LotR:RoP has published a VFX breakdown (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). An insightful article about Amazon Studios sees 'Confusion and Frustration (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)' [Hollywood Reporter] in which statistics seem to show RoP wasn't the hoped for success; the [Onion] suggests only Bezog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) finished watching it; a fire on set (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) did not help with the headlines; analysts suggest that RoP was the final tip of the streaming iceberg (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

LEGO Ideas are close to judging the winner of their Exploring the World of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) challenge - have a look at 470 ideas.

The EA mobile game (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is set to release on May 10th globally; a trailer is available.

The Lord of the Rings Balenciaga (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) fashion show is rather hilarious, just like Jack Black as Tom Bombadil (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). It is unfortunate that the tools used are really nothing more than art thieves making money off the work of others.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Neil Gaiman has been nominated to the TIME 100 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Most Influential People of 2023 list.

A new Harry Potter series is in the making (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including all of the side effects [Variety]; the Guardian (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has some thoughts.

If you feel like watching all Star Trek movies in 4k, well, it's now possible (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [ArsTechnica]

The second of the Terry Pratchett biographies is now also a winner thanks to the BSFA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Locus]

Star Wars had many news to present at Celebration 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including three new feature films. [EW]

Akron, Ohio (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), has its very own gaming bar and café, the Green Dragon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), since St. Patrick's Day. Do visit, it looks amazing. I am pretty sure they also have decent beer - as they should with that name!

Revising classic novels (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is welcomed by some, criticised by quite a few. [New York Times]

GRRM had quite a few interesting things to share on his not blog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Big Eurovision Read (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) titles have been announced, including Pratchett.

The Internet Archive (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has lost its first legal fight. [TIME]

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is being published soon; I can only hope his 'Tolkien work' will also be included.

An interesting piece on the Disabled Villain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Guardian]

Ansible 429 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been published.

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