The One-hundred and first Roving Ranger

Life and Works

May 18, 1912. Tolkien pays his Oxford Union Library fines (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). (One of my absolutely favourite entries with TG - if 1£7/6 is the correct figure then this would be worth more than 100£ today (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)😱! The BoE (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) concurs, btw!)
May 18, 1972. Exactly sixty years later Tolkien writes Letter 335 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thank you for your most kind letter and for your general interest in my work. I am however now an old man struggling to finish some of his work. Every extra task however small diminishes my chance of ever publishing The Silmarillion. So I hope you will understand why I feel it impossible to spend time making any comments on myself or my works.

May 20, 1969. Tolkien writes Letter 310 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), answering Rayner Unwin’s daughter Camilla on the ‘purpose of life’.
May 21, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 70 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)to Christopher on his work on LotR (“Gollum continues to develop into a most intriguing character.”)
May 22, 2014. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published.
May 24, 1932. R.W. Chambers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) sends Tolkien an inscribed copy of Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
May 28, 1964. Tree & Leaf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published.
May 29, 1930. Tolkien's "The Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)English School (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
May 31, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 72 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to Christopher on goings-on in general and LotR (“…I am not really satisfied with the surname Gamgee and shd. change it to Goodchild if I thought you would let me.”)

Tolkien’s 1945 letter to the Catholic Herald on (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ‘the Name of Coventry’ [Catholic Herald] (h/t Andrew Wells; please note scholars Hammond & Scull et al. have stated elsewhere the online version has taken liberties to the original in questions of punctuation, capitalization, and italicization etc.)

All dates are taken from Tolkien Gateway (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Events & Shows

Magdalen College, Oxford, has a C.S. Lewis exhibition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) right now.

John Howe’s exhibition has found another home, this time Tampere in Finland (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Will Sherwood is giving a talk in Merton College on May 20: "I am a link in the chain": Victorian Transformations of British Romanticism and their Influence on Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Michael G.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will give his talk at Merton on June, 3rd: A grandson's reflections on J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Tolkien Days (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of the German Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are happening, the largest such event in the world, with 11,000+ visitors. [May 24-26; sold out]

For all event (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)s (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

Co-founder to the Grey Havens Group, Kelly Cowling, has passed away (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). She and the people in Longmont, Colorado, turned a beautiful vision into reality - philosophy + fantasy. And that name 🤩 I talked to her in 2013 about their work (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Requiescat in pace.

Oronzo Cilli has another post: Tolkien, Shakespeare, and the Stocks Tree in West Wickham. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Following the Downings, the Wade Center will have a new director soon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John D. Rateliff talks about Annie Brust (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s Tolkien’s Transformative Women: Art in Triptych (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Volume 18, Issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is online.

The Tolkien Guide invited the director of the fan film “The Hunt for Gollum”, Chris Bouchard, to talk about recent events (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The University of Waterloo, CA, has made a photo available (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) from their 1968 Tolkien exihibition.

Reddit user u/PotterGandalf117 has finally done a website on his Legendarium family tree (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and offered a new version (8.2) [and it’s done in Excel 😲!)

The Tales after Tolkien Society had its AGM at Kalamazoo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Miriam Ellis has a wonderful piece on one the best characters in The Lord of the Rings: Lobelia (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

James Tauber is fighting the good fight by injecting factual information on “The Hunt for Gollum” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on X (formerly known as Twitter); at the time of writing he had published 160 tweets.

Robin Reid has ‘Calls for Paper’ for Oxonmoot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The fading of the elves: Techno-volunteerism and the disappearance of Tolkien fan fiction archives (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Dawn Wall-Thumma [TWC]

Jason Fisher (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) mentioned that 2022 chemistry Nobel Prize winner Morten Meldal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) was a fan of The Lord of the Rings - please note, I do not condone this kind of behaviour 😇!

I actually played sick during this period because it was so exciting to read this book.

Franchise and Merchandise

An obituary on Bernard Hill (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [The Wertzone] TheOneRing.net celebrated his memory in a live show (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including Bruce Hopkins (‘Gamling’) and Jed Brophy (‘Nori’ etc.) | ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Cast Remembers Bernard Hill: “Don’t Think Anyone Spoke Tolkien’s Words As Great” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Deadline] | Dominic Monaghan has a beautiful photo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), shot by Viggo Mortensen, of Bernard Hill [Instagram]

Announcements on the upcoming movie LotR: The Hunt for Gollum (Andy Serkis directing; Jackson, Walsh & Boyens fully involved).

Variety (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Independent (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Deadline (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Hollywood Reporter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Deadline also has: Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis & Philippa Boyens Explain Why They’re Returning To Middle-Earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

And way more importantly, after Amazon left New Zealand for other shores: Revealed: Lord of the Rings movies production hub to be in Wellington (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [RNZ]

Reactions More Lord of the Rings is cynical and unnecessary – Peter Jackson has Gollum too far this time (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Telegraph] | Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Fan Film Back Online After Warner Bros. Takedown (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [IGN] | There’s a War Over the LOTR Franchise Between Amazon and WB (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Movieweb] | Why I'm (even more) worried about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [WinterisComing.net]

Announcements on LotR: The Rings of Power, S2 (Aug 29)

Hollywood Reporter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Variety (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Amazon MGM Studios (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Deadline (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Trailer rundown, scene by scene: TORn (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), FoF (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), NotR (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Prime Video also announced an upcoming content creator driven talk show (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), starting August 1.

A new generation of J.R.R. Tolkien games is coming (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - people with “a 10-year or 20-year plan” for a franchise that is “largely underused”.[Venturebeat]

Thanks go out to Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entry to finally reveal Tolkien’s inspiration of the Eye of Sauron (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [iNews UK / sarcasm note!]

Having said this, LEGO is finally doing Barad-dûr (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - for $459.99, €459.99, or £399.99. [The Verge] And happily enough, Brotherhood Workshop are back after about a year with a short parody of Denethor’s Dinner (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Juniper Books, a provider of custom-made book sets, is offering a new LotR book set (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and/ or jackets on May 21, 2024.

Inter alia & Back in the day

A great Ursula K. Le Guin short story to read for free (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [LitHub]

Star Trek’s reboot film #4 is one of those ‘development hell’ stories: “Chris Pine Was Surprised by New ‘Star Trek 4’ Writer Hire” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety]

LEGO Star Wars is giving Jar Jar Binks the right treatment in an animated special called ‘Rebuild the Galaxy’ - as Darth Jar Jar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). The Acolyte (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a trailer. And OREO’s are putting out cookies for the Dark Side - or the Light (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)!

A lovely review on Peter S. Beagle’s I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Paste Magazine]

Streaming service MAX has the DUNE: Prophecy series coming up this fall, this is the teaser trailer to it (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Ansible 442 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been published - noting, among others, the passing of John Trimble (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). He and his wife Bjo organised the letter writing campaign that had the original Star Trek series get a third season - and without this, modern day fandom would not be the same.

An excellent interview with six great science fiction writers: Does Science Fiction Shape the Future? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Nautilus]

These people are saying “we finally created the utopia of Neuromancer.” And I look at them and I go, “I don’t think you read Neuromancer. Maybe you just played Cyberpunk 2077.” [Cory Doctorow]

The enshittification (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of the largest online spaces is proceeding ever faster: Reddit has now partnered with OpenAI (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (after already having done that with Google).

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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.