The Eighty-third Roving Ranger

Life and Works

#TolkienReadingDay (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is happening this weekend, the world over.

March 24, 1834. William Morris (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is born.
March 24, 1953. Tolkien informs his publishers he will not be able to meet the agreed upon deadline - March 25th (Letter 136 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)).
March 25. A very important date (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) all-round.
March 28, 1972. At Buckingham Palace, J.R.R. Tolkien is appointed a CBE (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Queen Elizabeth II.
March 30, 1968. The documentary Tolkien in Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is aired on the BBC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
April 1, 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien's children found The Tolkien Trust (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) charity.
April 6, 1963. Tolkien writes a letter to My dear people (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on a 'disastrous holiday'.
April 7, 2016. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published.

• [A special on The Ruin.]
  In Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), 1922 by Nora Chadwick.
  Anglo-Saxon Aloud (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Michael Drout
  Translation and reading (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Richard Fahey
  Old English (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) text
  The Ruin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster): The Past Dreaming of the Past
  All of the above essentially taken from The Exeter Book (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); guess who spent quite some time with this - see Old English Poetry (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)?
  Also please check out this open source fonts based on the Exeter Book (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

• Thanks for the inspiration to 

The Hobbit, Illustrated by the Author, announced for Sept 2023 by UK Tolkien publisher HarperCollins.
- For more information please visit TolkienGuide.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Events & Shows

I have been asked to co-host the Prancing Pony Podcast and #284 - the Tolkien Reading Day 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) episode - is out now. Have a listen

The 18th Tolkien Conference (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with the University of Vermont is happening April 2nd.

Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Lord of the Rings Musical (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will return - in the last Roving Ranger I wrongly gave the original number of perfomers for the London version as 68 (Superhype (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) notes 65 for the Toronto version; my 68 were a typo); Emerald kindly enough corrected this (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), stating that the London run had "just over 50"; also the numbers might have been 56 and 53 respectively, according to the programmes.

The American Improv Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Vienna seems to have a lot of fun with Not The Lord of the Rings but also Harry Potter and GoT.

TexMoot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will be happening on April 15.

The German Inklings Society will have their conference Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in the Fantastic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on April 29th-May 1st.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tolkien at Exeter College (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a new edition.

An interesting piece on the Inspirations behind Goldberry (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

I need to share this for sheer title grandeur: Beren One-Hand, Bruce the Shark, and Homer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

This is - surprising to me - quite a decent listing of: Lord of the Rings: The Many Ways Tolkien Songs Have Shown Up in Movies, TV, and More (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Den of Geek]
- If you feel like finding out about all the musicians and bands that have actually published dozens, if not hundreds of albums on Tolkien's songs (Tolkien Ensemble, Glasshammer, Blind Guardian, Christopher Lee (!), David Arkenstone, just to name a few) - simply check out Tolkien-Music.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for this.

An even more substantial review (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of Caroline Larringtons The Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think. [BBC Culture]

Franchise and Merchandise

Lord of the Rings: Gollum have announced their release date - May 25th. Have a first look report (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)of the game by Jeremy Edmonds of Tolkien Guide and my report visiting (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Daedalic Entertainment.

I am working on a longish post, perhaps even a multi-post series on Tolkien and Tourism and let me tell you: even if you name your hotels Hobbit Hotels, if they look like this (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), I ain't gonna book there 😅!
- [P.S. I might but just for the hobbit of it!]

5 Unconventional Fantasy Heists (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tor.com]
- I have to say that I never really thought of this book as depicting a heist but if you need to come up with a pitch for Tor.com there are worse ideas. And I do like this kind of article just like Five Stories About Precocious Young Wizards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) because it has Earthsea in it.

I am not quite sure what to make of this but in this article (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) it is noted that:

A "Hobbit Village" and an information center for tourists will open in  Turquoise Katun in the Altai region, Russia's largest special economic  zone (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), this year. [UrduPoint]

Magic: The Gathering (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has now shown cards of the upcoming Universes Beyond Lord of the Rings set. See more information here (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [IGN].
- please note that discussing the skin colour of characters in a trading card game should not make you angry; these images are an artist's interpretation of Tolkien's stories.

[Picture credit Magic: the Gathering/ Wizards of the Coast]

By the way: A Magic: The Gathering collector has bid $100,000 on the unique One Ring card (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The second leg of the Lord of the Rings Playing Cards is on Kickstarter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

An excellent write-up on the Toybiz Action Figures (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Inter alia & Back in the day

With successful authors like Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton being 'rewritten', one of Pratchett's biographers suggests it might simply be wiser (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to read Pterry. Also, Ursula K. Le Guin's case seems to be a little bit different (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - the decision is made by her son.

Sometimes it seems to be helpful to be part of a royal family - particularly, if you wanted to find out (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) where Game of Thrones was going, back in the day.

A couple have turned their bus into a Tiny Prancing Pony Home (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Tiny House Expedition]

We might still be getting a Gormenghast (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) series.

The only March Madness we truly need.

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