The Ninety-sixth Roving Ranger

Welcome to 2024

I hope you have made it safe and sound into the new year - all the best for 2024. This edition of the Roving Ranger is fairly long so, without further ado...

Life and Works

A rather lovely piece of news: Tolkien and CS Lewis manuscripts among treasures made available to public in 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
For rather more information see the Arts Council report (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on this; the material seems to be from the Walter Hooper Estate.

On another note: Carl F. Hostetter has provided a list of Nature of Middle-earth errata (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (download as PDF.)

Events & Shows

Not directly Tolkien-related but when the Wade Center (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) announces a George MacDonald conference (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on his bicentennial this will certainly be interesting (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

If metalheads can do it, we can do it, too: The Inklings Cruise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

OzMoot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is on soon in Sydney.

MythCon 53 is happening in August (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Queen of Denmark has announced her abdication and the funniest line I have read about this was “Tolkien illustrator quits job” (h/t Andrew Wells). Tolkien Ensemble founder Caspar Reiff wrote about this on Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); for more on her connection to Tolkien see Tolkien Gateway (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and the Danish Royal website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Austrian Tolkien Society is preparing for its Mar Vanwa Tyálieva (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (a weekend of gaming and all things Tolkien) at the end of January.

Prague will be seeing TolkienCon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) again in January as well (I will have to do a Tolkien MeMe of my one-time visit to this outrageously glorious event).

Ongoing John Howe (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Tolkien exhibition in Rome (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | British Library (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship and Fandom

It is lovely to see the Pope quoted Tolkien in a homily on December 24th (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), but we have known him to be a fan for many years (P.S. Yes, I need to update that post, quite obviously. 😅)

Do note issues of the Journal for Inklings Studies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are free to download.

The lawsuit that made a lot of people very nervous: A ‘pitch-perfect sequel’? The fine line between fan fiction and an ugly lawsuit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Sydney Morning Herald]

From the possibly southernmost Tolkien Society in the world (Sociedad Tolkien Magallanes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)) there is an article on the new year (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the different species in Middle-earth.

Brenton Dickieson lists his most popular Tolkien posts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for #TolkienBirthdayToast [A Pilgrim in Narnia].

For those of you who have not yet heard of #TolkienTrewsday on Xitter do have a look at its ‘official’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) page - a weekly themed get-together by the community that will also be present with BlueSky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and the Tolkien Society’s Facebook group (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has written about Goblin caves, ancient scripts and Tolkien’s gift for invention (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Steady]

Stephen C. Winter has some thoughts on Sméagol: “All You Wish is to See It and Touch It, If You Can, Though You Know It Would Drive You Mad.” Gollum Swears To Serve The Master of The Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Some Tolkienian new year’s resolutions (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Miriam Ellis Art]

Putri Prihatini has a new post with Queen of Earth, Giver of Fruits: from Middle-earth to Merapi (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Interestingly enough Leeds Libraries did not know about the connection between E.V. Gordon, this has now been remedied (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). More interesting is their Traces of Tolkien in Leeds (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) blog post.

Digital Tolkien Project’s James Tauber (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has shared a look back at 2023 and what is to come. [Youtube]

I love LotRO a lot even though I have not played it seriously yet: fans gathered for #TolkienBirthdayToast in-game (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Before I invite you to visit a recent post on mapping Middle-earth I would love to link to the LotRProject.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) website - it has been on hiatus for many years now with Emil Johansson becoming a specialist in 3d printing techniques and co-founder to a huge startup (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - as it still offers material for people to summarise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in 2024. Having said this, the Strange Maps (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) category is rather interesting![Big Think]

Tolkien et l’antiquité (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - the proceedings to last year’s conference - are being published. [TCG]

Love the fact that the editor to Tolkien’s Battle of Maldon visited Maldon Books (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Maldon recently (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Franchise and Merchandise

Did you know the legal copyright to The Lord of the Rings has expired in New Zealand (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)? Let’s see what the Kiwis will do with that.

And on that note - please do get your reporting right: Lord of the Wings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) was challenged by Middle-earth Enterprises (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (now with Embracer Group (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)), the film and merchandise rights’ owners to the Third Age, not the Tolkien family. sigh [NZ Herald]

The assumption that the lack of success for RoP is the reason for the Amazon Prime price hike (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is way too hilarious. [Trusted Reviews] Maybe it has more to do with a move of a former Disney employee to Prime (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Marketing Dive]

The plagiarism software’s - wrongly titled A.I. - learning mechanism needed a lot of Hugo winners (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [File 770]

For more than twenty years rumours of a Middle-earth themed amusement park have been making the rounds. Given today’s status of Middle-earth as a full-blown IP it seems only a matter of time - and Inside the Magic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a few suggestions.

It is quite fascinating to see that writing about writing systems would include the Tengwar as well (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [The Collector]

The film trilogies continue to inspire to this day - even if it is to render Gollum in 3d (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Also check out WetaFX’ recent post (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on their work. [Youtube]

If you want EA to remake its old LotR titles - the change.org petition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been gathering steam (again) lately. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

With the New York Times’ Great Adaptations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) quiz I seriously wanted to press another button (including ASoIaF, RoP, WoT).

Inter alia & Back in the day

An excellent article on the Hobbit adventure game (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the Spectrum (and later on the C64) and how the Tolkien Estate (?) dealt with such ventures fourty years ago.

The so-called ‘AI’ technology and its abuses: New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI for 'billions' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [BBC]
[P.S. Please use the correct term - plagiarism software.]

If you happen to be interested in the literary genre of science fiction this blog post is worth your time: An Anti-Defense of Science Fiction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Ancillary Review of Books]

C.S. Lewis was also a profilic letter writer and John D. Rateliff has some news on the latest project (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Ansible 438 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been published.

Warhammer legend Bryan Ansell (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has died. [Wertzone]

[Ansell] sculpted his first miniature - a guardsman of Gondor - in 1966 after reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

I cannot believe that people in San Jose voted Shai-hulud (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as the name for a boring machine - when they could have had Boring McBoringFace!

Google has been screwing over so many people - and now Usenet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is (slowly but surely) meeting its end. [P.S. Yes, I know, Usenet isn’t quite 2024 but still…]

I love how Star Trek predictions are inspiring people: Star Trek’s prediction of Irish unification in 2024 is upon us, but the full scene muddies the water. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Irish Times] And yes, Patrick Stewart might continue doing Trek in his 80s (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

If you need a post looking back at history with a rather biased look at history do go for: The Aragorn Option (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [European Conservative]

I might be able to watch Labyrinth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) again soon as its distribution rights have found a new home. [Animation Magazine]

GRRM lauding Blue Eye Samurai (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and casually mentioning (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) some of his stories will move to animation. [Not a Blog & Netflix]

All criticism aside - Hogwarts: Legacy was one of the highest-selling games (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) the world over, proving that fantasy games can now even (almost) beat CoD or FIFA.

By the way - the brand ‘Tolkien/ LotR’ is now such a global phenomen it will give you Being a Hobbit in 2024 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (US politics), Fascists twist Tolkien into Lord of the Right Wing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Italian politics), My plan to topple the Tory dark lords in 2024 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (UK politics), Tolkien’s Warning (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (US Christianity, doom and gloom).

And with those links it might be time to remind you of the audition video Willie Nelson (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) did for the PJ Hobbit trilogy.

Memes making the rounds

I am adding the occasional column to this newsletter with RR: Mematro. 😁

Let me start out in saying that recurring memes from all fandoms usually are spread via sources that have a huge following because they have no issues in simply stealing stuff from others and/or with failing to credit artists in question.

Kirsten’s MyFunkyCamelot book thigh holster has been making the rounds because this guy mentioned it (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Xitter. Kirsten is a long-standing nerd like many of us, making costumes, accessories and the like and you can check her out on Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and TikTok.

P.S. It should really be a thigh holster for the one vol. edition, if you ask me!

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.

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