The One-hundred and tenth Roving Ranger
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)
Life and Works
The Collected Poems Arrive (Opens in a new window) [Too Many Books and Never Enough]; interview with the authors (Opens in a new window), start at 26:25 [BBC]
Full of sound and Faërie (Opens in a new window) [John Garth; TLS (paywall)]
The review by the team of the Tolkien Collectors’s Guide (Opens in a new window).
Michael Drout (Beowulf and the Critics (Opens in a new window) and co-editor of Tolkien Studies (Opens in a new window)) had this to say:
https://x.com/MikeDrout/status/1836969823093276869 (Opens in a new window)Events & Shows
Tolkien and His Editors (Opens in a new window) - the German Tolkien Society’s hybrid seminar [Oct 11-13]
The National Children’s Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, is showing The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) until October.
David Bratman has a short report (Opens in a new window) on The Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference (Opens in a new window).
The wonderful Mike Foster has been remembered with a A Party of Special Significance (Opens in a new window).
The Centre for Fantasy Literature Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has a Call for Papers (Opens in a new window) for the online conference MAGIC FARE: Gastronomic Dimensions of Fantasy Worlduilding. [PDF with Google Drive; deadline: Dec 10]
The Abilene Public Library is offering events for Hobbit Week (Opens in a new window) (adorable colouring sheets!)
Forodrim (Sweden) are celebrating their 54 year anniversary (Opens in a new window) and are giving plenty of advance notice for their four days of festivities - it’s in 2026!
TORn are doing their LA Baggins Birthday Bash (Opens in a new window), as is their wont!
A new Tolkien documentary is coming Dec, 5th (Opens in a new window) - and I’m in it [thetolkienist.com]
For all events (Opens in a new window) check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).
Scholarship & Fandom
‘Never trust a Philologist’: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Place of Philology in English Studies (Opens in a new window) (Simon Horobin, h/t Carl Hostetter)
Ryszard Derdziński has shared his latest version of his Tolkien Ancestry | Research Summary (Opens in a new window) [Academia.edu (Opens in a new window)]
John D. Rateliff has I.C.E. / E.Q. books (pick a path books (Opens in a new window)).
The Hungarian Tolkien Society (Opens in a new window) has recently published another edition of its Lassi Laurië - most is in Hungarian but there are summaries (Opens in a new window) & general info (Opens in a new window).
Tom Hillman has The "Real Reason"® Hobbits Don't Like Boats (Opens in a new window).
Thoughts on Tolkien has The Woven Layers of Myth and History (Opens in a new window).
Volume 19, Issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research has been adding more material, including Christian Trenk’s “And each day after they did likewise.” Looking at Life Together as the Fulcrum of Éowyn’s and Faramir’s Love Story (Opens in a new window).
David Bratman has two more reviews, on Ordway and Horobin (Opens in a new window).
Thorin’s the nickname: Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction (Opens in a new window) [Cell Genomics]
→ Now, the net dumbs this down, of course, particularly on the headlines: "An ancient Neanderthal lineage remained isolated from other populations for over 50,000 years—up until the species extinction" (Opens in a new window) turns into → "Meet Thorin: A Cave-Dwelling Population Of Neanderthals Were Isolated For 50,000 Years" (Opens in a new window) → and finally Genetic analysis of Neanderthal named for Tolkien character reveals history of inbreeding (Opens in a new window).
Nota bene It is often time-consuming to find the best summary to the original.
Merchandise & Franchise
The Lord of the Rings Star Sir Ian McKellen Says The Hunt for Gollum Will Be A Two-Parter (Opens in a new window) [SFF Gazette] | Will The Hunt for Gollum really be two movies? That’s got to be a stretch (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]
The Daily Heller: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Together Again (Opens in a new window) [PrintMag]
Tales of the Shire (Opens in a new window) (Sept 22 showcase) and other projects beside by Weta Workshop will be doing things for ‘Hobbit Week’. The official Xitter account announced that the game will be delayed (Opens in a new window) until 2025.
LotRO Before the Shadow is now Free – and a free gift! (Opens in a new window) [redeem by Sept 25]
Amazon Touts ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Ratings as Strong, Yet Below First Season (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter] | ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Reaches 40 Million Viewers in 11 Days, Amazon Says (Opens in a new window) [Variety] | Hell on Middle-earth? The Rings of Power fails to spin streaming gold (Opens in a new window) [Guardian] | ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ Facing Epic Headaches (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter] | The Rings of Power: season two is a vast improvement – and a meditation on the dangerous allure of AI (Opens in a new window) [Conversation] | The Real Reason Tolkien Fans Can’t Stand ‘The Rings Of Power’—It’s Not Just ‘Trolls’ (Opens in a new window) [Forbes] | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Has an Accent Problem [TV Guide]
Why is no one talking about this glaringly obvious problem with prequels? (Opens in a new window) [Cosmopolitan]
Inter alia & Back in the Day
James Earl Jones has passed away [Star Wars (Opens in a new window); People (Opens in a new window); Variety (Opens in a new window); Wikipedia (Opens in a new window)]
‘Good Omens’: Production Paused On Amazon Drama From Neil Gaiman [Deadline (Opens in a new window)]
New Harry Potter series launches casting call (Opens in a new window) [BBC]
Ryan is always enlightening: AI Bots Have Taken Over Facebook (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]
Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Opens in a new window) is coming in November. [Blackwell’s affiliate link]
Industrial Light & Magic’s Everlasting Star Trek III Starship Designs (Opens in a new window) [ILM]
The Emmys ignored the genre completely but Shogun certainly won (Opens in a new window). [File770]
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 (Opens in a new window) or Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), the bookshops of my personal trust.
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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.
