The Eighty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

June 23, 1945. Tolkien is elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (Opens in a new window).
June 24, 2022. The Great Tales Never End (Opens in a new window) is published.
June 25, 1957. Tolkien writes Letter 200 (Opens in a new window) on the nature of Sauron.
June 26, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 305 (Opens in a new window) to Rayner Unwin about a serious injury.
June 27, 1972. Tolkien meets Vera Chapman (Opens in a new window) and agrees to become the Tolkien Society's honorary president.
June 29, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 74 (Opens in a new window) to Stanley Unwin, hoping to soon finish the sequel to The Hobbit.
June 30, 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 339 (Opens in a new window) (to the Daily Telegraph) defending trees and his name.
July 1, 1937. Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (Opens in a new window) first published.
July 4, 1966. The Jerusalem Bible (Opens in a new window) is published.
July 5, 1957. Tolkien writes Letter 108 (Opens in a new window) on his revisions on the Farmer Giles of Ham manuscript.

Events & Shows

Spain is pulling out all the stops with this conference (Opens in a new window) on J.R.R. Tolkien and they do have Brian Sibley to boot. [July 4th-7th]

France is joining in the festivities with Tolkiendil in October in Paris (Opens in a new window).

The Tolkien Society has announced an online seminar on Nov 26th: Secondary Believers, Secondary Worlds: Tolkien and Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Opens in a new window).

Theatre under the Trees (Opens in a new window) is bringing The Hobbit to the stage on July 10-29 in Kamloops, British Columbia.

An excellent beer, wine and cider festival with expert Tolkien knowledge - Catherine McIlwaine on Tolkien and Oxford (Opens in a new window). [June 24th]

John Howe has posted many photos of his exhibition before its opening on June 25th on his Instagram account (Opens in a new window).

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship and Fandom

David Bratman has written on R.W. Reynolds (Opens in a new window).

Anna Smol has the news (Opens in a new window) on Tolkien at IMC Leeds.

A little something by me on the cats of Queen Berúthiel (Opens in a new window).

Douglas A. Anderson on the possibly first booklet ever published on Tolkien (Opens in a new window).

Franchise and Merchandise

During an investor call (Opens in a new window) the Embracer Group clearly stated they intend to exploit the Lord of the Rings franchise to the fullest (Opens in a new window) as "one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world" [Games Radar]. This has come after news of a major restructuring (Opens in a new window) of the company. [Variety]

Buying Middle-earth Enterprises was much cheaper than expected (Opens in a new window). [Variety]

Emmy nominations and wins (Opens in a new window) may not be easily forthcoming for major fantasy shows. [Hollywood Reporter]

Amazon is being sued by the FTC for allegedly duping customers (Opens in a new window) into subscribing to Prime. At about the same time the company mentioned it has spent over $5 billion in the UK creative industries (Opens in a new window) since 2010.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Tolkien's True Love (Opens in a new window) [European Conservative].

The 3 Body Problem (Opens in a new window) has a trailer. [Netflix/ Youtube]

Disney is planning a massive number of films (Opens in a new window). [Variety]

Amazon itself offered leaks of Good Omens 2 (Opens in a new window). Dont use the link if you do not want any spoilers [Winteriscoming.net (Opens in a new window)]

The SFWA (Opens in a new window) has published a statement on AI/ ML.

Babylon 5: The Road Home (Opens in a new window) has a trailer.

My kind of humour 😊

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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Twitter (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Tolkien-Discord (Opens in a new window) [de/en]