The One-hundred and sixth Roving Ranger
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)
Events & Shows
Register now (Opens in a new window) for the Austrian Tolkien Society (Opens in a new window)’s Lasse Lanta. (Sept 13-15)
Same for this year’s EstelCon (Opens in a new window) of the Spanish Tolkien Society. (Dec 4-8)
The Hobbit is coming to Philadelphia (Opens in a new window). (April-May, 2025)
Boston’s Crystal Ballroom will have A Long-Expected Party (Second Breakfast!) (Opens in a new window) in September.
The Hobbit is being played at a youth theatre in Iowa (Opens in a new window)
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 and Fandom
The Tolkien Society’s Education Officer, Lucy Angel, has provided materials on The Hobbit (Opens in a new window).
Tom Hillman - talking to John Garth - has some thoughts on Mani Aroman, Tolkien's Beardless Men (Opens in a new window).
Artist Miriam Ellis is now with Patreon (Opens in a new window).
Digital Tolkien has a video on How to use Search Tolkien and Cite Tolkien (Opens in a new window). [Youtube]
Tom Bombadil and the Anti-Matter of England: A Proposal to Explain an Insolubility (Opens in a new window) by J.G.A. Pocock (Opens in a new window). (first published Sept 2020; unp. letter, 1982). I particularly love this quote in an obituary (Opens in a new window):
He was also mildly addicted to the fantasy realms of J.R.R. Tolkien; evoking then another realm of the British post-colonial imaginary, our sadly depleted Middle Earth has said a final farewell to Treebeard.
An interesting piece with Literary Hub: A Visa for a Hobbit: How the Tools of Fantasy and Speculative Fiction Can Help Immigrant Writers (Opens in a new window).
Surely of interest to many: Fantasy Aesthetics. Visualizing Myth and Middle Ages, 1880–2020 (Opens in a new window), including articles by scholars Thomas Honegger & Judith Klinger. [Free download as PDF (Opens in a new window) thanks to the DFG (Opens in a new window)’s SFB 1472 (Opens in a new window)]
Do watch this Maedhros animatic (Opens in a new window) by French animation student Flavie Schmitz.
An interview (Opens in a new window) with Guy Gavriel Kay with a paragraph on helping CJRT with The Silmarillion. (h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Opens in a new window))
(…) The model in [Christopher’s] mind, I suspect, was that of the academic and his graduate student assistant. The actual process turned out to be radically otherwise, but that’s a long, other tale.
Tolkien fandom will have to face even worse right-wing attempts at appropriation if this man becomes vice-president: How Lord of the Rings Shaped JD Vance’s Politics (Opens in a new window) [Politico]; see Rachel Maddow’s comments (Opens in a new window)[NY Post]
Please do note: “Given his abhorrence of modernity in general…” is one of those lines on “J.R.R. Tolkien” that you should always take with a grain of salt.
Franchise and Merchandise
The SDCC trailer for LotR: Rings of Power has been published (Opens in a new window). [Youtube]
Amazon has bought Bray Film Studios (Opens in a new window), home to Hammer Films (Opens in a new window).[BBC]
Viggo Mortensen has some very clear positions on franchises in this extensive Vanity Fair interview (Opens in a new window).
Inter alia & Back in the day
Looking back Jackson to talk Hobbit ( (Opens in a new window)with Del Toro); Jan 2009.
Star Trek: Section 31 has a trailer (Opens in a new window). [Youtube]
See Stratofanatic for D&D Fantasy Fiction by TSR Publications (Opens in a new window).
The shortlist for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fictionhas been announced (Opens in a new window).
Star Trek: Voyager documentary to be out on DVD/Blu-ray sooner than you think (Opens in a new window) [Redshirts always die]
An opinion piece: Tourists have wrecked Edinburgh – they need to feel uncomfortable (Opens in a new window) [Express]
George R.R. Martin has a lot to say on dragons (Opens in a new window).
Fantasy needs to be grounded. It is not simply a license to do anything you like. Smaug and Toothless may both be dragons, but they should never be confused. Ignore canon, and the world you’ve created comes apart like tissue paper.
According to German law I have to infom you al (Opens in a new window)l 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.
