Roving Ranger. A Special edition: The Best of June-December 2022
As I mentioned in January 2023 there were reasons (Opens in a new window) why there was a break in the Roving Ranger's publication. After more than 2,000 Google News emails had filtered their way into my inbox I realised that it could be useful to filter the best of those six months into a special edition, so here we go.
The main reason why people are quite happy to have anything with the name "Tolkien" on it? The highest-paid dead celebrity in 2022 is J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) and after a few top three placings its the first time for him to be #1 (scroll down the article for its methodology.)
December
Putin gave away rings during a meeting which led a lot of outlets to calling him Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window); unfortunately, they have it the wrong way around but who knows anything about medieval customs these day, ey? [Deadline]
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11483241/Jane-Austen-tops-list-Britains-greatest-authors-JK-Rowling-SECOND-place.html (Opens in a new window)Yes, you should probably read a book or two from George McDonald: The Aberdeenshire minister considered the 'father of modern fantasy writing' (Opens in a new window) [Aberdeenshire Live]
I would have loved to participate in this course: Three great British fantasists: Lewis Carroll, Mervyn Peake, JRR Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [ICE, Cambridge] (ad in December 2022 for summer 2023)
Priscilla Tolkien - obituary (Opens in a new window) [Facebook; ITF] | She left a £10m fortune (Opens in a new window). [Daily Mail]
Trailer for Paul Corfield Godfrey's "The Silmarillion" (Opens in a new window) after the mythology of JRR Tolkien [Youtube]
For a while it was possible (Opens in a new window) to stay at the film set in Matamata (Opens in a new window) - as of the time of writing the booking is no longer available. This is probably in connection with the recent “release” of a hobbit hole to visitors of the tourist attraction. [Stuff NZ] It really was the biggest news in December re: franchise. See [Entertainment Weekly (Opens in a new window)], [New York Post (Opens in a new window)], and [Verge (Opens in a new window)], out of dozens of news releases on this.
In an interview with BBC 4 (Opens in a new window) Cate Blanchett made clear she was not immediately successful as an actor - and her first role was Bard in The Hobbit. [BBC, starting at the 10:30 mark]
‘The first role I got in a school play was as the fellow who shot Smaug down in The Hobbit. So, I had one line and I got to shoot a bow and arrow. It was the last dramatic moment in the play.’
Always entertaining: The Rings of Power - Pitch Meeting (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]
November
Some Amazon staffers joked that the writers of its mega-expensive 'Lord of the Rings' series should be laid off after (Opens in a new window) the company cut thousands of roles. [Business Insider]
Amazon's Silence on 'The Rings of Power' Audience Size Is Deafening (Opens in a new window) [Variety]
John Garth went on a tour with BBC 4 to Tolkien Land (Opens in a new window).
October
How J.R.R. Tolkien Came to Write the Stories of ‘The Rings of Power’ (Opens in a new window)[Smithsonian]
Tolkien is the highest-paid celebrity (Opens in a new window) of 2022 [Forbes]
On the issue of copyright and trademark with the series (Opens in a new window).
The result is a new work, derived from the source material but expanding on it and which stands to be appraised in its own right.
They have a few choice words to say: George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman Hate When Hollywood Makes ‘Illegitimate’ Changes to Source Material: ‘F—ing Morons’ (Opens in a new window) [Variety]
Honest Trailer (Opens in a new window) on RoP
Jules Bass of Rankin & Bass passed away: Hollywood Reporter (Opens in a new window) | Fatherly (Opens in a new window) |
Reactions There and Back Again: A Rings of Power Postmortem (Opens in a new window) [Crisis Magazine] | Some Thoughts on Tolkien’s Elf-Horses (Opens in a new window) [Reactor] | Why Amazon's ‘The Rings of Power’ is an empty spectacle (Opens in a new window) [Mint Lounge] | Is ‘The Rings of Power’ a Huge Hit? A Muted Flop? It’s Complicated (Opens in a new window) [IndieWire] | Everyone loves a villain, but in "The Rings of Power," maybe we shouldn’t (Opens in a new window) [Salon] | ‘The Rings Of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal Of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ (Opens in a new window) [Forbes] | The Rings of Power may be a hit – but it’s a betrayal of JRR Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [Telegraph, paywall] | Amazon Spoiled ‘Rings Of Power’ By Trading Tolkien For Lame Hollywood Tropes (Opens in a new window) [Federalist; its media bias (Opens in a new window)] | Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker (Opens in a new window) [Guardian] | "The Rings of Power" shows us a new side of Middle-earth: girlfriends (Opens in a new window) [Salon] | ‘LOTR: The Rings Of Power’ After Show ‘Inside The Ring’: Season 1 Finale – Sauron Revealed, The Stranger’s Journey & What’s Coming In Season 2 (Opens in a new window)[Deadline] | ‘The Rings of Power’: Every adaptation is re-interpretation so ignore the haters (Opens in a new window) [The Conversation] | Well, That Happened: ‘The Rings of Power’ Lurches to Its Season Finale (Opens in a new window) [Patheos] | The Long Road to Mordor The Rings of Power creators explain Sauron’s identity and their plan to explore the edges of Tolkien’s map (Opens in a new window) [Vulture] | ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Finale: Did We Get Everything Amazon Paid For? (Opens in a new window) [Rolling Stone] | Fraud of the Rings: why Amazon’s Tolkien extravaganza falls flat (Opens in a new window) [Catholic Herald] 'The Rings of Power' review: Stunning visuals, but not much else (Opens in a new window) [New Indian Express] | Tolkien’s for Sale (Opens in a new window) [Mind Matters] | Amazon’s next battle: Convincing the world ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a rousing success (Opens in a new window) [CNN] | Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’ is a bona fide hit. Why doesn’t it feel like it? (Opens in a new window) [Los Angeles Times] | ‘The Rings Of Power’ Is Making A Mockery Of Tolkien’s Work (Opens in a new window)[Forbes] | Did ‘The Rings of Power’ Fumble Its Release, or Just Set Itself Up for Success in Season 2? An Investigation (Opens in a new window) [Variety] - INTERESSANT:
An interview with Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Supervising Sound Editor Damian Del Borrello (Opens in a new window). An interview with Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power VFX Supervisor Jason Smith on Calibrating the Size, Scale, and Scope of Tolkien’s Middle Earth (Opens in a new window)[both BTL News]
How you can ‘portray’ RoP: The Rings Of Power Finale Writer Gennifer Hutchison On Sauron's Reveal, Shipping, And More (Opens in a new window) [Slash Film] and what a right website (Opens in a new window) like Bounding into Comics does out of it: ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Writer Continues To Double Down On Being “Immersed In The Text,” The Actual Show Tells A Vastly Different Story (Opens in a new window) | Tolkien’s Middle-earth has been colonized by a media giant and its woke gremlins (Opens in a new window) [Mercator.net (Opens in a new window); media bias (Opens in a new window)]
You know things aren’t going well when Warner Bros. is “to Sell ‘Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ in Limited-Edition NFT Bundles, First for a Major Studio (Opens in a new window)”. Gizmodo says it all: Warner Bros. Turns the First Lord of the Rings Movie Into a Shockingly Shitty NFT (Opens in a new window).
You can make a fortune renting out a hobbit hole (Opens in a new window) in Canada.
Some important background to filming in New Zealand and elsewhere: Screen Industry Workers Act: one law to rule them all? (Opens in a new window) [Lexology]
Tolkien Letter Explaining Runes in The Hobbit Sold for World Record (Opens in a new window) [Fine Books & Collections]
New J.R.R. Tolkien Professor (Opens in a new window)of English Literature and Language announced
The right’s new divide: Frodo versus Boromir (Opens in a new window) [The Spectator; paywall]
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ cast and producers answer your questions (Opens in a new window) [About Amazon]
‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Starts Production in the U.K. (Opens in a new window)
September
‘The Rings of Power’ Showrunners — and a Geologist — Explain That Mount Doom Surprise [Hollywood Reporter]
The professor did question our vaguely described scenario, wondering how anybody could dig a tunnel to a magma chamber when they tend to be at least two kilometers below the Earth’s surface. For spoiler-protection reasons we couldn’t explain to him that Orcs are super-industrious creatures known to be particularly skilled at extensive digging projects.
Guess Who’s Coming to Mordor (Opens in a new window) [New York Times; paywall]
The Problem of Adar – one Tolkien scholar’s take (Opens in a new window) [TORn]
‘Irish people have faced centuries of discrimination’ (Opens in a new window): why are Lord of the Rings’ accents so offensively bad? [Guardian] | I'm trying not to be offended by the Irish accents in The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window) [GQ]
Why Is ‘House of the Dragon’ so Much Buzzier Than ‘The Rings of Power’? (Opens in a new window)[Esquire]
How Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power fails LGBTQ+ fans (Opens in a new window) [Digital Spy]
Whether the religious JRR Tolkien actually intended for these interpretations is irrelevant now. [Source (Opens in a new window)]
The Hobbit King (Opens in a new window) [The Atlantic; on King Charles III]
Why J.R.R. Tolkien Is Really Turning in His Grave – Over the Racist Backlash to ‘The Rings of Power’ (Opens in a new window)[The Wrap] | Why Black characters in 'Rings of Power' and 'Little Mermaid' make fantasy better (Opens in a new window) [NPR] ‘LOTR: The Rings Of Power’ After Show ‘Inside The Ring’: Episode 4 – Power Of Representation, Politics Of Númenor & Looming Battle For Middle-Earth (Opens in a new window)[Deadline] | “The Rings of Power” Is True to Tolkien’s Mythmaking Spirit (Opens in a new window) [New Yorker] | Fear of a Black Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [The Atlantic; paywall] | The Racist Backlash to Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings,’ Explained (Opens in a new window) [The Warp] | Concerned About Diverse Fantasy Characters? Here’s What J.R.R. Tolkien Actually Said About Race (Opens in a new window) [Mary Sue] | The Guardian view on Tolkien: much more than special effects (Opens in a new window) | The moral inspiration of Tolkien’s universe (Opens in a new window) [Spectator] | Morally Depraved Fantasy: ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ (Opens in a new window) [Art Review] | Amazon’s The Rings of Power is a betrayal of Tolkien’s vision (Opens in a new window) [Spectator] | When ‘wokeness’ comes to Middle-earth: Why some say diverse casting ruins the new ‘Lord of the Rings’ series (Opens in a new window) [CNN] | Please don’t make a Tolkien Cinematic Universe (Opens in a new window) by Michael Drout [NYT, paywall] | A Racist Backlash to ‘Rings of Power’ Puts Tolkien’s Legacy Into Focus (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]
The Amazon locker marketing campaign (Opens in a new window) et al. [Collider]
Lord of the Rings stars condemn racist backlash (Opens in a new window)to new Amazon series cast [BBC] | Making sense of the bizarre Twitter feud between Neil Gaiman & Elon Musk (Opens in a new window) around 'Rings of Power' [SyFy]
Reactions to the premiere
Don’t read The Lord of the Rings before watching The Rings of Power. It’s fine! (Opens in a new window) [Slate] | Jeff Bezos Makes Surprise Appearance At Global ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Premiere, Reveals He Gave Notes To Showrunners As Battle Of The Prequels Rages Between Amazon & HBO (Opens in a new window) [Deadline] | The Rings of Power review: A visually staggering, flawed epic (Opens in a new window)[BBC] | Rings of Power Is a Testament to LOTR’s Greatest Legacy: Hot Elves (Opens in a new window) [GQ] | The Lord of the Rings’ delivers spectacle but lacks the dramatic power to rule them all (Opens in a new window) [CNN] | ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ is beautiful, banal boredom (Opens in a new window) [Washington Post, paywall] | ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Reviews: What the Critics Are Saying (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter] | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power review – Irish hobbits and no orgies, this is the fantasy epic you can watch with granny (Opens in a new window)[Irish Independent] | ‘The Rings of Power’ First Reactions Praise ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series as ‘Big, Bold and Beautiful’ (Opens in a new window) [Variety] | First impressions of The Rings of Power as social media embargo lifts (Opens in a new window) [TORn]
August
The Rest is History podcast did two Tolkien episodes (Opens in a new window) / second episode (Opens in a new window) [Spotify]
Elijah who? The amazing new stars of The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window). [Guardian]
Rule of the Rings (Opens in a new window) — why film-makers can’t resist Tolkien’s fantasy world [Financial Times]
The surprising ancient roots (Opens in a new window) of The Lord of the Rings [BBC]
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of the Manuscript – exhibition underway at Marquette University (Opens in a new window)[Medievalists.net (Opens in a new window)]; also Milwaukee Journal (Opens in a new window)Sentinel.
https://youtu.be/Or_ss3PhMJw?feature=shared (Opens in a new window)Embracer buying Middle-earth Enterprises
Swedish gaming giant buys Lord of the Rings and Hobbit rights (Opens in a new window) [Guardian] | The Lord of the Rings has a new rights owner. What does that mean? (Opens in a new window) [Polygon] | ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘The Hobbit’ Movie, Games and Other Rights Holder Sold to Swedish Gaming Company Embracer (Opens in a new window)[Hollywood Reporter] | Embracer Group Acquires IP Rights To ‘Lord Of The Rings’ And ‘The Hobbit’ (Opens in a new window) [Deadline] | Official statement from Embracer (Opens in a new window)
Jeff Bezos: I want ‘Lord of the Rings’ to do more than make me richer (Opens in a new window)[NY Post]
There’s “No Rivalry” Between The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon (Opens in a new window) [Vanity Fair]
New Lord Of The Rings Game Coming From Private Division And Weta Workshop (Opens in a new window) [Gamespot]; Press release (Opens in a new window) [Private Division]
Amazon's bet on The Lord of the Rings and NFL 'furthers a bigger strategy': Analyst (Opens in a new window) [Yahoo Finance]
Succumb to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window) [Vulture] | What To Expect From Amazon's Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window) [Town & Country]
Don’t Use The Term “Vaguely Connected” Around Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Showrunner (Opens in a new window) [Variety]; ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Writers: Show Not Just “Vaguely Connected” to Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]
Brian Murray on HarperCollins’s Fiscal 2022 [Publisher’s Weekly]; on Tolkien’s books and RoP impact.
Peter Jackson Considered Hypnosis to Try and Forget ‘The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window) | Peter Jackson Says Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV Series Ghosted Him (Opens in a new window) [both Hollywood Reporter]
https://ew.com/tv/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-cover-story/ (Opens in a new window)https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40770126/young-aragorn-rings-of-power/ (Opens in a new window)July
Amazon were pitched Lord of the Rings TV shows on young Aragorn and a Gimli spin-off (Opens in a new window) [Total Film via Games Radar]
The New Zealand Post celebrated the Twentieth Anniversary (Opens in a new window) of the Two Towers in cinemas.
'Rings of Power': Plot, Release Schedule, Cast and More About the 'Lord of the Rings' Prequel Series (Opens in a new window) [Entertainment Tonight; also Esquire (Opens in a new window)]
With new 'Lord of the Rings' series comes Middle-earth's most diverse, gender-balanced cast of characters yet (Opens in a new window) [Yahoo Entertainment]
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - SDCC Trailer (Opens in a new window) [Youtube; also Variety (Opens in a new window); Guardian (Opens in a new window)]
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum gets another delay (Opens in a new window), precious [Polygon]
How Simon Tolkien helped guide The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window); Step into Middle-earth with EW's exclusive Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power photos (Opens in a new window); The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power headlines EW's Comic-Con issue (Opens in a new window) [Entertainment Weekly]
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’s Dislike-Buried YouTube Trailer Shows A Steep Hill (Opens in a new window) [Forbes; at time of writing 79k vs 369k]; Full-length trailer for Amazon’s £1bn Lord of the Rings prequel is released (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]; An Extremely Detailed Breakdown of the Rings of Power Trailer (Opens in a new window) [Time]; The Rings of Power Teaser Trailer — What’s Going On Here? (Opens in a new window) [Reactor]; Drink in the Visually Splendid Trailer for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window) [Paste]
June
One of the most rate-bombed videos: The Earth Needs More Elf Fans (Opens in a new window) [Prime Video; Youtube; 1.5k vs 28k]
HarperCollins to publish Tolkien's Second Age tales for the first time in one volume (Opens in a new window) [Bookseller]
