The One-hundred and eighth Roving Ranger

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Life and Works

The Guardian has Beyond Bilbo: JRR Tolkien’s long-lost poetry to be published (Si apre in una nuova finestra); see Wayne & Christina’s post on this (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

For your information

This is the last newsletter before the start of season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Si apre in una nuova finestra). I have published two additional newsletters you can have a look at if you take an interest:

Roving Ranger. A Special edition: The Best of June-December 2022 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [going through 25,000+ news items I have listed what I consider the essential pieces of information of that time span.]

Curumo’s Current Affairs (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [a list of links I summarised as J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings have become a global phenomenon and people from all over the world appreciate them, are inspired by them - or abuse them.]

Events & Shows

The Tolkien Society has announced the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [online only; Nov 23-24.]

Composer Johan de Meji is often touring as a conductor, including parts of his Tolkien repertoire (such as the Lord of the Rings symphony); this time on Sept 7/8 in Germany (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Facebook] and other concerts around the world (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Kansas City, Vilnius, Amsterdam & Chicago [official website]

The English Faculty at Oxford is running the Tolkien Seminars: 70th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings series of talks. A full list is available with Eventbrite (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - including Holly Ordway, John Garth, Stuart Lee et al.

The J.R. Tolkien seems to have survived its sale and is up for many tours (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (in German but you can surely ask in English as well).

For all events (Si apre in una nuova finestra) check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

A new Tolkien documentary by German public broadcasting stations ARTE, Phoenix and ZDF will be published in December. Among the speakers are John Garth, Dimitra Fimi - and myself. (Pre-premiere at Wiesbaden (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Sept 13). [My members with Steady know more (Si apre in una nuova finestra).]

The people over at the Tolkien Collectors’ Guide have the info on the Beyond Bree Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for 2025.

New Age - and Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - Artist Peter Pracownik has passed away (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Gaming archivist Jason B. Dyer - via his blog Renga in Blue (Si apre in una nuova finestra)- is hunting down the earliest ever Tolkien-inspired games (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Lord Of The Rings in Unreal Engine 5 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - FotR River Scene [Youtube; this short (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for development process]

The Bodleian has a librarian trainees blog which recently offered Leah Brown: A Sérprent Saga: Professor Turville-Petre and his Literary Network (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (one of Tolkien’s students).

Incredibly proud and happy to see as a longtime member of the German Inklings Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra) that our Yearbook is now open access with Stacks (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (upload in progress) [press note (Si apre in una nuova finestra)].

Nick Polk has Heroic Poetry in Shōgun and The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Robin Reid has More on Far-Right Extremists & Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and a Call for Papers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on ‘Great Heart and Strength:’ New Essays on Women and Gender in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

Which hand did Frodo put the Ring on? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is asked by Tom Hillman.

Jeff LaSala has The Words of Glorfindel and the Witch-King of Angmar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

A fun find: THE HOBBIT, first edition, lives on! (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Merchandise & Franchise

Behind the scenes on Amazon's quest to make The Rings of Power season 2 a hit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [GQ]

Amazon’s press release material (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the trailer.

Games Workshop have announced a new board game (Si apre in una nuova finestra): The Hobbit: Hunt for the Arkenstone.

Specialist drum makers HHG Drums (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Pennsylvania have brought the ring inscription (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to the world of percussion. [Instagram]

The official trailer for LotR: War of the Rohirrim has been published (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

On LotR:RoP - ‘The Rings of Power’ Showrunners Tease Season 3 Plans: “Let Us Cook!” [Hollywood Reporter (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Everything You Need to Remember Before Season 2 of The Rings of Power (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Time]

Online train ticket company Trainline is offering Tolkien’s England: explore the real-world inspirations behind Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

PSA Another blog post that is full of assumptions and half-truths you need to be an expert to tell reality from nonsense. Having said this - lovely list of places to visit with some of them actually Tolkienian. Your go to book: Garth, Worlds of Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Inter alia & Back in the Day

2024 World Fantasy Awards Finalists announced (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Locus]

Paul Kidby interview - Terry Pratchett’s Discworld illustrator talks about his work and inspirations (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blackmore Vale]

‘The Acolyte’ Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+’s ‘Star Wars’ Series (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Deadline]

Next time you are in Seattle - why not go for the Hobbit Trail (Si apre in una nuova finestra)?

You can now enter your work with the New Zealand Youth Film Festival (Si apre in una nuova finestra), supported - amongst others - by Weta Workshop and Weta FX.

Talpa Search (Si apre in una nuova finestra) promises to find you the books you do not know the title or author of (run by LibraryThing (Si apre in una nuova finestra)).

The 2024 Hugo Award Winners (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have been announced (additional literary awards via LibraryThing (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Scalzi has a few choice words to say some people neet to read: Please Don’t Idolize Me (or Anyone, Really) (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

xkcd always makes me smile.

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) or Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), the bookshops of my personal trust.

If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : : Threads : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Xitter (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
You can support me by becoming a member with my Steady page (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

If you happen to use Feedly (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - why not subscribe to one of their most popular Tolkien blogs: thetolkienist.com ☺️

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.