A special Roving Ranger edition: Ninety-second “A”
Between the ninety-first and ninety-second Roving Ranger there was break from the end of July until the beginning of November 2023. I have now curated a list of all things Tolkienian of this time span in case you missed out on them.
Life and Works
In an Amazon UK / Amazon Literary Partnership poll on the best opening lines in literature Tolkien’s Hobbit placed fourth (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Events & Shows
Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, the British Library exhibition is on until February 25, 2024. Reviews: Guardian (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Reuters (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Telegraph (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Joseph Purdue has returned with another Tolkien-inspired musical: A Tale of Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
(I wrote about his Unfolding Tales (Si apre in una nuova finestra) extensively for my members here at Steady.)
The Lord of the Rings musical has a sold-out run - and more or less ‘saved’ the Watermill Theatre (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’s future plans.
Colorado saw The Hobbit come alive on stage (Si apre in una nuova finestra); impressions (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Facebook].
The No Strings Marionette Company (Si apre in una nuova finestra) did The Hobbit as well at the Doctorow Centre of the Arts (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in the Catskill Mountains.
The Muse Theatre Company (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Jefferson, MO, did The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Scholarship and Fandom
Joseph Pearce Further In and Further Up: 50 Years with J.R.R. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [European Conservative]
Harps in Tolkien: What Would They Sound Like? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
“The Long Defeat”: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [TOR.com]
Tolkien's Incredible Map of Middle-Earth | Great Maps Explained (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Mapster, Youtube]
The rather lovely local tradition of well dressing has had a Tolkien-inspired addition (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Switzerland has certainly stepped up its Tolkien game with Tolkien stamps (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by John Howe.
Franchise and Merchandise
Payne & McKay (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of LotR: Rings of Power have signed a deal with the Creative Artists Agency (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (CAA (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) for representation. [Deadline]
“Fewer shows will be made for less money”: International producers on the future of scripted drama (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Screen Daily].
It is really sad to see Guillermo del Toro had another project ‘canceled’, this time a Star Wars movie on Jabba the Hutt (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Collider] If only he had done the Hobbit…
LotR: Gollum was such a disaster Steam player numbers in September often dropped to zero (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - and the peak never seemed to exceed ~500.
First Vin Diesel, now… How John Wick and Lord of the Rings Connect, According to a Director of Both Franchises (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Movieweb]
Peter Jackson is becoming a real estate mogul (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in New Zealand.
Legion M and others teamed up to bring the film “Return to the King” to US theatres for its 20th anniversary (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and to no surprise it was a success (not as originally written 25th).
Private Division and Weta Workshop announced a new cosy game, Tales of the Shire (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Sound engineer Jordan Rannells has composed - successfully supported via Kickstarter (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - and brought together soundscapes on The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
The incredibly entertaining story of a fanfiction writer suing the Tolkien Estate and Amazon over infringing his copyrights with Rings of Power seems to have come to an even more entertaining close (Si apre in una nuova finestra); the case has been dismissed (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Lord of the Rings soundtrack (Si apre in una nuova finestra) voted nation’s favourite film music [Independent, UK]; full list with vote organiser Classic FM (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and a breakdown of the music itself (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
War of the Rohirrim (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been postponed until December 2024.
Almost unbelievable but true: Zelda - Ocarina of Time - could have had a character called Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
The Embracer Group which has taken over Middle-earth Enterprises is partially funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (Si apre in una nuova finestra); the $2 billion deal that fell through would have increased their interactions.
Why not gift a membership to the Tolkienist at Steady for Christmas?
Hullloooo ☺️
I’m very excited about this: you can now gift memberships to the Tolkienist’s Roving Ranger and beyond!
Share your support of me with friends and family—it’s very easy.
Some gift ideas:
Your favourite colleague (for better work chats)
Your clients
Your friend who lives abroad
Your cousin who shares your interest
And? No shipping costs + environmentally sustainable + no auto-renewal. Win win win.
How do gift memberships work?
✨ Purchase a gift membership directly on my page here:
(Si apre in una nuova finestra)✨ The gift membership will begin immediately, on the day of purchase.
✨ An email will be sent to the recipient informing them about their new gift from you, and how to access it (no price tag listed, don’t worry).
✨ The gift membership does not auto-renew.
Find out more about gift memberships in this helpful FAQ (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
If you have further questions, please contact the lovely people at Steady who help me run my membership programme. You can reach them at: support@steadyhq.com (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
(Si apre in una nuova finestra)All the best from Jena,
Marcel
Inter alia & Back in the day
Slate has delivered a truly decent write-up on one of the most important people for the modern literary fantasy and science fiction genres you may never have heard of - Lester del Rey (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (see also Wikipedia (Si apre in una nuova finestra)).
You may not have heard of Glashammer (Si apre in una nuova finestra) either but the band has been playing ‘prog rock’ for thirty years, often with a Tolkien twist: “I’ve always said it’s not just ‘progressive anything’. It’s progressive rock and it needs to rock." How Glass Hammer turned it up to 11 with Skallagrim – Into The Breach” (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Louder]
Michael Gambon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) passed away. [Independent]
A rather fascinating piece with the Rolling Stone: How Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Distort Reality to Sell Fantasy (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
George R.R. Martin and many other successful authors are suing ChatGPT (Si apre in una nuova finestra) et al. [NY Post] |; also Forbes (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
The attempts at banning books in the US are continuing, see the example of Texas (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (and yes, The Lord of the Rings was among those titles.)
This might be one of the best Youtube videos I have ever seen:
https://youtu.be/5tmxfVWDgMM?si=0AW7Z4oM_ZrIMlhb (Si apre in una nuova finestra)Lovely to see characters written by Tolkien continue to inspire: Rosario Dawson explains how Ahsoka was inspired by Gandalf (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Entertainment Weekly]
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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Twitter (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
