The Eighty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Mar 10, 1950. Tolkien writes Letter 125 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), part of the fascinating and often disappointing (to Tolkien) publication history of The Lord of the Rings.
March 13, 1956. Tolkien receives a letter from Sam Gamgee - see Letter 184 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
March 16, 1916. Tolkien receives his degree from the University of Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in a much delayed ceremony.
March 21, 1967. Tolkien writes a letter to Humphrey Carpenter (Si apre in una nuova finestra) who had asked for permission of turning The Hobbit into a children's musical play.
March 22, 1968. The Daily Telegraph publishes an interview (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of Charlotte and Denis Plimmer with J.R.R. Tolkien titled The Man Who Understands Hobbits.

Events & Shows

A Colloquium on developing digital critical edition of Tolkien Fanzines (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will be happening March 29th with the Raynor Memorial Libraries (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Marquette University.

I am not sure why the Dalles-Wasco County Public Library (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is going all out nuts on The Hobbit from March 1st - April 29th but I love it - and I would love to participate (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in The Floor is Mt Doom as well as Stocking Bilbo's Pantry. 😍

The Lord of the Rings Musical (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will return, this time to the English countryside at the Watermill Theatre close to Newbury, from Jul 25 - Oct 15, 2023; it is not clear yet which version of the musical this will be or what changes may have been made to it; however, the original London cast number was 68, this one is supposed to have about 20.

A theatre in British Columbia will bring The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to the stage in July.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher (Si apre in una nuova finestra) mentioned on LinkedIn (Si apre in una nuova finestra) that he was involved in the making of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth | MTG (Si apre in una nuova finestra). 

• [Corey Olsen mentioned (Si apre in una nuova finestra) he was involved with LotR: Return to Moria so it is good to see expertise is being asked.]

A review of The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Carolyne Larrington.

One of the best fannish calendars for 2023 can still be ordered with Beyond Bree (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Laura Burke (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has an exhibition in Portland (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Oregon, called Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

#TolkienTrewsDay on Twitter is starting to be a thing and I wrote a piece on trees for its second edition, talking about the legendary Pinus Nigra (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at the OBGA.

John D. Rateliff recently celebrated the deluxe edition of HotH (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Franchise and Merchandise

I was invited to a presentation with Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Hamburg last week and I am very happy to see a new trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and a first dev diary (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have found their way online since then. I will be able to write more about this soon.

The situation as of right now when it comes to the franchise might be summarised like this: ‘Lord of the Rings’: Amazon, Warner Bros. Ready for Tolkien Battle (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Hollywood Reporter; see quote below]

The result could leave two behemoth studios feeling like they’re spending billions to fight over Tolkien’s creative lembas bread crumbs.

Having said this, Warner Bros. are 'only just starting to expand (Si apre in una nuova finestra)' on the LotR & Harry Potter IPs. [Variety]

Streaming has changed the business but now the mega-IPs have to reconsider some of their plans - see Star Wars (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Variety]

A fairly decent post on Where the Lion and the Witch Met the Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [New York Times]

I was ready to blow a fuse when reading the headline - but it is not quite that bad 😅 10 Literary Quotes To Inspire You As A Startup Founder (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Forbes]

The New Zealand Mint is also cashing on... Poster coins (Si apre in una nuova finestra)! 

If you want to know all there is to know - so far - on the Magic version of the LotR franchise here we go (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Meet the award-winning (Si apre in una nuova finestra) legal advice team that helped the Embracer Group buy Middle-earth Enterprises: Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The company behind The One Ring RPG, Free League Publishing (Si apre in una nuova finestra), has announced the expansion Tales from the Lone-Lands (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Inter alia & Back in the day

Brian Sibley has kindly enough shared Microphones in Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a behind the curtains look at the possibly best adaptation of The Lord of the Rings yet.

It is always interesting to see how years' old posts and art get a revival somewhere on social media - like this Nick Kohney/ The Other End comic from 2019.

Or Nathan W. Pyle's Strange Planet from 2021.

Tolkien gets an article with the Country Life special edition of March 8, 2023 as Lord of the Shires (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Charlie Connelly takes a 'new' Terry Pratchett book as inspiration to ask Should undiscovered Terry Pratchett stories, and other posthumous work, be published? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [New European]

Star Trek: Discovery (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will finish with season 5, Picard with season 3. [EW]

‘It’s Kind of Embarrassing (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’: Why Animators Are Unhappy With the Oscars. [Vulture]

Another Alien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) film is in the making. [The Wertzone]

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) : Tolkien-Discord (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [de/en]

What to look forward to in 2023 if you like Tolkien and all things Tolkienian