The One-hundred and sixth Roving Ranger
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
Events & Shows
Register now (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the Austrian Tolkien Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’s Lasse Lanta. (Sept 13-15)
Same for this year’s EstelCon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of the Spanish Tolkien Society. (Dec 4-8)
The Hobbit is coming to Philadelphia (Si apre in una nuova finestra). (April-May, 2025)
Boston’s Crystal Ballroom will have A Long-Expected Party (Second Breakfast!) (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in September.
The Hobbit is being played at a youth theatre in Iowa (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
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 and Fandom
The Tolkien Society’s Education Officer, Lucy Angel, has provided materials on The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Tom Hillman - talking to John Garth - has some thoughts on Mani Aroman, Tolkien's Beardless Men (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Artist Miriam Ellis is now with Patreon (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Digital Tolkien has a video on How to use Search Tolkien and Cite Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]
Tom Bombadil and the Anti-Matter of England: A Proposal to Explain an Insolubility (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by J.G.A. Pocock (Si apre in una nuova finestra). (first published Sept 2020; unp. letter, 1982). I particularly love this quote in an obituary (Si apre in una nuova finestra):
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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Surely of interest to many: Fantasy Aesthetics. Visualizing Myth and Middle Ages, 1880–2020 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including articles by scholars Thomas Honegger & Judith Klinger. [Free download as PDF (Si apre in una nuova finestra) thanks to the DFG (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’s SFB 1472 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]
Do watch this Maedhros animatic (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by French animation student Flavie Schmitz.
An interview (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with Guy Gavriel Kay with a paragraph on helping CJRT with The Silmarillion. (h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Si apre in una nuova finestra))
(…) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Politico]; see Rachel Maddow’s comments (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]
Amazon has bought Bray Film Studios (Si apre in una nuova finestra), home to Hammer Films (Si apre in una nuova finestra).[BBC]
Viggo Mortensen has some very clear positions on franchises in this extensive Vanity Fair interview (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Inter alia & Back in the day
Looking back Jackson to talk Hobbit ( (Si apre in una nuova finestra)with Del Toro); Jan 2009.
Star Trek: Section 31 has a trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]
See Stratofanatic for D&D Fantasy Fiction by TSR Publications (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
The shortlist for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fictionhas been announced (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Star Trek: Voyager documentary to be out on DVD/Blu-ray sooner than you think (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Redshirts always die]
An opinion piece: Tourists have wrecked Edinburgh – they need to feel uncomfortable (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Express]
George R.R. Martin has a lot to say on dragons (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)l 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) : 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.
