The Eighty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 10, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 208 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (LotR has 'no message'.)
April 14, 1950. Tolkien writes Letter 127 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) ('feud' with the Unwins begins.)
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Glasgow University.
April 15, 2007. The Children of Húrin Release Party (Si apre in una nuova finestra) starts; (book out (Si apre in una nuova finestra)April 17.)
April 20, 1973. Tolkien writes to John Higgins (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Arts Editor of The Times.
April 23, 1925. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is first published.
April 27, 1915. Tolkien writes You and Me / and the Cottage of Lost Play (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Events & Shows

The Kentucky Opera (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will have two showings of The Hobbit in June.

Westmarch Smial in Swansea will be having their first Smial Moot (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on April 23rd. [Waterstones]

One of the longest-running Tolkien fan events - 24 years - has announced its date after a successful 2023 get together at Castle Stahleck, Germany: Lure of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [card gaming]

The Tolkien Lecture (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Maria Dahvana Headley will happen at Pembroke College, Oxford, on May 16th. If everything goes according to plan I'll be in Oxford.

The Birmingham Tolkien Lecture (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will happen on May 12th - John Garth.

I had the great pleasure and honour to be a guest host to the Prancing Pony Podcast episodes 285 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and 286 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as this year's Tolkien Reading Day (Si apre in una nuova finestra) edition.

If you feel like meeting up with the Tolkienist this year these are some dates (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (so far, more are coming).

Reading Tolkien in the 21st Century, a conference at the University of Bonn, Germany, will happen on Sept 7-8. (CfP as pdf download (Si apre in una nuova finestra)).

The Council of Westmarch (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is holding its second Tolkien Mini Film Festival (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on April 22nd.

Scholarship and Fandom

TolkienGuide have an incredibly entertaining and insightful (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 🧵 on contemporary criticisms of Tolkien.

A Reddit AMA (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas will be happening on Monday, April 17th.

As a good friend of mine has been saving birds in NZ as well I need to share this GiveALittle project by The Lost Hobbit - for NZ Birds (Si apre in una nuova finestra). The run is finished since April 1st but you can still donate (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Congratulations to the winners of the Tolkien Society Awards (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The occasion of the Tolkien Sir Gawain (Si apre in una nuova finestra) lecture will be celebrated at the University of Glasgow, 70 years after the fact.

Verlyn Flieger and Carl Hostetter will be teaching Tolkien's Time Travel Stories (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Mythlore 41:2 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

John Garth made an ass of himself (Si apre in una nuova finestra) but at least he is now with Steady (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (I may have had a hand in this 😄)

A course I would desperately love to attend: Tolkien Illustrated: Picturing the Legendarium (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

LotR characters in camp by (c) Lucas Prokopowich (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Franchise and Merchandise

The One Ring (Si apre in una nuova finestra) RPG by Free League Publishing is coming in a 5E adaptation on May 9th. Have a look at the trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the LA Comic Con live play.

Howard Shore is warning fans not to visit the Star Entertainment organised concerts in the UK and Germany on his website (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The award-winning VFX team of LotR:RoP has published a VFX breakdown (Si apre in una nuova finestra). An insightful article about Amazon Studios sees 'Confusion and Frustration (Si apre in una nuova finestra)' [Hollywood Reporter] in which statistics seem to show RoP wasn't the hoped for success; the [Onion] suggests only Bezog (Si apre in una nuova finestra) finished watching it; a fire on set (Si apre in una nuova finestra) did not help with the headlines; analysts suggest that RoP was the final tip of the streaming iceberg (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

LEGO Ideas are close to judging the winner of their Exploring the World of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) challenge - have a look at 470 ideas.

The EA mobile game (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is set to release on May 10th globally; a trailer is available.

The Lord of the Rings Balenciaga (Si apre in una nuova finestra) fashion show is rather hilarious, just like Jack Black as Tom Bombadil (Si apre in una nuova finestra). It is unfortunate that the tools used are really nothing more than art thieves making money off the work of others.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Neil Gaiman has been nominated to the TIME 100 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Most Influential People of 2023 list.

A new Harry Potter series is in the making (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including all of the side effects [Variety]; the Guardian (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has some thoughts.

If you feel like watching all Star Trek movies in 4k, well, it's now possible (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [ArsTechnica]

The second of the Terry Pratchett biographies is now also a winner thanks to the BSFA (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Locus]

Star Wars had many news to present at Celebration 2023 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including three new feature films. [EW]

Akron, Ohio (Si apre in una nuova finestra), has its very own gaming bar and café, the Green Dragon (Si apre in una nuova finestra), since St. Patrick's Day. Do visit, it looks amazing. I am pretty sure they also have decent beer - as they should with that name!

Revising classic novels (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is welcomed by some, criticised by quite a few. [New York Times]

GRRM had quite a few interesting things to share on his not blog (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Big Eurovision Read (Si apre in una nuova finestra) titles have been announced, including Pratchett.

The Internet Archive (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has lost its first legal fight. [TIME]

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is being published soon; I can only hope his 'Tolkien work' will also be included.

An interesting piece on the Disabled Villain (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Guardian]

Ansible 429 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

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