The One-hundred and first Roving Ranger

Life and Works

May 18, 1912. Tolkien pays his Oxford Union Library fines (Si apre in una nuova finestra). (One of my absolutely favourite entries with TG - if 1£7/6 is the correct figure then this would be worth more than 100£ today (Si apre in una nuova finestra)😱! The BoE (Si apre in una nuova finestra) concurs, btw!)
May 18, 1972. Exactly sixty years later Tolkien writes Letter 335 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Thank you for your most kind letter and for your general interest in my work. I am however now an old man struggling to finish some of his work. Every extra task however small diminishes my chance of ever publishing The Silmarillion. So I hope you will understand why I feel it impossible to spend time making any comments on myself or my works.

May 20, 1969. Tolkien writes Letter 310 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), answering Rayner Unwin’s daughter Camilla on the ‘purpose of life’.
May 21, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 70 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)to Christopher on his work on LotR (“Gollum continues to develop into a most intriguing character.”)
May 22, 2014. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is published.
May 24, 1932. R.W. Chambers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) sends Tolkien an inscribed copy of Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
May 28, 1964. Tree & Leaf (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is first published.
May 29, 1930. Tolkien's "The Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra)English School (Si apre in una nuova finestra)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
May 31, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 72 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to Christopher on goings-on in general and LotR (“…I am not really satisfied with the surname Gamgee and shd. change it to Goodchild if I thought you would let me.”)

Tolkien’s 1945 letter to the Catholic Herald on (Si apre in una nuova finestra) ‘the Name of Coventry’ [Catholic Herald] (h/t Andrew Wells; please note scholars Hammond & Scull et al. have stated elsewhere the online version has taken liberties to the original in questions of punctuation, capitalization, and italicization etc.)

All dates are taken from Tolkien Gateway (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Events & Shows

Magdalen College, Oxford, has a C.S. Lewis exhibition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) right now.

John Howe’s exhibition has found another home, this time Tampere in Finland (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Will Sherwood is giving a talk in Merton College on May 20: "I am a link in the chain": Victorian Transformations of British Romanticism and their Influence on Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Michael G.R. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will give his talk at Merton on June, 3rd: A grandson's reflections on J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Tolkien Days (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of the German Tolkien Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra) are happening, the largest such event in the world, with 11,000+ visitors. [May 24-26; sold out]

For all event (Si apre in una nuova finestra)s (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

Co-founder to the Grey Havens Group, Kelly Cowling, has passed away (Si apre in una nuova finestra). She and the people in Longmont, Colorado, turned a beautiful vision into reality - philosophy + fantasy. And that name 🤩 I talked to her in 2013 about their work (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Requiescat in pace.

Oronzo Cilli has another post: Tolkien, Shakespeare, and the Stocks Tree in West Wickham. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Following the Downings, the Wade Center will have a new director soon (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John D. Rateliff talks about Annie Brust (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’s Tolkien’s Transformative Women: Art in Triptych (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Volume 18, Issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is online.

The Tolkien Guide invited the director of the fan film “The Hunt for Gollum”, Chris Bouchard, to talk about recent events (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The University of Waterloo, CA, has made a photo available (Si apre in una nuova finestra) from their 1968 Tolkien exihibition.

Reddit user u/PotterGandalf117 has finally done a website on his Legendarium family tree (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and offered a new version (8.2) [and it’s done in Excel 😲!)

The Tales after Tolkien Society had its AGM at Kalamazoo (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Miriam Ellis has a wonderful piece on one the best characters in The Lord of the Rings: Lobelia (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

James Tauber is fighting the good fight by injecting factual information on “The Hunt for Gollum” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on X (formerly known as Twitter); at the time of writing he had published 160 tweets.

Robin Reid has ‘Calls for Paper’ for Oxonmoot (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Asexuality and Aromanticism in Tolkien’s Legendarium (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The fading of the elves: Techno-volunteerism and the disappearance of Tolkien fan fiction archives (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Dawn Wall-Thumma [TWC]

Jason Fisher (Si apre in una nuova finestra) mentioned that 2022 chemistry Nobel Prize winner Morten Meldal (Si apre in una nuova finestra) was a fan of The Lord of the Rings - please note, I do not condone this kind of behaviour 😇!

I actually played sick during this period because it was so exciting to read this book.

Franchise and Merchandise

An obituary on Bernard Hill (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [The Wertzone] TheOneRing.net celebrated his memory in a live show (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including Bruce Hopkins (‘Gamling’) and Jed Brophy (‘Nori’ etc.) | ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Cast Remembers Bernard Hill: “Don’t Think Anyone Spoke Tolkien’s Words As Great” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Deadline] | Dominic Monaghan has a beautiful photo (Si apre in una nuova finestra), shot by Viggo Mortensen, of Bernard Hill [Instagram]

Announcements on the upcoming movie LotR: The Hunt for Gollum (Andy Serkis directing; Jackson, Walsh & Boyens fully involved).

Variety (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Independent (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Deadline (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Hollywood Reporter (Si apre in una nuova finestra); Deadline also has: Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis & Philippa Boyens Explain Why They’re Returning To Middle-Earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

And way more importantly, after Amazon left New Zealand for other shores: Revealed: Lord of the Rings movies production hub to be in Wellington (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [RNZ]

Reactions More Lord of the Rings is cynical and unnecessary – Peter Jackson has Gollum too far this time (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Telegraph] | Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum Fan Film Back Online After Warner Bros. Takedown (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [IGN] | There’s a War Over the LOTR Franchise Between Amazon and WB (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Movieweb] | Why I'm (even more) worried about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [WinterisComing.net]

Announcements on LotR: The Rings of Power, S2 (Aug 29)

Hollywood Reporter (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Variety (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Amazon MGM Studios (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Deadline (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Trailer rundown, scene by scene: TORn (Si apre in una nuova finestra), FoF (Si apre in una nuova finestra), NotR (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Prime Video also announced an upcoming content creator driven talk show (Si apre in una nuova finestra), starting August 1.

A new generation of J.R.R. Tolkien games is coming (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - people with “a 10-year or 20-year plan” for a franchise that is “largely underused”.[Venturebeat]

Thanks go out to Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entry to finally reveal Tolkien’s inspiration of the Eye of Sauron (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [iNews UK / sarcasm note!]

Having said this, LEGO is finally doing Barad-dûr (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - for $459.99, €459.99, or £399.99. [The Verge] And happily enough, Brotherhood Workshop are back after about a year with a short parody of Denethor’s Dinner (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Juniper Books, a provider of custom-made book sets, is offering a new LotR book set (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and/ or jackets on May 21, 2024.

Inter alia & Back in the day

A great Ursula K. Le Guin short story to read for free (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [LitHub]

Star Trek’s reboot film #4 is one of those ‘development hell’ stories: “Chris Pine Was Surprised by New ‘Star Trek 4’ Writer Hire” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Variety]

LEGO Star Wars is giving Jar Jar Binks the right treatment in an animated special called ‘Rebuild the Galaxy’ - as Darth Jar Jar (Si apre in una nuova finestra). The Acolyte (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a trailer. And OREO’s are putting out cookies for the Dark Side - or the Light (Si apre in una nuova finestra)!

A lovely review on Peter S. Beagle’s I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Paste Magazine]

Streaming service MAX has the DUNE: Prophecy series coming up this fall, this is the teaser trailer to it (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Ansible 442 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published - noting, among others, the passing of John Trimble (Si apre in una nuova finestra). He and his wife Bjo organised the letter writing campaign that had the original Star Trek series get a third season - and without this, modern day fandom would not be the same.

An excellent interview with six great science fiction writers: Does Science Fiction Shape the Future? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Nautilus]

These people are saying “we finally created the utopia of Neuromancer.” And I look at them and I go, “I don’t think you read Neuromancer. Maybe you just played Cyberpunk 2077.” [Cory Doctorow]

The enshittification (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of the largest online spaces is proceeding ever faster: Reddit has now partnered with OpenAI (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (after already having done that with Google).

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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.