The Eighty-third Roving Ranger

Life and Works

#TolkienReadingDay (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is happening this weekend, the world over.

March 24, 1834. William Morris (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is born.
March 24, 1953. Tolkien informs his publishers he will not be able to meet the agreed upon deadline - March 25th (Letter 136 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)).
March 25. A very important date (Si apre in una nuova finestra) all-round.
March 28, 1972. At Buckingham Palace, J.R.R. Tolkien is appointed a CBE (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Queen Elizabeth II.
March 30, 1968. The documentary Tolkien in Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is aired on the BBC (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
April 1, 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien's children found The Tolkien Trust (Si apre in una nuova finestra) charity.
April 6, 1963. Tolkien writes a letter to My dear people (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on a 'disastrous holiday'.
April 7, 2016. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is published.

• [A special on The Ruin.]
  In Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 1922 by Nora Chadwick.
  Anglo-Saxon Aloud (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Michael Drout
  Translation and reading (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Richard Fahey
  Old English (Si apre in una nuova finestra) text
  The Ruin (Si apre in una nuova finestra): The Past Dreaming of the Past
  All of the above essentially taken from The Exeter Book (Si apre in una nuova finestra); guess who spent quite some time with this - see Old English Poetry (Si apre in una nuova finestra)?
  Also please check out this open source fonts based on the Exeter Book (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

• Thanks for the inspiration to 

The Hobbit, Illustrated by the Author, announced for Sept 2023 by UK Tolkien publisher HarperCollins.
- For more information please visit TolkienGuide.com (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Events & Shows

I have been asked to co-host the Prancing Pony Podcast and #284 - the Tolkien Reading Day 2023 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) episode - is out now. Have a listen

The 18th Tolkien Conference (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with the University of Vermont is happening April 2nd.

Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2023 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Lord of the Rings Musical (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will return - in the last Roving Ranger I wrongly gave the original number of perfomers for the London version as 68 (Superhype (Si apre in una nuova finestra) notes 65 for the Toronto version; my 68 were a typo); Emerald kindly enough corrected this (Si apre in una nuova finestra), stating that the London run had "just over 50"; also the numbers might have been 56 and 53 respectively, according to the programmes.

The American Improv Theatre (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Vienna seems to have a lot of fun with Not The Lord of the Rings but also Harry Potter and GoT.

TexMoot (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will be happening on April 15.

The German Inklings Society will have their conference Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in the Fantastic (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on April 29th-May 1st.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tolkien at Exeter College (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a new edition.

An interesting piece on the Inspirations behind Goldberry (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

I need to share this for sheer title grandeur: Beren One-Hand, Bruce the Shark, and Homer (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

This is - surprising to me - quite a decent listing of: Lord of the Rings: The Many Ways Tolkien Songs Have Shown Up in Movies, TV, and More (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Den of Geek]
- If you feel like finding out about all the musicians and bands that have actually published dozens, if not hundreds of albums on Tolkien's songs (Tolkien Ensemble, Glasshammer, Blind Guardian, Christopher Lee (!), David Arkenstone, just to name a few) - simply check out Tolkien-Music.com (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for this.

An even more substantial review (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of Caroline Larringtons The Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think. [BBC Culture]

Franchise and Merchandise

Lord of the Rings: Gollum have announced their release date - May 25th. Have a first look report (Si apre in una nuova finestra)of the game by Jeremy Edmonds of Tolkien Guide and my report visiting (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Daedalic Entertainment.

I am working on a longish post, perhaps even a multi-post series on Tolkien and Tourism and let me tell you: even if you name your hotels Hobbit Hotels, if they look like this (Si apre in una nuova finestra), I ain't gonna book there 😅!
- [P.S. I might but just for the hobbit of it!]

5 Unconventional Fantasy Heists (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Tor.com]
- I have to say that I never really thought of this book as depicting a heist but if you need to come up with a pitch for Tor.com there are worse ideas. And I do like this kind of article just like Five Stories About Precocious Young Wizards (Si apre in una nuova finestra) because it has Earthsea in it.

I am not quite sure what to make of this but in this article (Si apre in una nuova finestra) it is noted that:

A "Hobbit Village" and an information center for tourists will open in  Turquoise Katun in the Altai region, Russia's largest special economic  zone (Si apre in una nuova finestra), this year. [UrduPoint]

Magic: The Gathering (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has now shown cards of the upcoming Universes Beyond Lord of the Rings set. See more information here (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [IGN].
- please note that discussing the skin colour of characters in a trading card game should not make you angry; these images are an artist's interpretation of Tolkien's stories.

[Picture credit Magic: the Gathering/ Wizards of the Coast]

By the way: A Magic: The Gathering collector has bid $100,000 on the unique One Ring card (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The second leg of the Lord of the Rings Playing Cards is on Kickstarter (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

An excellent write-up on the Toybiz Action Figures (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Inter alia & Back in the day

With successful authors like Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton being 'rewritten', one of Pratchett's biographers suggests it might simply be wiser (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to read Pterry. Also, Ursula K. Le Guin's case seems to be a little bit different (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - the decision is made by her son.

Sometimes it seems to be helpful to be part of a royal family - particularly, if you wanted to find out (Si apre in una nuova finestra) where Game of Thrones was going, back in the day.

A couple have turned their bus into a Tiny Prancing Pony Home (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Tiny House Expedition]

We might still be getting a Gormenghast (Si apre in una nuova finestra) series.

The only March Madness we truly need.

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