The Seventy-Ninth Roving Ranger

Welcome to a new home - from TinyLetter to Steady

(In case you ever asked yourself about this photo - I took this at Merton College where Tolkien did not only hold a chair as Professor of English
Language and Literature but Merton College also graciously offered him rooms at the end of his life [1971-1973] and this table beside Deadman's Walk has now become the Tolkien Table.)

Life and Works

28 Jan, 1982. The Old English Exodus (Abre numa nova janela) is published.
30 Jan, 1914. The Chequers Clubbe is given permission to organize dinners (Abre numa nova janela).
31 Jan, 1892. Tolkien is christened at Bloemfontein (Abre numa nova janela) Cathedral.
4 Feb, 1937. "The Dragon's Visit (Abre numa nova janela)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
5 Feb, 1968. First day of filming of Tolkien in Oxford (Abre numa nova janela).
10. Feb, 1966. Tolkien writes a letter to Donald A. Wollheim (Abre numa nova janela) of Ace Books.

Tolkien passed away on Sept 2, 1973. The Royal Mint is commemorating the 50th Anniversary (Abre numa nova janela) of his passing with a £2 coin; sets are now available for sale. [Read more on my Steady page (Abre numa nova janela).]

The Bookseller notes (Abre numa nova janela) according to Nielsen BookScan (Abre numa nova janela)’s Science Fiction & Fantasy  category for the UK the former 2001 record of sales was broken with £46.8m in 2022, led by J.R.R. Tolkien by a very healthy margin (TCM values given: #1, Tolkien, £4,475,660; #2, Sarah J Maas, £3,698,340; #3, George R R Martin, £1,681,487). Also, fantasy far outpaced science fiction; the only name on the top ten from that category was Dune's Frank Herbert. [Paywall]

March 30 will see the publication of The Battle of Maldon together with the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth (Abre numa nova janela).

Events & Shows

The Tolkien Reading Day theme of 2023 is Travel and Adventure (Abre numa nova janela).

An outstanding conference will happen in Oxford on March 21-22: G.B. Smith and J.R.R. Tolkien: a meaningful friendship (Abre numa nova janela).

The Magic of Middle-earth exhibition is at the Novium Museum in Chichester (Abre numa nova janela) from April 1st . 

The Hobbit will be shown on stage in Milwaukee from Feb 3 (Abre numa nova janela).

Radio City Music Hall in New York City is having several 21st Anniversary Concerts (Abre numa nova janela) from February 6 for FotR.

Bakshi's LotR will be shown at the Babcock in Billings (Abre numa nova janela), MT, on Jan 28

See the Hilary 2023 termcard (Abre numa nova janela) of the Oxford TS smial Taruithorn.

It is always nice seeing Tolkien fans all over the world enjoy themselves - and celebrating their 20th Anniversary like the Association Tolkien Bariloche (Abre numa nova janela) in Argentina.

The BBC Repair Shop (Abre numa nova janela) has an episode on notebooks inspired by Tolkien's writings - and the owner has several letters by the author himself. [BBC, UK only]

For all Tolkien-inspired events in the world visit the International Tolkien Fellowship: List of Events (Abre numa nova janela) with Facebook.

Scholarship and Fandom

Contents of Tolkien Studies #19 (Abre numa nova janela).

Tolkien as a gateway author (Abre numa nova janela) [David Bratman] - in reaction to [John D. Rateliff (Abre numa nova janela).]

How Pratchett became one of us (Abre numa nova janela) [John D. Rateliff.]

To Rule the Fate of Many: Truth, Lies, Pity and the Ring of Power by Thomas P. Hillman will be published (Abre numa nova janela) with Kent University Press.

An interview with Robert Tally (Abre numa nova janela) on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Realizing History Through Fantasy: A Critical Companion.

Oronzo Cilli's Tolkien's Library (Abre numa nova janela) now gets its second edition - Jan 31.

“In a stream in the forest there lived a Hyloscirtus. Not  a nasty, dirty stream, with spoor of contamination and a muddy smell,  nor yet a dry, bare, sandy stream with nothing in it to perch on or to  eat: it was a Hyloscirtus-stream, and that means environmental quality.” 

This is how you properly introduce Hyloscirtus tolkieni (Abre numa nova janela), a treefrog.

Franchise and Merchandise

A single line in NACON's Q3 2022/2023 sales report (Abre numa nova janela) notes that Lord of the Rings: Gollum (Abre numa nova janela) has a new release date: in the first half of FY 2023-24.

LotRO is working happily along; read the latest info letter on things to expect in 2023 (Abre numa nova janela).

For all Netflix subscribers who happen to be trilogy fans Feb 1 sounds like good news (Abre numa nova janela) [Gamespot]

The Lore of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela) on the Rings of Power [New York Review; paywall.] 

Right-Wing Rings of Power (Abre numa nova janela) talks about Peter Thiel, Palmer Luckey, and Georgia Meloni - or Palantir Technologies, Anduril Industries and neo-fascism in Italy [Capital and Main.]

LotR: The Rings of Power may have helped Amazon grow Prime subscription numbers (Abre numa nova janela) - or not? [Business Insider] Also, JustWatch determined that in the US (Abre numa nova janela) and in Germany (Abre numa nova janela) RoP placed #5th on their most streamed series charts.

Ravensburger US (Abre numa nova janela) announced the LotR Adventure Book Game (Abre numa nova janela) for Jan 31st.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Please always note that in 97.5% of all cases "many believe" in an online article means "we made it up and we don't care"; in this case an alleged connection (Abre numa nova janela) between Tolkien and a certain estate is happily promoted. It is a fact, though, that quite a few people are quite happy to make money off the Professor's name without actually providing proof for any such connection - I am just sayin'.

Recently, a German court decided (Abre numa nova janela) that naming someone else a 'Gollum' is an insult ☺️

Sometimes I do not want to find out what people are talking about - but why are mountain bikers happy for Hobbit Juice (Abre numa nova janela)?

More than fourty years ago Tolkien fans had to fight their way through The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) adventure. You should maybe give it a try!

In Spring 1967 an interview with J.R.R. Tolkien was published with fanzine Niekas #18 (Abre numa nova janela).

Everything Star Wars (Abre numa nova janela) in 2023 [EW]

The ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Debate, Explained (Abre numa nova janela) [Forbes]

The science fiction and fantasy books we’re excited for (Abre numa nova janela) in 2023 [Polygon]

The Służewiec neighbourhood in Warsaw recently got two new street names (Abre numa nova janela): Tolkien and Gandalf. Funnily enough, the local nickname for this area is Mordor (Abre numa nova janela).

I try not to link sites with presumably illegal Tolkien-inspired material but as I will probably never wear a watch with a digital clock face this one (Abre numa nova janela) definitely gets a mention.

Some of the latest in Star Trek (Abre numa nova janela) and yes, Michelle Yeoh (Abre numa nova janela); also DS9 is awesome (Abre numa nova janela) [TrekMovies, Polygon]

Would you like to know more about the state of the game industry in 2023? No problem, you can download the free report here (Abre numa nova janela).

Ansible 426 (Abre numa nova janela) has been published.

Picture credits

Lotr Adventure Book Game: Boardgame Geek (Abre numa nova janela); Hobbit adventure game: Lemon64 (Abre numa nova janela).

According to German law I have to infom you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.]

If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Twitter (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Tolkien-Discord (Abre numa nova janela) [de/en]