The Ninety-third Roving Ranger

Life and Works

November 24, 1964. Robert Graves (Abre numa nova janela) introduces J.R.R. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) to Ava Gardner (Abre numa nova janela).
November 24, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 90 (Abre numa nova janela) to Christopher on an Inklings pub night out.

The result was a most amusing and highly contentious evening, on which (had an outsider eavesdropped) he would have thought it a meeting of fell enemies hurling deadly insults before drawing their guns. #Letter90

November 25, 1936. Tolkien delivers Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (Abre numa nova janela).
November 27, 1914. Tolkien reads The Voyage of Eärendel the Evening Star (Abre numa nova janela) at a poorly attended meeting of Exeter College (Abre numa nova janela)'s Essay Club.
November 29, 1971. Edith Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) dies after a short but severe illness attributed to an inflamed gall-bladder.
November 30, 1966. Tolkien conducts an interview, published as "The Man Who Understands Hobbits (Abre numa nova janela)".
December 1, 1913. Tolkien is elected president of the Stapledon Society (Abre numa nova janela), a student body at Exeter College (Abre numa nova janela) (i.e. the JCR).
December 2, 1945. Tolkien submits The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (Abre numa nova janela) for publication.
December 3, 1916. G.B. Smith (Abre numa nova janela), one of the T.C.B.S. (Abre numa nova janela), dies of gas-gangrene in his wounds, sustained 4 days earlier.

“My chief consolation is that if I am scuppered tonight there will still be left a member [of our School group] to voice what I dreamed and what we all agreed upon. For the death of one of its members cannot, I am determined, dissolve [the group]. Death can make us loathsome and helpless as individuals, but it cannot put an end to the immortal four! May God bless you my dear John Ronald and may you say things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them if such be my lot." Garth, Tolkien & the Great War, p. 118.

December 6, 1961. Tolkien writes Letter 235 (Abre numa nova janela) to Pauline Baynes (Abre numa nova janela).
December 8, 1956. Tolkien writes a letter to Anthony Roberts (Abre numa nova janela) (available (Abre numa nova janela) with the Tolkien Society Facebook group).

The revised edition of Letters (Abre numa nova janela) has been published and notes and reviews are coming in: John D. Rateliff (Abre numa nova janela) | Word on Fire (Abre numa nova janela) (Holly Ordway | David Bratman (Abre numa nova janela).

One of the early books on Tolkien’s writings, Randel Helm’s Tolkien’s World, was returned to a UK library - 16,683 days overdue (Abre numa nova janela).

The UK Bookseller lauds our favourite genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy: genre on course for a record year (Abre numa nova janela).

If you happen to be in Lagos, Nigeria, do get yourself a copy of The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) [support (Abre numa nova janela) your local (Abre numa nova janela) bookstore (Abre numa nova janela)!]

Tolkien’s letter to Naomi Mitchison (Abre numa nova janela) is set to cost GBP 30-50k+. [Christie’s]

The University College London has found some Tolkien correspondence (Abre numa nova janela) with folklorist Katharine Mary Briggs as part of the Folklore Society Archive.

Events & Shows

Christmas with C.S. Lewis (Abre numa nova janela) is on in the next couple of weeks in the US. [trailer (Abre numa nova janela) @ Youtube]

A review of the Fantasy: Realms of the Imagination exhibition: The British Library's new fantasy exhibition opened my eyes to how important fantasy is (Abre numa nova janela) [Eurogamer].

The New Berlin Library (Abre numa nova janela) in Wisconsin has a Hobbit Party (Abre numa nova janela) on Dec 14 in mind.

The Peruvian Tolkien Society (Abre numa nova janela) have Perumoot in Lima (Abre numa nova janela) as well as readings of the Letters from Father Christmas (Abre numa nova janela) planned.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tom Hillman has been interviewed by the Tolkien Guide about his book Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring (Abre numa nova janela).

The Journal of Tolkien Research’ volume 17 (Abre numa nova janela) is available (issue 2, Tolkien's Animals).

Douglas A. Anderson has Off-trail Hobbit Illustrations: Michael Hague (Abre numa nova janela) and some off-trail Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) illustrations.

Shawn E. Marchese, the Lord of the Mark of the Prancing Pony Podcast (Abre numa nova janela), has been interviewed (Abre numa nova janela) by Jeff LaSala. [TOR.com]

I have two new posts (coming up) with my “Tolkien Travel Posters” series - this time it is Beverly Arce (Abre numa nova janela). [thetolkienist.com (Abre numa nova janela)]

Funnily enough, there is a very indirect connection from J.R.R. Tolkien to former Arkansas Governor Mick Huckabee: The latest AI copyright lawsuit involves Mike Huckabee and his books (Abre numa nova janela) [The Verge] I have been working on this for some time and will publish it via thetolkienist.com.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the Tolkien exhibition (Abre numa nova janela). [Reuters]

Franchise and Merchandise

I am immensely proud to say that the website I was effectively running on my own for the German Tolkien Society (Abre numa nova janela) has been mentioned (Abre numa nova janela) in this article: The Most Divisive Fantasy Epic of the ‘70s Influenced the Greatest Modern Blockbuster (Abre numa nova janela) [Inverse; huge thanks go out to the Internet Archive (Abre numa nova janela) for this].

Roleplaying publisher Free League Gaming (Abre numa nova janela) is making The One Ring and LotR RPG 5E fans happy with new publications (Abre numa nova janela).

If you are thinking about making a proper investment why not go for a Tolkien letter? Their value has been rising steadily and another one (Abre numa nova janela) is up for auction (Abre numa nova janela).

Embracer (Abre numa nova janela), owner of Middle-earth Enterprises (Abre numa nova janela), seem to be making decent money (Abre numa nova janela) off Tolkien. [Variety; see also Kotaku (Abre numa nova janela)]

Amazon is cutting jobs at its gaming division (Abre numa nova janela) but the MMOs will be left untouched. [Verge] Coincidentally, its Q3 total revenue soared to $143.1 billions. (Abre numa nova janela) [Hollywood Reporter]

People in New Zealand might possibly smile knowingly at this: Amazon Warns Of Threat To UK Status As Hollywood Rival; Says Shoots Can Be Relocated At “Short Notice” (Abre numa nova janela) [Deadline]

Good news for Hobbit foodies - the Hobbit Restaurant (Abre numa nova janela) in Orange, California is set to reopen Nov 28 (Abre numa nova janela).

An angry comment on Warner Bros. gaming and what the company has planned: Warner Bros. Is Pivoting To Live-Service A Decade Too Late (Abre numa nova janela) [The Gamer]

Players are willing to forgive all of Shadows of Mordor’s heinous crimes against Tolkien because it’s so d*rn fun to play, but the CEO sees it as a failure because nobody’s still buying it nine years after release.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Michael Whelan (Abre numa nova janela), one of the best and most successful fantasy and science fiction artist of all times, recently shared his version of Gollum via Xitter.

Later on he also shared a number of images he did of Frodo & Sam at Mount Doom (Abre numa nova janela).

Some contradictory statements on ‘Fantastic Beasts’: “Director David Yates says studio has franchise on ‘a pause’ after third film (Abre numa nova janela)”. [LA Times]

John Scalzi talks about Christopher Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela), in a sense.

You may have seen the Antidepressant drug or Tolkien? quiz recently - here is some background on it (Abre numa nova janela). [thetolkienist.com]

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 (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Tolkien-Discord (Abre numa nova janela)