The Eighty-fifth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 30, 1915. Tolkien writes the poem Kôr (Abre numa nova janela).
April 30, 2001. Tolkien Studies: Volume 1 (Abre numa nova janela) is published.
May 2, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 302 (Abre numa nova janela).

A photograph of me pretending to be at work would be entirely bogus. [#302]

May 5, 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (Abre numa nova janela) is first published in the UK.
~, 2009. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (Abre numa nova janela) is published.
May 6, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 303 (Abre numa nova janela).

I lived in a small cottage almost immediately beside it, and the old miller of my day and his son were characters of wonder and terror to a small child. [#303]

May 10, 1966. Tolkien was bothered by fan phone calls as his number was still in the directory; writing to Joy Hill he said:

Removing the number from the directory seems better than the method adopted by Major W. H. Lewis in protecting his brother, which was to lift the receiver and say 'Oxford Sewage Disposal Unit' and go on repeating it until they went away. [#287 (Abre numa nova janela)]

May 11, 1922. A Middle English Vocabulary (Abre numa nova janela), Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela)'s first book, is published.
[Note: Tolkien was fairly consistent in when he wrote letters. (Abre numa nova janela) (Tolkien Guide)]

Events & Shows

A Swiss theatre in Zürich (Abre numa nova janela) is doing LotR. Early reviews suggest it does not really have much to do with the book but it seems to be quite the experience.

The Hobbit opened at the National Children's Theatre (Abre numa nova janela) in South Africa.

The Sir Gawain event in Glasgow recording is online (Abre numa nova janela).

The San Francisco Symphony (Abre numa nova janela) will be playing the LotR: Fellowship score in 2024.

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB].

Scholarship and Fandom

A small yet fun detail noted in Tolkien’s wartime fireworks (Abre numa nova janela).

An interview with Craig Williamson brings up a lot of Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) and hints at a "study of the nature of riddles (Abre numa nova janela) and riddlic play in Old English poetry and the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien."

John D. Rateliff provides information (Abre numa nova janela) on the University of Glasgow Sir Gawain event. He also has some thoughts (Abre numa nova janela) on the recent fanfic author sues Estate/ PV for copyright infringement case (see link below). In addition to this the suggestion that the second Doctor (Abre numa nova janela) might be an inspiration for McKellen's Gandalf?

Mike Foster passed away, a stalwart Tolkienist, amazing teacher/professor, musician, and friend to many. [obituary (Abre numa nova janela) and notes by David Bratman (Abre numa nova janela), Marquette University Libraries (Abre numa nova janela), Jessica Burke and Anthony Burdge, (Abre numa nova janela) Melody Green (Abre numa nova janela), John Garth (Abre numa nova janela), Douglas A. Anderson (Abre numa nova janela), Mike's daughter with wishes how to honour her dad (Abre numa nova janela).]

A review on Inkling, Historian, Brother: A life of Warren Hamilton Lewis by Bruce Charlton (Abre numa nova janela).

The proceedings (Abre numa nova janela) of the Tolkien Seminar 2021 of the Tolkien Society will soon be available.

Stephen C. Winter has some thoughts on Gandalf and the Awakening of the Ents (Abre numa nova janela).

Read up on the AMA (Abre numa nova janela)with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas.

Franchise and Merchandise

The LotR: War of the Rohirrim (Abre numa nova janela) anime will have a preview section at Annecy (Abre numa nova janela).

If you have asked yourself where all of these LotR:RoP drone photos are coming from - reddit user Jake Reed (Abre numa nova janela) is providing them.

Elijah Wood makes interesting comments on the upcoming Middle-earth films (Abre numa nova janela) in an interview. [GQ]

LotR: Gollum has published another trailer, this time with 4K RTX on (Abre numa nova janela). Their social media team has also started sharing character cards (Abre numa nova janela).

Barry Humphries has passed away. He may have played the Great Goblin but was better known as Dame Edna Everage (Abre numa nova janela). [NZ Herald]

Someone sued the Estate and Prime Video for copyright infringement (Abre numa nova janela). [PCGamer]

You may believe it or not, the WB Discovery ad did not troll (Abre numa nova janela) LotR: RoP. [AdWeek]

Given the fact all franchises work like this these days the cosmological nostalgia content (Abre numa nova janela) should be mentioned. [xkcd]

A couple of months ago Weta Workshop asked for design suggestions - and are now turning them into reality (Abre numa nova janela). [Weta with FB]

LotR:RoP has been very quiet on the publicity front in recent weeks but they are part of the Prime Video FYC experience (Abre numa nova janela) for the Emmys (Abre numa nova janela); May 7 has a panel [DailyRoP (Abre numa nova janela)]

Lord of the Rings: Online (Abre numa nova janela) has turned 16 this week, congratulations.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Streaming data (Abre numa nova janela) for March 13-19 by Nielsen will give you a few ideas what people have been watching recently [Hollywood Reporter]

All the things Star Wars (Abre numa nova janela) coming up. [Collider]

Carrie Fisher will receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Abre numa nova janela) posthumously.

Twitter is upping its creepiness by giving the dead (Abre numa nova janela) blue ticks [Inquisitir; Forbes (Abre numa nova janela)].

Kudos to this study of the GRRM Winds of Winter timeline (Abre numa nova janela) [The Week]

Lord of the Flies (Abre numa nova janela) is going to be adapted for the BBC.

If you want to know more how "AI" and things like ChatGPT have come into being - the Washington Post has done research (Abre numa nova janela) on the actual data sets that made some of this possible. Also, the Independent (Abre numa nova janela) gives a short introduction whether it is time to panic over "AI".

On Jim Henson's fantasy film classic, The Dark Crystal, in an almost overlooked interview with director Bernard Rose (Abre numa nova janela) [YT, ca. 4 mins]

Somehow it seems hard to believe that Walt Disney Studios have been founded 100 years ago (Abre numa nova janela).

Why do we eat popcorn - a short history (Abre numa nova janela) [YT, ca. 5 mins.]

Hogwarts Legacy has made the OST (Abre numa nova janela) available.

The Witcher (season 3) offered a teaser trailer (Abre numa nova janela). Dune 2 (Abre numa nova janela) had also something to offer.

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) : Twitter (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Tolkien-Discord (Abre numa nova janela) [de/en]

Additional news provided in recent weeks to my members at Steady

RR+: The Bod is archiving tweets (Abre numa nova janela) - including me 🤩
RR+: Tolkien Society Awards (Abre numa nova janela) - vote now open!
RR+: 70 years after (Abre numa nova janela) - Tolkien's lecture on Sir Gawain in Glasgow
RR+: Tolkien and Smith Conference (Abre numa nova janela), Corpus Christi College, Oxford
RR+: 'Lord of the Rings' (Abre numa nova janela) musical tickets now available
RR+: New Illustrated Edition (Abre numa nova janela) of 'The Hobbit' Announced
RR+: "Tolkien letters (Abre numa nova janela) shine new light on writer’s life and work"

What to look forward to in 2023 if you like Tolkien and all things Tolkienian

Meet and greet with the Tolkienist in 2023