The Eighty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 10, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 208 (Abre numa nova janela) (LotR has 'no message'.)
April 14, 1950. Tolkien writes Letter 127 (Abre numa nova janela) ('feud' with the Unwins begins.)
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Abre numa nova janela) at Glasgow University.
April 15, 2007. The Children of Húrin Release Party (Abre numa nova janela) starts; (book out (Abre numa nova janela)April 17.)
April 20, 1973. Tolkien writes to John Higgins (Abre numa nova janela), Arts Editor of The Times.
April 23, 1925. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Abre numa nova janela) is first published.
April 27, 1915. Tolkien writes You and Me / and the Cottage of Lost Play (Abre numa nova janela).

Events & Shows

The Kentucky Opera (Abre numa nova janela) will have two showings of The Hobbit in June.

Westmarch Smial in Swansea will be having their first Smial Moot (Abre numa nova janela) on April 23rd. [Waterstones]

One of the longest-running Tolkien fan events - 24 years - has announced its date after a successful 2023 get together at Castle Stahleck, Germany: Lure of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela). [card gaming]

The Tolkien Lecture (Abre numa nova janela) by Maria Dahvana Headley will happen at Pembroke College, Oxford, on May 16th. If everything goes according to plan I'll be in Oxford.

The Birmingham Tolkien Lecture (Abre numa nova janela) will happen on May 12th - John Garth.

I had the great pleasure and honour to be a guest host to the Prancing Pony Podcast episodes 285 (Abre numa nova janela) and 286 (Abre numa nova janela) as well as this year's Tolkien Reading Day (Abre numa nova janela) edition.

If you feel like meeting up with the Tolkienist this year these are some dates (Abre numa nova janela) (so far, more are coming).

Reading Tolkien in the 21st Century, a conference at the University of Bonn, Germany, will happen on Sept 7-8. (CfP as pdf download (Abre numa nova janela)).

The Council of Westmarch (Abre numa nova janela) is holding its second Tolkien Mini Film Festival (Abre numa nova janela) on April 22nd.

Scholarship and Fandom

TolkienGuide have an incredibly entertaining and insightful (Abre numa nova janela) 🧵 on contemporary criticisms of Tolkien.

A Reddit AMA (Abre numa nova janela) with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas will be happening on Monday, April 17th.

As a good friend of mine has been saving birds in NZ as well I need to share this GiveALittle project by The Lost Hobbit - for NZ Birds (Abre numa nova janela). The run is finished since April 1st but you can still donate (Abre numa nova janela).

Congratulations to the winners of the Tolkien Society Awards (Abre numa nova janela).

The occasion of the Tolkien Sir Gawain (Abre numa nova janela) lecture will be celebrated at the University of Glasgow, 70 years after the fact.

Verlyn Flieger and Carl Hostetter will be teaching Tolkien's Time Travel Stories (Abre numa nova janela).

Mythlore 41:2 (Abre numa nova janela) has been published.

John Garth made an ass of himself (Abre numa nova janela) but at least he is now with Steady (Abre numa nova janela) (I may have had a hand in this 😄)

A course I would desperately love to attend: Tolkien Illustrated: Picturing the Legendarium (Abre numa nova janela).

LotR characters in camp by (c) Lucas Prokopowich (Abre numa nova janela)

Franchise and Merchandise

The One Ring (Abre numa nova janela) RPG by Free League Publishing is coming in a 5E adaptation on May 9th. Have a look at the trailer (Abre numa nova janela) for the LA Comic Con live play.

Howard Shore is warning fans not to visit the Star Entertainment organised concerts in the UK and Germany on his website (Abre numa nova janela).

The award-winning VFX team of LotR:RoP has published a VFX breakdown (Abre numa nova janela). An insightful article about Amazon Studios sees 'Confusion and Frustration (Abre numa nova janela)' [Hollywood Reporter] in which statistics seem to show RoP wasn't the hoped for success; the [Onion] suggests only Bezog (Abre numa nova janela) finished watching it; a fire on set (Abre numa nova janela) did not help with the headlines; analysts suggest that RoP was the final tip of the streaming iceberg (Abre numa nova janela).

LEGO Ideas are close to judging the winner of their Exploring the World of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) challenge - have a look at 470 ideas.

The EA mobile game (Abre numa nova janela) is set to release on May 10th globally; a trailer is available.

The Lord of the Rings Balenciaga (Abre numa nova janela) fashion show is rather hilarious, just like Jack Black as Tom Bombadil (Abre numa nova janela). It is unfortunate that the tools used are really nothing more than art thieves making money off the work of others.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Neil Gaiman has been nominated to the TIME 100 (Abre numa nova janela) Most Influential People of 2023 list.

A new Harry Potter series is in the making (Abre numa nova janela), including all of the side effects [Variety]; the Guardian (Abre numa nova janela) has some thoughts.

If you feel like watching all Star Trek movies in 4k, well, it's now possible (Abre numa nova janela). [ArsTechnica]

The second of the Terry Pratchett biographies is now also a winner thanks to the BSFA (Abre numa nova janela). [Locus]

Star Wars had many news to present at Celebration 2023 (Abre numa nova janela), including three new feature films. [EW]

Akron, Ohio (Abre numa nova janela), has its very own gaming bar and café, the Green Dragon (Abre numa nova janela), since St. Patrick's Day. Do visit, it looks amazing. I am pretty sure they also have decent beer - as they should with that name!

Revising classic novels (Abre numa nova janela) is welcomed by some, criticised by quite a few. [New York Times]

GRRM had quite a few interesting things to share on his not blog (Abre numa nova janela).

The Big Eurovision Read (Abre numa nova janela) titles have been announced, including Pratchett.

The Internet Archive (Abre numa nova janela) has lost its first legal fight. [TIME]

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta (Abre numa nova janela) is being published soon; I can only hope his 'Tolkien work' will also be included.

An interesting piece on the Disabled Villain (Abre numa nova janela). [Guardian]

Ansible 429 (Abre numa nova janela) has been published.

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]

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