The One-hundred and eighth Roving Ranger
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)
Life and Works
The Guardian has Beyond Bilbo: JRR Tolkien’s long-lost poetry to be published (Opens in a new window); see Wayne & Christina’s post on this (Opens in a new window).
For your information
This is the last newsletter before the start of season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window). I have published two additional newsletters you can have a look at if you take an interest:
Roving Ranger. A Special edition: The Best of June-December 2022 (Opens in a new window) [going through 25,000+ news items I have listed what I consider the essential pieces of information of that time span.]
Curumo’s Current Affairs (Opens in a new window) [a list of links I summarised as J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings have become a global phenomenon and people from all over the world appreciate them, are inspired by them - or abuse them.]
Events & Shows
The Tolkien Society has announced the Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference (Opens in a new window) [online only; Nov 23-24.]
Composer Johan de Meji is often touring as a conductor, including parts of his Tolkien repertoire (such as the Lord of the Rings symphony); this time on Sept 7/8 in Germany (Opens in a new window) [Facebook] and other concerts around the world (Opens in a new window) in Kansas City, Vilnius, Amsterdam & Chicago [official website]
The English Faculty at Oxford is running the Tolkien Seminars: 70th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings series of talks. A full list is available with Eventbrite (Opens in a new window) - including Holly Ordway, John Garth, Stuart Lee et al.
The J.R. Tolkien seems to have survived its sale and is up for many tours (Opens in a new window) (in German but you can surely ask in English as well).
For all events (Opens in a new window) check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).
Scholarship & Fandom
A new Tolkien documentary by German public broadcasting stations ARTE, Phoenix and ZDF will be published in December. Among the speakers are John Garth, Dimitra Fimi - and myself. (Pre-premiere at Wiesbaden (Opens in a new window), Sept 13). [My members with Steady know more (Opens in a new window).]
The people over at the Tolkien Collectors’ Guide have the info on the Beyond Bree Calendar (Opens in a new window) for 2025.
New Age - and Tolkien (Opens in a new window) - Artist Peter Pracownik has passed away (Opens in a new window).
Gaming archivist Jason B. Dyer - via his blog Renga in Blue (Opens in a new window)- is hunting down the earliest ever Tolkien-inspired games (Opens in a new window).
Lord Of The Rings in Unreal Engine 5 (Opens in a new window) - FotR River Scene [Youtube; this short (Opens in a new window) for development process]
The Bodleian has a librarian trainees blog which recently offered Leah Brown: A Sérprent Saga: Professor Turville-Petre and his Literary Network (Opens in a new window) (one of Tolkien’s students).
Incredibly proud and happy to see as a longtime member of the German Inklings Society (Opens in a new window) that our Yearbook is now open access with Stacks (Opens in a new window) (upload in progress) [press note (Opens in a new window)].
Nick Polk has Heroic Poetry in Shōgun and The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window).
Robin Reid has More on Far-Right Extremists & Tolkien (Opens in a new window) and a Call for Papers (Opens in a new window) on ‘Great Heart and Strength:’ New Essays on Women and Gender in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth (Opens in a new window) has been published.
Which hand did Frodo put the Ring on? (Opens in a new window) is asked by Tom Hillman.
Jeff LaSala has The Words of Glorfindel and the Witch-King of Angmar (Opens in a new window).
A fun find: THE HOBBIT, first edition, lives on! (Opens in a new window)
Merchandise & Franchise
Amazon’s press release material (Opens in a new window) for the trailer.
Games Workshop have announced a new board game (Opens in a new window): The Hobbit: Hunt for the Arkenstone.
Specialist drum makers HHG Drums (Opens in a new window) in Pennsylvania have brought the ring inscription (Opens in a new window) to the world of percussion. [Instagram]
The official trailer for LotR: War of the Rohirrim has been published (Opens in a new window).
On LotR:RoP - ‘The Rings of Power’ Showrunners Tease Season 3 Plans: “Let Us Cook!” [Hollywood Reporter (Opens in a new window)]
Everything You Need to Remember Before Season 2 of The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window)[Time]
Online train ticket company Trainline is offering Tolkien’s England: explore the real-world inspirations behind Middle-earth (Opens in a new window).
PSA Another blog post that is full of assumptions and half-truths you need to be an expert to tell reality from nonsense. Having said this - lovely list of places to visit with some of them actually Tolkienian. Your go to book: Garth, Worlds of Tolkien (Opens in a new window).
Inter alia & Back in the Day
2024 World Fantasy Awards Finalists announced (Opens in a new window) [Locus]
Paul Kidby interview - Terry Pratchett’s Discworld illustrator talks about his work and inspirations (Opens in a new window) [Blackmore Vale]
‘The Acolyte’ Canceled: No Season 2 For Disney+’s ‘Star Wars’ Series (Opens in a new window) [Deadline]
Next time you are in Seattle - why not go for the Hobbit Trail (Opens in a new window)?
You can now enter your work with the New Zealand Youth Film Festival (Opens in a new window), supported - amongst others - by Weta Workshop and Weta FX.
Talpa Search (Opens in a new window) promises to find you the books you do not know the title or author of (run by LibraryThing (Opens in a new window)).
The 2024 Hugo Award Winners (Opens in a new window) have been announced (additional literary awards via LibraryThing (Opens in a new window).
John Scalzi has a few choice words to say some people neet to read: Please Don’t Idolize Me (or Anyone, Really) (Opens in a new window).
xkcd always makes me smile.
https://xkcd.com/2973/ (Opens in a new window)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 (Opens in a new window) or Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), the bookshops of my personal trust.
If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : : Threads : Mastodon (Opens in a new window) : Xitter (Opens in a new window)
You can support me by becoming a member with my Steady page (Opens in a new window).
If you happen to use Feedly (Opens in a new window) - why not subscribe to one of their most popular Tolkien blogs: thetolkienist.com ☺️
As this is 2024 I would like to note that this newsletter is 100% human-made, curated by me, Marcel R. Bülles. This also holds true for everything I write with my blog and here at Steady. Also, the average time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours.
