A special Roving Ranger edition: Ninety-second “A”
Between the ninety-first and ninety-second Roving Ranger there was break from the end of July until the beginning of November 2023. I have now curated a list of all things Tolkienian of this time span in case you missed out on them.
Life and Works
In an Amazon UK / Amazon Literary Partnership poll on the best opening lines in literature Tolkien’s Hobbit placed fourth (Opens in a new window).
Events & Shows
Fantasy: Realms of Imagination, the British Library exhibition is on until February 25, 2024. Reviews: Guardian (Opens in a new window) | Reuters (Opens in a new window) | Telegraph (Opens in a new window).
Joseph Purdue has returned with another Tolkien-inspired musical: A Tale of Fellowship (Opens in a new window)
(I wrote about his Unfolding Tales (Opens in a new window) extensively for my members here at Steady.)
The Lord of the Rings musical has a sold-out run - and more or less ‘saved’ the Watermill Theatre (Opens in a new window)’s future plans.
Colorado saw The Hobbit come alive on stage (Opens in a new window); impressions (Opens in a new window) [Facebook].
The No Strings Marionette Company (Opens in a new window) did The Hobbit as well at the Doctorow Centre of the Arts (Opens in a new window) in the Catskill Mountains.
The Muse Theatre Company (Opens in a new window) in Jefferson, MO, did The Hobbit (Opens in a new window).
Scholarship and Fandom
Joseph Pearce Further In and Further Up: 50 Years with J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [European Conservative]
Harps in Tolkien: What Would They Sound Like? (Opens in a new window)
“The Long Defeat”: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change (Opens in a new window) [TOR.com]
Tolkien's Incredible Map of Middle-Earth | Great Maps Explained (Opens in a new window) [Mapster, Youtube]
The rather lovely local tradition of well dressing has had a Tolkien-inspired addition (Opens in a new window).
Switzerland has certainly stepped up its Tolkien game with Tolkien stamps (Opens in a new window) by John Howe.
Franchise and Merchandise
Payne & McKay (Opens in a new window) of LotR: Rings of Power have signed a deal with the Creative Artists Agency (Opens in a new window) (CAA (Opens in a new window)) for representation. [Deadline]
“Fewer shows will be made for less money”: International producers on the future of scripted drama (Opens in a new window) [Screen Daily].
It is really sad to see Guillermo del Toro had another project ‘canceled’, this time a Star Wars movie on Jabba the Hutt (Opens in a new window). [Collider] If only he had done the Hobbit…
LotR: Gollum was such a disaster Steam player numbers in September often dropped to zero (Opens in a new window) - and the peak never seemed to exceed ~500.
First Vin Diesel, now… How John Wick and Lord of the Rings Connect, According to a Director of Both Franchises (Opens in a new window) [Movieweb]
Peter Jackson is becoming a real estate mogul (Opens in a new window) in New Zealand.
Legion M and others teamed up to bring the film “Return to the King” to US theatres for its 20th anniversary (Opens in a new window) and to no surprise it was a success (not as originally written 25th).
Private Division and Weta Workshop announced a new cosy game, Tales of the Shire (Opens in a new window).
Sound engineer Jordan Rannells has composed - successfully supported via Kickstarter (Opens in a new window) - and brought together soundscapes on The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window).
The incredibly entertaining story of a fanfiction writer suing the Tolkien Estate and Amazon over infringing his copyrights with Rings of Power seems to have come to an even more entertaining close (Opens in a new window); the case has been dismissed (Opens in a new window).
Lord of the Rings soundtrack (Opens in a new window) voted nation’s favourite film music [Independent, UK]; full list with vote organiser Classic FM (Opens in a new window) and a breakdown of the music itself (Opens in a new window).
War of the Rohirrim (Opens in a new window) has been postponed until December 2024.
Almost unbelievable but true: Zelda - Ocarina of Time - could have had a character called Hobbit (Opens in a new window).
The Embracer Group which has taken over Middle-earth Enterprises is partially funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (Opens in a new window); the $2 billion deal that fell through would have increased their interactions.
Why not gift a membership to the Tolkienist at Steady for Christmas?
Hullloooo ☺️
I’m very excited about this: you can now gift memberships to the Tolkienist’s Roving Ranger and beyond!
Share your support of me with friends and family—it’s very easy.
Some gift ideas:
Your favourite colleague (for better work chats)
Your clients
Your friend who lives abroad
Your cousin who shares your interest
And? No shipping costs + environmentally sustainable + no auto-renewal. Win win win.
How do gift memberships work?
✨ Purchase a gift membership directly on my page here:
(Opens in a new window)✨ The gift membership will begin immediately, on the day of purchase.
✨ An email will be sent to the recipient informing them about their new gift from you, and how to access it (no price tag listed, don’t worry).
✨ The gift membership does not auto-renew.
Find out more about gift memberships in this helpful FAQ (Opens in a new window).
If you have further questions, please contact the lovely people at Steady who help me run my membership programme. You can reach them at: support@steadyhq.com (Opens in a new window)
(Opens in a new window)All the best from Jena,
Marcel
Inter alia & Back in the day
Slate has delivered a truly decent write-up on one of the most important people for the modern literary fantasy and science fiction genres you may never have heard of - Lester del Rey (Opens in a new window) (see also Wikipedia (Opens in a new window)).
You may not have heard of Glashammer (Opens in a new window) either but the band has been playing ‘prog rock’ for thirty years, often with a Tolkien twist: “I’ve always said it’s not just ‘progressive anything’. It’s progressive rock and it needs to rock." How Glass Hammer turned it up to 11 with Skallagrim – Into The Breach” (Opens in a new window)[Louder]
Michael Gambon (Opens in a new window) passed away. [Independent]
A rather fascinating piece with the Rolling Stone: How Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Distort Reality to Sell Fantasy (Opens in a new window).
George R.R. Martin and many other successful authors are suing ChatGPT (Opens in a new window) et al. [NY Post] |; also Forbes (Opens in a new window).
The attempts at banning books in the US are continuing, see the example of Texas (Opens in a new window) (and yes, The Lord of the Rings was among those titles.)
This might be one of the best Youtube videos I have ever seen:
https://youtu.be/5tmxfVWDgMM?si=0AW7Z4oM_ZrIMlhb (Opens in a new window)Lovely to see characters written by Tolkien continue to inspire: Rosario Dawson explains how Ahsoka was inspired by Gandalf (Opens in a new window) [Entertainment Weekly]
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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Twitter (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window)
