The Eighty-fifth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 30, 1915. Tolkien writes the poem Kôr (Opens in a new window).
April 30, 2001. Tolkien Studies: Volume 1 (Opens in a new window) is published.
May 2, 1968. Tolkien writes Letter 302 (Opens in a new window).

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

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

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 (Opens in a new window)]

May 11, 1922. A Middle English Vocabulary (Opens in a new window), Tolkien (Opens in a new window)'s first book, is published.
[Note: Tolkien was fairly consistent in when he wrote letters. (Opens in a new window) (Tolkien Guide)]

Events & Shows

A Swiss theatre in Zürich (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) in South Africa.

The Sir Gawain event in Glasgow recording is online (Opens in a new window).

The San Francisco Symphony (Opens in a new window) will be playing the LotR: Fellowship score in 2024.

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB].

Scholarship and Fandom

A small yet fun detail noted in Tolkien’s wartime fireworks (Opens in a new window).

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

John D. Rateliff provides information (Opens in a new window) on the University of Glasgow Sir Gawain event. He also has some thoughts (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) might be an inspiration for McKellen's Gandalf?

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

A review on Inkling, Historian, Brother: A life of Warren Hamilton Lewis by Bruce Charlton (Opens in a new window).

The proceedings (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).

Read up on the AMA (Opens in a new window)with Battle of Maldon editor Peter Grybauskas.

Franchise and Merchandise

The LotR: War of the Rohirrim (Opens in a new window) anime will have a preview section at Annecy (Opens in a new window).

If you have asked yourself where all of these LotR:RoP drone photos are coming from - reddit user Jake Reed (Opens in a new window) is providing them.

Elijah Wood makes interesting comments on the upcoming Middle-earth films (Opens in a new window) in an interview. [GQ]

LotR: Gollum has published another trailer, this time with 4K RTX on (Opens in a new window). Their social media team has also started sharing character cards (Opens in a new window).

Barry Humphries has passed away. He may have played the Great Goblin but was better known as Dame Edna Everage (Opens in a new window). [NZ Herald]

Someone sued the Estate and Prime Video for copyright infringement (Opens in a new window). [PCGamer]

You may believe it or not, the WB Discovery ad did not troll (Opens in a new window) LotR: RoP. [AdWeek]

Given the fact all franchises work like this these days the cosmological nostalgia content (Opens in a new window) should be mentioned. [xkcd]

A couple of months ago Weta Workshop asked for design suggestions - and are now turning them into reality (Opens in a new window). [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 (Opens in a new window) for the Emmys (Opens in a new window); May 7 has a panel [DailyRoP (Opens in a new window)]

Lord of the Rings: Online (Opens in a new window) has turned 16 this week, congratulations.

Inter alia & Back in the day

Streaming data (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) coming up. [Collider]

Carrie Fisher will receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Opens in a new window) posthumously.

Twitter is upping its creepiness by giving the dead (Opens in a new window) blue ticks [Inquisitir; Forbes (Opens in a new window)].

Kudos to this study of the GRRM Winds of Winter timeline (Opens in a new window) [The Week]

Lord of the Flies (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) on the actual data sets that made some of this possible. Also, the Independent (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) [YT, ca. 4 mins]

Somehow it seems hard to believe that Walt Disney Studios have been founded 100 years ago (Opens in a new window).

Why do we eat popcorn - a short history (Opens in a new window) [YT, ca. 5 mins.]

Hogwarts Legacy has made the OST (Opens in a new window) available.

The Witcher (season 3) offered a teaser trailer (Opens in a new window). Dune 2 (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Twitter (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Tolkien-Discord (Opens in a new window) [de/en]

Additional news provided in recent weeks to my members at Steady

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