The Eighty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

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

Events & Shows

The Kentucky Opera (Opens in a new window) will have two showings of The Hobbit in June.

Westmarch Smial in Swansea will be having their first Smial Moot (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window). [card gaming]

The Tolkien Lecture (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) and 286 (Opens in a new window) as well as this year's Tolkien Reading Day (Opens in a new window) edition.

If you feel like meeting up with the Tolkienist this year these are some dates (Opens in a new window) (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 (Opens in a new window)).

The Council of Westmarch (Opens in a new window) is holding its second Tolkien Mini Film Festival (Opens in a new window) on April 22nd.

Scholarship and Fandom

TolkienGuide have an incredibly entertaining and insightful (Opens in a new window) 🧵 on contemporary criticisms of Tolkien.

A Reddit AMA (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window). The run is finished since April 1st but you can still donate (Opens in a new window).

Congratulations to the winners of the Tolkien Society Awards (Opens in a new window).

The occasion of the Tolkien Sir Gawain (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).

Mythlore 41:2 (Opens in a new window) has been published.

John Garth made an ass of himself (Opens in a new window) but at least he is now with Steady (Opens in a new window) (I may have had a hand in this 😄)

A course I would desperately love to attend: Tolkien Illustrated: Picturing the Legendarium (Opens in a new window).

LotR characters in camp by (c) Lucas Prokopowich (Opens in a new window)

Franchise and Merchandise

The One Ring (Opens in a new window) RPG by Free League Publishing is coming in a 5E adaptation on May 9th. Have a look at the trailer (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).

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

LEGO Ideas are close to judging the winner of their Exploring the World of Middle-earth (Opens in a new window) challenge - have a look at 470 ideas.

The EA mobile game (Opens in a new window) is set to release on May 10th globally; a trailer is available.

The Lord of the Rings Balenciaga (Opens in a new window) fashion show is rather hilarious, just like Jack Black as Tom Bombadil (Opens in a new window). 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 (Opens in a new window) Most Influential People of 2023 list.

A new Harry Potter series is in the making (Opens in a new window), including all of the side effects [Variety]; the Guardian (Opens in a new window) has some thoughts.

If you feel like watching all Star Trek movies in 4k, well, it's now possible (Opens in a new window). [ArsTechnica]

The second of the Terry Pratchett biographies is now also a winner thanks to the BSFA (Opens in a new window). [Locus]

Star Wars had many news to present at Celebration 2023 (Opens in a new window), including three new feature films. [EW]

Akron, Ohio (Opens in a new window), has its very own gaming bar and café, the Green Dragon (Opens in a new window), 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 (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).

The Big Eurovision Read (Opens in a new window) titles have been announced, including Pratchett.

The Internet Archive (Opens in a new window) has lost its first legal fight. [TIME]

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta (Opens in a new window) is being published soon; I can only hope his 'Tolkien work' will also be included.

An interesting piece on the Disabled Villain (Opens in a new window). [Guardian]

Ansible 429 (Opens in a new window) 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 (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]

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