The Eighty-third Roving Ranger

Life and Works

#TolkienReadingDay (Opens in a new window) is happening this weekend, the world over.

March 24, 1834. William Morris (Opens in a new window) is born.
March 24, 1953. Tolkien informs his publishers he will not be able to meet the agreed upon deadline - March 25th (Letter 136 (Opens in a new window)).
March 25. A very important date (Opens in a new window) all-round.
March 28, 1972. At Buckingham Palace, J.R.R. Tolkien is appointed a CBE (Opens in a new window) by Queen Elizabeth II.
March 30, 1968. The documentary Tolkien in Oxford (Opens in a new window) is aired on the BBC (Opens in a new window).
April 1, 1977. J.R.R. Tolkien's children found The Tolkien Trust (Opens in a new window) charity.
April 6, 1963. Tolkien writes a letter to My dear people (Opens in a new window) on a 'disastrous holiday'.
April 7, 2016. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (Opens in a new window) is published.

• [A special on The Ruin.]
  In Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems (Opens in a new window), 1922 by Nora Chadwick.
  Anglo-Saxon Aloud (Opens in a new window) by Michael Drout
  Translation and reading (Opens in a new window) by Richard Fahey
  Old English (Opens in a new window) text
  The Ruin (Opens in a new window): The Past Dreaming of the Past
  All of the above essentially taken from The Exeter Book (Opens in a new window); guess who spent quite some time with this - see Old English Poetry (Opens in a new window)?
  Also please check out this open source fonts based on the Exeter Book (Opens in a new window).

• Thanks for the inspiration to 

The Hobbit, Illustrated by the Author, announced for Sept 2023 by UK Tolkien publisher HarperCollins.
- For more information please visit TolkienGuide.com (Opens in a new window).

Events & Shows

I have been asked to co-host the Prancing Pony Podcast and #284 - the Tolkien Reading Day 2023 (Opens in a new window) episode - is out now. Have a listen

The 18th Tolkien Conference (Opens in a new window) with the University of Vermont is happening April 2nd.

Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2023 (Opens in a new window).

The Lord of the Rings Musical (Opens in a new window) will return - in the last Roving Ranger I wrongly gave the original number of perfomers for the London version as 68 (Superhype (Opens in a new window) notes 65 for the Toronto version; my 68 were a typo); Emerald kindly enough corrected this (Opens in a new window), stating that the London run had "just over 50"; also the numbers might have been 56 and 53 respectively, according to the programmes.

The American Improv Theatre (Opens in a new window) in Vienna seems to have a lot of fun with Not The Lord of the Rings but also Harry Potter and GoT.

TexMoot (Opens in a new window) will be happening on April 15.

The German Inklings Society will have their conference Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in the Fantastic (Opens in a new window) on April 29th-May 1st.

Scholarship and Fandom

Tolkien at Exeter College (Opens in a new window) has a new edition.

An interesting piece on the Inspirations behind Goldberry (Opens in a new window).

I need to share this for sheer title grandeur: Beren One-Hand, Bruce the Shark, and Homer (Opens in a new window).

This is - surprising to me - quite a decent listing of: Lord of the Rings: The Many Ways Tolkien Songs Have Shown Up in Movies, TV, and More (Opens in a new window). [Den of Geek]
- If you feel like finding out about all the musicians and bands that have actually published dozens, if not hundreds of albums on Tolkien's songs (Tolkien Ensemble, Glasshammer, Blind Guardian, Christopher Lee (!), David Arkenstone, just to name a few) - simply check out Tolkien-Music.com (Opens in a new window) for this.

An even more substantial review (Opens in a new window) of Caroline Larringtons The Norse Myths that Shape the Way We Think. [BBC Culture]

Franchise and Merchandise

Lord of the Rings: Gollum have announced their release date - May 25th. Have a first look report (Opens in a new window)of the game by Jeremy Edmonds of Tolkien Guide and my report visiting (Opens in a new window) Daedalic Entertainment.

I am working on a longish post, perhaps even a multi-post series on Tolkien and Tourism and let me tell you: even if you name your hotels Hobbit Hotels, if they look like this (Opens in a new window), I ain't gonna book there 😅!
- [P.S. I might but just for the hobbit of it!]

5 Unconventional Fantasy Heists (Opens in a new window) [Tor.com]
- I have to say that I never really thought of this book as depicting a heist but if you need to come up with a pitch for Tor.com there are worse ideas. And I do like this kind of article just like Five Stories About Precocious Young Wizards (Opens in a new window) because it has Earthsea in it.

I am not quite sure what to make of this but in this article (Opens in a new window) it is noted that:

A "Hobbit Village" and an information center for tourists will open in  Turquoise Katun in the Altai region, Russia's largest special economic  zone (Opens in a new window), this year. [UrduPoint]

Magic: The Gathering (Opens in a new window) has now shown cards of the upcoming Universes Beyond Lord of the Rings set. See more information here (Opens in a new window) [IGN].
- please note that discussing the skin colour of characters in a trading card game should not make you angry; these images are an artist's interpretation of Tolkien's stories.

[Picture credit Magic: the Gathering/ Wizards of the Coast]

By the way: A Magic: The Gathering collector has bid $100,000 on the unique One Ring card (Opens in a new window).

The second leg of the Lord of the Rings Playing Cards is on Kickstarter (Opens in a new window).

An excellent write-up on the Toybiz Action Figures (Opens in a new window).

Inter alia & Back in the day

With successful authors like Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton being 'rewritten', one of Pratchett's biographers suggests it might simply be wiser (Opens in a new window) to read Pterry. Also, Ursula K. Le Guin's case seems to be a little bit different (Opens in a new window) - the decision is made by her son.

Sometimes it seems to be helpful to be part of a royal family - particularly, if you wanted to find out (Opens in a new window) where Game of Thrones was going, back in the day.

A couple have turned their bus into a Tiny Prancing Pony Home (Opens in a new window). [Tiny House Expedition]

We might still be getting a Gormenghast (Opens in a new window) series.

The only March Madness we truly need.

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