The Ninth Roving Ranger
Folks,
a warm welcome to this, the ninth Roving Ranger newsletter! My apologies for an extra day of wait but I am travelling right now and will inform you about these travels via my blog and social media!
Events
As worldwide events are slowly trying to return from the pandemic I would love to mention the Pratchett Project’s inaugural conference at Trinity College, Dublin, first which will happen in September.
Please always refer to the International Tolkien Fellowship Facebook group for Tolkien-inspired events the world over.
Other Stuff
The Kansas City Tolkien Society gets its own feature in a local newspaper.
When it comes to “Tolkien inspirations” posts like Most popular real-life locations that inspired famous books show that tourism interests have more influence than offering facts. The Forest of Dean has been marketing itself as such a place of inspiration when Michael Flowers of the Tolkien Society made clear this is humbug.Now that the biopic TOLKIEN has come and gone in most cases this line will mark its memory and shows what it is made of:
Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school.
I would have to spend serious time to explain why “orphaned author” and “fellow outcasts” do not really work but then it is ‘just a biopic.’ Aesthetically beautiful and haunting, pretty much nothing in it has a foundation in fact; however, I certainly recommend you watching it if you appreciate J.R.R. Tolkien, the medievalist and linguist.
Film franchise, merchandise and Amazon seriesThe Middle-Earth Collection may get a release this year, even if only the first half.The Battle for Middle-earth franchise by EA games the license of which expired many years ago still has many loyal fans. The project BfMe:Reforged has now dropped its first gameplay trailer.I’ll let you decide whether Screenrant’s list of 10 Times Tolkien’s LOTR Inspired The Harry Potter Series actually is true.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum by German gaming studio Daedalic Entertainment has put out another trailer.
In other news
Marian Smothers, younger sister of Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura, of Star Trek: The Original Series fame, has started a GoFundMe campaign to finance the legal battle for the protection of Nichols. If you feel like donating, you can do this here.
The Blog Roll
These are blogs you really should be following if you’re interested in Tolkien …
Some of these, you may find, are not as active as one would hope; but even if they have not posted anything new for a long time they are repositories of great essays and research on all things Tolkienian and always worth your time. The blog roll – and this very newsletter! – has been inspired by Troels Forchammer’s Parma-kenta and his excellent Tolkien Transactions he did for seven years – they are still sorely missed!
Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, ‘Too Many Books and Never Enough’
Dimitra Fimi, ‘Dr. Dimitra Fimi’
Jason Fisher, ‘Lingwë — Musings of a Fish’
Douglas A. Anderson, ‘Tolkien and Fantasy’
John D. Rateliff — ‘Sacnoth’s Scriptorium’
John Garth, ‘John Garth’
David Bratman, ‘Kalimac’s Journal’
Jenny Dolfen, ‘Jenny’s Sketchbook’
Andrew Higgens, ‘Wotan’s Musings’
Anna Smol, ‘A Single Leaf’
Edmund Weiner, ‘Philoloblog’
Robin Anne Reid, her blog
Annalisa Palmer, her blog
Various, The Mythopoeic Society
Various (Bradford Eden, ed.) Journal of Tolkien Research (JTR)
Various, The Tolkien Society (TS)
Southfarthing Mathom
Various, The Mythopoeic Society, ‘The Horn of Rohan Redux’
Sue Bridgwater, ‘Skorn’
Tom Hilman, ‘Alas, not me’
Michael Martinez, ‘Middle-earth’
Bruce Charlton, ‘Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers’
Various, ‘Middle-earth News’
Jeffrey R. Hawboldt, ‘Expressions of Substance’
Ryszard Viajante Derdzinski, ‘Tolknięty’
Stephen C. Winter, ‘Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings’
Troels Forchhammer, ‘Parma-kenta‘
Marcel Aubron-Bülles, ‘The Tolkienist‘
Jeremy Edmonds, ‘Tolkien Collector’s Guide‘
Aubrey, ‘Diverse Tolkien‘
Elyanna, ‘itariilles‘
Picture credits: The Mirror of Galadriel and King Elessar by Jay Johnstone.
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