The Tenth Roving Ranger
Folks,
a warm welcome to this, the tenth Roving Ranger newsletter!
Events
The Eä Tolkien Society has been doing many of its events online for many years and their next TolkienMoot is coming up on Sept 19th, 2020. Please RSVP to join – either as part of a very small group in person in Spokane, Washington or online! Guests are Dr. David Russell Mosley, John Garth, Sarah Zama, & Shawn E. Marchese; this year’s theme is “The Rise of Númenor”.
URGENT: THIS FRIDAY the Cité internationale de tapisseries in Aubusson which is working on the Tolkien Tapestries Project are going to do a first online ‘reveal’ of another finished tapesty via their Facebook page.
The University of Glasgow will be the first university worldwide to open a dedicated Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic soon; among the team is excellent Tolkien scholar Dr Dimitra Fimi. The launch will happen on Sept 16; if tickets for the Zoom conference are already sold out the team will try to find streaming options so more fans can listen in. Guest of honour will be the wonderful Ellen Kushner; Terri Windling will be joining a panel discussion.
Please always refer to the International Tolkien Fellowship Facebook group for Tolkien-inspired events the world over.
Reviews and Book News
Kiwi readers have been asked for their favourite books; The Lord of the Rings comes in at number 7.
Maria Dahvana Headley is at it again with a modernist translation of Beowulf; Tolkien is mentioned with both New Yorker and Vox.
Other Stuff
Puppet State Theatre have awed Tolkien fans everywhere with their unique stage rendition of Leaf by Niggle. Thanks to the support of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Tolkien Estate supporters could watch an online screening of two of their plays, including Niggle, and they have reached their first and most important goal of crowdfunding. You can still support this for at least the next weeks and I highly suggest you do if you can.
The 1966 Hobbit which was a cheat and a fraud to extend film rights and better sell them was shown once only. You can have a look at it here.
Film franchise, merchandise and Amazon series
For those of you with an interest in table top gaming the following link holds quite a few interesting painting jobs on Lord of the Rings and Hobbit characters; they have just added the Riders of Rohan.
The upcoming Lord of the Rings: Gollum is still a mystery even though Daedalic has been dropping hints here and there. The latest with GameRadar.
Actor Dylan Smith who is with the cast of the upcoming Lord of the Rings on Prime shared a picture from his morning make-up session on Instagram. Whether this is actually a character from the series or maybe just a prank nobody knows.
In other news
The Scotsman has a Tolkien mention and if Mordor is involved I am linking it.
Indian business news are not usually on my to read list but as a major take-over included Hobbits International Foods I got interested. I do not know whether there is any link to Tolkien in this case but at least the company is about:
Production, processing and preservation of meat, fish, fruit vegetables, oils and fats.
In other business: Palantir, possibly one of the most odious corporations on the planet, has filed papers to go public.
Nota bene: On a personal note
I will be celebrating my birthday on Sept 3rd so if I do not answer your email as quickly as usual in the coming days please bear with me.
You may also have noted that I have been travelling recently (that is my name, in a sense, as the Travelling Tolkienist) with a Tolkien background in mind. If you have not I have included two photos in this newsletter with a link to beautiful Leiden in the Netherlands.
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: View of Mill Museum in Leiden and Me & Fred, the Friendly Uruk at the Tolkienshop by (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles.
If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
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