The Eleventh Roving Ranger

Folks,

a warm welcome to this, the elevent Roving Ranger newsletter!

Events

The TolkienTribe on Instagram is starting festivities for #HobbitWeek2020 on today’s Tolkien Tuesday. Do visit their IG. // [Full Disclosure] Please note I am also a member of the #TolkienTribe.

Jim Wert has been so kind as to send me the links to the recent DragonCon Tolkien specials. If you did not have the chance to watch them at the time they’ll be up for a couple of weeks: “An Unexpected Virtual Party: the Latest News from Middle-earth from the OneRing.net”: https://youtu.be/dssLi0d5WpQ

• “The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien”: an Hour with Author John Garth: https://youtu.be/pgX1AeHrC4Q
• Éowyn and Faramir: The Face of the Fourth Age: https://youtu.be/v_0AhJiaUS8
• The Sixty-Minute Silmarillion: https://youtu.be/iWxhNKw33XI
• Hobbit Drinking Songs: https://youtu.be/EtKfDPR_tus

Due to COVID-19 related restrictions the Lure, planned for February 2021, had to be cancelled. Celebrating 25 years of MECCG (Middle-earth: The Wizards. The Collectible Card Game) at Barcelona in 2020 also had to be cancelled, so no Middle-earth CCG Worlds, either. The community will try and organise replacement events in 2021; if you are interested please subscribe to their newsletter(s).

The Tolkien Tapestries Project with the Cité internationale de la tapisserie in Aubusson has finished another amazing piece of art; this time we have “Bilbo Woke Up With The Early Sun In His Eyes” available on YouTube. It was the first live streaming the museum had done on the project.

Please always refer to the International Tolkien Fellowship Facebook group for Tolkien-inspired events the world over.

Essays & Scholarship

I had almost forgotten Tolkien’s supposedly only ever allusion to Dante but a recent little Twitter chat with Jeremy Edmonds of the Tolkien Guide mentioned one of the letters published in Carpenter’s edition of Letters about the interview Tolkien gave to the Plimmers, published with the Telegraph in 1968. Unfortunately, thanks to this little Twitter chat it is now hidden behind a [Paywall] as it was still free last week as seen in Shaun Gunner’s mention.
Well, anyway, Dante is mentioned briefly in Letter #294 and a scholar with the Dante Society of America wrote this article on it. If you care for more general allusions have a look at Andrew Dagher’s piece and this answer to it.

The German Inklings Society has published a Call for Papers [FB] on their upcoming conference, “Music and the Fantastic.” Contributions have to be sent to the registered charity by Oct 31st, 2020.

Reviews and Book News

Edinburgh-based publisher Luna Press does monthly discounts on its already excellent program. Best thing about it: They have a dedicated Tolkien section and this September there are three Tolkien-related titles available at 20% discount. [Unpaid Advertisement].

The new Hobbit audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis is now available on platforms worldwide. The official HarperCollins UK account posted a chapter on Facebook; publisher Recorded Books gave the first 45 seconds in this press release.

Probably one of the stupidest things involving J.R.R. Tolkien I have seen in many a day is You vs. the Celebs. Abusing the annual Forbes’ Dead Celebrities’ List this provider has taken an average of the last ten years to allow you to figure out how quickly Tolkien is earning YOUR salary from the grave. Holy Mewlips!

Film franchise, merchandise and Amazon series

In a Variety interview Hugo Weaving, best known as Agent Elrond, has made clear he has no intention on returning to Jackson’s/ Amazon’s Middle-earth.

For those of you who were appalled at the news that the roleplaying game The One Ring’s Second edition had ‘gone’ from publisher Cubicle Games you may also know the Swedish publisher Fria Ligan/ Free League Publishing has taken up the baton starting on June 1st, 2020. You can subcribe to news from designer Francesco Nepitello and others with their newsletter.

In other news

Did you know? Leo Tolstoy and J.R.R. Tolkien were pen pals. [Silliest thing I read this week.] I am not linking this; if you want to see for yourself you are quite free to do so.

If you feel sympathy for the Klingons in the Star Trek Universe you will soon have the opportunity of celebrating in proper Great Hall style even if almost everyone’s favourite Chancellor Gowron may be no longer: Klingon Bloodwine has just been announced.

And George R.R. Martin mentioned in passing:

Not quite a fantasy topic but certainly one that has a massive impact on the film industry in general: Largo.ai, an AI-software predecting gross box office, offering script analysis, and casting suggestions, has determined that Henry Cavill would be the best next James Bond, ahead of Richard Armitage and Idris Elba. Funnily enough, that company goes on to explain that their AI is not going to kill creativity or replace industry professionals. If you really are so naïve to believe that AI and/or other technologies are not going to replace the one most expensive item on any film industry’s accountant, payroll costs, then you are in for a surprise in less than a generation.

The Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Lego Idea could actually come to life: It has been nominated as one of 35 projects to be reviewed by LEGO.

And yes, today is Star Trek Day.

The Blog Roll