The Nineteenth Roving Ranger
Folks,
a warm welcome to this, the nineteenth Roving Ranger newsletter.
Events
Next year there will be an 8-day-tour for people interested in C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. And as Tom Shippey is a guest speaker I am happy to let you know about it (he does know his stuff!) With $2,500+ as asking price it is not the cheapest of options but hey!
I would highly suggest to you to look up the International Tolkien Fellowship Facebook group for Tolkien-inspired events the world over.
Essays & Scholarship
It’s time for fantasy fiction and role-playing games to shed their racist history was published with the Guardian; Tolkien/ Dimitra Fimi do get their mention.
Italian Tolkien scholar Oronzo Cilli asked about two of the people on this particular image – they might be Tolkien and one of his best friends.
Stephen C. Winter has another essay: On Deadly Wounds and Their Healing. Aragorn Tries to Offer Frodo Some Relief After the Nazgûl Attack.
Reviews and Book News
As a Colognian I am always having a look at what the amazing Taschen publishing house does and this time I will have to save up for this: Masterpieces of Fantasy Art looks like the must have for anyone taking an interest in this particular field of art history.
John D. Rateliff mentioned the finalists to the Mythopoeic Society Awards – he edited one of the finalists, A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, and it seems to be an excellent choice. Rateliff is quite happy about the review and does note this.
(Tempelhof fall beauty (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles)
Franchise, merchandise and Amazon series
You know, if you happen to have $20,000 then you could buy the eight Knickerbocker figurines from the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings on Ebay.
If any of you ever happen to be in Ocean City, Maryland, please do let me know how the Hobbit Restaurant is. No real connection to Tolkien but it looks good!
Other stuff
I am not sure in how many ways saying hobbit homes need privacy and security is wrong but that is up for everyone to decide for themselves, I guess: Light-Filled Hobbit Home in Tennessee Offers Plenty of Privacy and Security.
Religious conservatives in the US have been using Tolkien’s works in many shapes or forms; if I tried to list all posts on this I would have to do a special edition of the newsletter, possibly. Take this one as a regular example: What ‘The Lord of the Rings’ can teach us about U.S. politics, Christianity and power from the Jesuit Review.
It is been more than ten years now that Middle-earth is coming to life on a Minecraft server. Truly impressive!
In other news
Instead of offering you silly headlines do have a look at the academic work yourself: Narrative structure of A Song of Ice and Fire creates a fictional world with realistic measures of social complexity.
I recently thought about watching certain films: The Harry Potter movies are no longer available on any streaming service (also, LotR and Hobbit, but please don’t ask about the EEs.)
In case you ever wanted to see the U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 as a really, really tiny 3d printed thing in your bloodstream one day – well, at Leiden University people do this kind of stuff.
The Amazing Maurice by Terry Pratchett is going to be filmed! And the cast sounds absolutely splendid – “Hugh Laurie (Avenue 5) as Maurice, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Malicia, David Thewlis (Wonder Woman) as Boss Man, Himesh Patel (Yesterday) as Keith, Gemma Arterton (The King’s Man) as Peaches and Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as The Mayor.”
(Tempelhof fall beauty (c) Marcel Aubron-Bülles)
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: I recently moved to Tempelhof, a quarter in Berlin founded the Knights Templar in the 13th century, and there a number of really nice parks around here (not even mentioning the tons of historic monuments!) Pictures taken by me of the Alte Park.
According to German law I have to infom you all links to enterprises/ artists are [unpaid advertisements.]
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