Sunday 28 February 2021

The Week Behind, and what lies ahead – Issue 03 | 28 February 2021

 

Issue 003 | 28 February 2021

Welcome to the third newsletter looking at the Tolkien-related news from the previous week and what is coming up in the week(s) ahead.


Painting: “The Defense of the Sampo” (1896) by Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Kalevala Day (Finnish Culture Day) – 28th February 2021

“It was like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me”

-- J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter (7 June 1955) to W.H. Auden on discovering Finnish
Tolkien, J.R.R., Carpenter, H. and Tolkien, C. (2006) The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins: London.

Today is the Finnish Culture Day, better known as Kalevala Day after the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. Tolkien discovered the epic poem as a schoolboy in Birmingham and taught himself Finnish. With the greater tale, Tolkien loved the Story of Kullervo, which he translated but never finished. But the hero of that story, Kullervo, became part of Tolkien’s own legendarium – it is the core of Túrin Turambar’s tale.

Reading

LOTRO: Online chats with Standing Stone Games

Just a few notes:

  • This is the last week of the Ill Omens event (ends 7th March 2021).
  • The next big event will be the Spring Festival (starts 18th March 2021).
  • The next quest pack, the Wildwood, is hopefully expected sometime in March.

Free League’s The One Ring RPG

The Kickstarter ends in 4 days! It has just hit, as of writing, an amazing £1,025, 982 (SEK 12,055,228) with 11,496 backers.

There have been quite a lot of chats with those involved with the project over the last week. Below are some of them.

Upcoming chats

Falenthal Greenleaf interview with Francesco Nepitello (live at 14.00 GMT on 28th February 2021)

Previous chats


Free League Update 24/2/2021
THE ONE RING™, Alien Operations Manual, Kickstarter Updates

Nerd of the Rings
Francesco Nepitello, designer of The One Ring RPG

Mostly Off-topic
The One Ring 2nd Edition: How Might It Play at the Table?

Really Dicey
The One Ring Second Edition - Discussing The Kickstarter Campaign with Francesco Nepitello

The Tolkien Society

This week two previous seminars have been made available in various formats – the Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2020 are available pre-order in printed form and the Tolkien Society Seminar #1 2021 can be watched now on YouTube.

Adapting Tolkien: Proceedings of the Tolkien Society Seminar 2020
Release Date: 12 April 2021
Peter Roe Series XX

Tolkien Society February Seminar 2021: Twenty-first Century Receptions of Tolkien

Upcoming talks/events 

Tolkien Reading Day - “Hope and Courage”
Thursday 26th March 2021 – online - free
The Tolkien Society and the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic (University of Glasgow) 

Each year the Tolkien Society marks the day the Ring was destroyed whilst also celebrating the life of J.R.R. Tolkien with an international day of reading. People are encouraged to read their favourite passages from Tolkien’s books. The theme this year is “Hope and Courage.”

You can book on one of three sessions to suit you – morning, afternoon or early evening. Details can be found on the link below:

Tolkien Society Seminar #2 “Tolkien and Diversity”
Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th July 2021 – online - free 

The next Tolkien Society Seminar will be in July and is focusing on the theme of “Tolkien and Diversity.” There is currently a call for papers, deadline is Friday 23rd April 2021. Details here:

International Medieval Congress
Monday 5th to Friday 9th July 2021 – online - £120 (full) / £75 (concessionary)
Leeds University 

The Tolkien sessions for the International Medieval Congress have been finalised. Dr. Andrew Higgins it taking over organising these from Dr. Dimtra Fimi. There looks to be some wonderful talks lined up, Details can be found here:

Shelob’s around the Web round-Up 

The Immanent Grove: Memorialising the achievements of the University of Glasgow’s Fantasy graduates
The talk given at the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic (University of Glasgow) on 24th March 2021 is now available to view on YouTube:

Details about the talk can be found here:

The Guardian: “As a Black Lord of the Rings fan, I felt left out of fantasy worlds. So I created my own”
A fascinating insight into how Namina Forna sees the books she grew up loving.

Polygon’s Year of the Ring
It is the 20th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings and Polygon is celebrating:

Molly Knox Ostertag (@MollyOstertag) and illustrating the unpublished Epilogue of The Lord of the Rings
Whilst reading “The History of Middle-Earth: Sauron Defeated” Molly Ostertag discovered an unpublished epilogue written by Samwise Gamgee in the Red Book. It inspired here to illustrate it.

Details of this epilogue featuring Sam and his daughter can be found here:


Sam at 50!
Actor Sean Austin, who played Samwise Gamgee, hits 50 years of age on 25 February 2021. His friends created a video of birthday wishes (linked below). Happy Birthday Sean!

“Magic: the Gathering” goes to Middle-earth!
In a surprise announcement, Wizards of the Coast have announced that their collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering will expand into “Universes Beyond.” This includes Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings. They have teamed up with Middle-earth Enterprises to do this. Details and Twitter reveals below:

More updates on this as we learn more.

Wade Centre: Author and book discussion - Holly Ordway’s "Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages"
The Marion E. Wade Center (University of Wheaton College, Illinois, USA) hosted a book launch on 26th February 2021.

Co-director David C. Downing and Wade Archivist Laura Schmidt talked to author Holly Ordway about her new book, "Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages."
You can see this discussion here:

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