Monday, December 7, 2015

A Kickstarter I'm Backing

So, I don't do many Kickstarters -- for one thing, they tend to be on the pricy side and game purchases cut into the buying-books-on-Tolkien budget. And for another I'm not v. plugged in these days to what new projects are currently live (even in the TSR days I was the last to hear any rumor going round).

But there's one project I plan to make an exception for: Scott Gable's THE FAERIE RING. Here's the link describing the project:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557256029/the-faerie-ring-for-pathfinder-roleplaying-game

This has been in the works for a long time (I did some editing work on it, or perhaps an earlier form of it, years ago) and I'm glad it's now well on its way to seeing the light of day.

The reason I liked it so much was (1st) that it was well-written and (2nd) that it struck me as an original take on the material. I've read a LOT of rpg material based on fairy lore -- after all it's one of the core elements of D&D from the original MONSTERS & TREASURE booklet (1974) onward, as well as being one of the core source-streams that flowed together to make modern fantasy.* But I found Scott's interpretation interesting and disturbing, and he makes some connections that I think are unique, such as linking the Fir Bolg (who are usually treated as just the hapless folk who got caught between the Formorians and the Tuatha de Danaan) to the Wild Hunt.

So, this is one time I'm going to take the plunge and support an interesting-sounding Kickstarter.  They're currently at about one-third what they need to fund the project, with twenty-two days to go. I'll post an update later about how it goes.

--JDR


*along with medievalism and mythology

2 comments:

HobbitFan said...

Hi Mr. Rateliff,

First let me complement you on what of the best scholarly books on a work of Tolkien. I couldn't put it down.

I had a question from History of the Hobbit. In the chapter on Medwed, one of the footnotes references Anders Stenstrom and The Figure of Beorn and an attempt to determine tall he was. Do you recall what his conclusion was on Beorn's height.

Thanks,

Walt

John D. Rateliff said...

Dear Walt

The information you ask about can be found in ARDA 1987 (published in 1992) in the article "The Figure of Beorn" by Anders Stenstrom. Anders works out that Bilbo was about three and a half feet tall. Therefore, if he could walk betweem Beorn's legs without even ducking his head to pass under his tunic, Beorn himself must have been some ten feet tall (p. 47) --about the same as Goliath (ftnt3, p. 46).

I hope this helps. Glad you enjoyed the book. Thanks for your kind words.

--John R.