The One hundred and twenty-first Roving Ranger

Events & Shows

The Lure of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is happening in March (largest METW TCG convention in the world; 25th anniversary GoH is Ted Nasmith; set in a German medieval castle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)).

The Tolkien Society has announced Carl Phelpstead as this year’s guest speaker (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with their annual.

Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be shown in the UK - in its Japanese version (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [TORn]

Hobbit House champs of British School Meet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Daily News; Sri Lanka]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

Nominations open for Tolkien Society Awards 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (until Jan 31).

Nota bene: Yes, you can nominate thetolkienist.com and/or the Roving Ranger for ‘best online content’ 😇 *winkwink*

Also, the Tolkien Society is publishing the proceedings of the 2019 conference on February 28 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has A birthday post for Tolkien’s ‘second father’, Francis Morgan. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady]

Some excellent speakers with From Myth to Manuscript: Exploring Inklings Archival Collections (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including Bill Fliss (Marquette), Catherine McIlwaine (Bodleian Libraries), and Laura Stanifer (Wheaton College) [Vimeo]

Gerry Canavan (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has The lesson of J.R.R. Tolkien’s abandoned Lord of the Rings seque (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)l [Washington Post]

Erik Mueller-Harder has posted a quick update of recent months. Please note he has done “more work on Anduin™ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)”, which researchers visiting Marquette have the pleasure of using.

Tom Hillman has A Point about Elf Ears (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Andrew Higgins has Early Elvish Pronouns in Action (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Jason Fisher has J.A.W. Bennett on Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Archivist’s Nook: Robert T. Meyer – “Bespectacled Linguist” and Friend of J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Catholic University of America; h/t Tolkien Gleanigs]

The Silver Key has Blogging the Silmarillion (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Wade Center has announced the Walter Hooper Papers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Vol. 11 No. 1–2 of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research has a number of Tolkien items (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Nick Polk has Skeleton Crew and the Scouring of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

A new board game is coming: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [BGG; game designer Substack (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

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Inter alia & Back in the Day

New plans for the Eagle & Child (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Oxford have been approved. [This is Oxfordshire]

The amazing Una McCormack is in Oxford with an An Evening of Science Fiction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Eventbrite; at Trinity College]

The Hobbit - Rap Battle of the Five Armies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Warp Zone; Youtube]

A 2,500 years old sword from China is “like something from the J.R.R. Tolkien universe that has entered the actual historical record” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Res Obscura; the Sword of Gouijan (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Adaptation for Netflix Gets Imax Release (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety]

The most popular books in public libraries in the US (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as a bar chart rade (Canada, Australia and UK will be added, too) [Syndetics; h/t LibraryThing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Film Courage: Day I Realized That CGI Was Taking Over Hollywood – Craig Caton-Largent (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [INDAC]

Charles Williams’s War in Heaven (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Aquila et Infans]

UKL: The Journal of Ursula K. Le Guin Studies has Violence and Taoist Ethics in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The 45th Razzie® Award Nominations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are out.

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Threads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

As this is 2025 I would like to note that this newsletter is 100% human-made, curated by me, Marcel R. Bülles. This also holds true for everything I write with my blog and here at Steady. Also, the average time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours for the bi-weekly edition and 6-8 hours for the weekly one.

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