The One hundred and thirtieth Roving Ranger
Life and Works
March 28, 1958. Tolkien is invited to attend a "Hobbit Dinner" in Rotterdam (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
March 30, 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 334 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), thanking ‘Rayner [Unwin] for his help during Tolkien's C.B.E. awarding.’
April 1, 1977. Tolkien's children found The Tolkien Trust (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) charity.
April 3, 1958. Tolkien, signing as "Gandalf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)", sends a letter to a Dutchman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
An Hobat, no A-null ’s Air Ais A-rithist The Hobbit, or There and Back Again in Scottish Gaelic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Evertype Publishing]
Parma Eldalamberon #19 is now available as print on demand [Barnes & Noble (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Great British Bookshop (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]
Tolkien Triangle will honour Hobbit author's legacy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [BBC News; h/t Andrew Wells; please note the original version of the post had ‘18 years’]
Events & Shows
Registration deadline for the 21st Annual UVM Tolkien Conference: Tolkien and War (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is April 1st.
The New York Tolkien Conference has announced Kristine Larsen as a guest speaker (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Please do not be surprised that the Southampton Rum Festival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) might pop up in the news in the coming weeks with a “Tolkien link” - it’s held at the Hobbit pub, that’s why!
Interestingly enough, Elaine Paige, one of the UK’s most well-known artists in musical theatre with her own BBC radio show, mentioned the Tolkien Reading Day in this episode (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)(at 1:50:50). Well done!
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
John Garth has Tolkien Reading Day and the machine war against imagination (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Dimitra Fimi now has a Substack. The first post is: On Tolkien's Letter 131 (1): Capturing "timeless Elvish enchantment." (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
The discussions on Tolkien publications in France continue (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Telerama; in support of Vincent Ferré]
The Tolkien Society has a job advert out - for its first Chief Executive Officer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The Bodleian Libraries shared the annotated map of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for TRD [this even made it to File770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).]
The 1969 Tim Kirk calendar is available as a PDF scan with FANAC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
The transactions of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeologial Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are now available online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Iron Room, Birmingham Libraries]
doubtfulsea has Treating (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Merchandise & Franchise
The Wheel of Time vs. The Rings of Power - Which has Earned More Revenue for Prime Video? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Parrot Analytics]
Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale is dubbed ‘The Best Show in Middle Earth’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[review; Out in Perth]; The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Australian Arts Review]
Hot Topic fashion has added more Lord of the Rings items (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
LEGO is pulling out all the stops with an official mini movie, including Sean Astin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube, IGN (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game – community building and shared meals gameplay details (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Playstation Blog]
Inter alia
The best pubs and bars in Oxford according to The Telegraph (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Oxford & Mail; nonsense article mentioning the closed Eagle & Child but not the Lamb & Flag?!?]
One of the largest genetic testing companies is bankrupt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - so let’s hope all of your information is safe. [CBS News]
A quick write-up of all U.S.S. Enterprise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) incarnations [Startrek.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]
ANDOR, season 2, has an official trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]
Event Report: Fantasy in the Midst of War: Perspectives from Ukraine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Mutiny brews in French bookshops over Hachette owner’s media grip (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]
A lovely look back at Leonard Nimoy’s life (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (born March 26th, 1931) with File770.
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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.
