The One hundred and twenty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Jan 31, 1892. Tolkien is christened at the Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Michael (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Bloemfontein (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Feb 1, 1913. Tolkien writes a postcard to Edith Bratt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), showing his seat at the table in Exeter College dining hall.
Feb 2, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 35 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), asking for the latest date of turning in the new story, The Lord of the Rings.
Feb 4, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 22 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), possibly detailing Christopher Tolkien’s first ever documented “study” of his father’s works - finding mistakes in The Hobbit, receiving twopence each.
Feb 5, 1968. First day of filming for the documentary Tolkien in Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Feb 6, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Renovations are ongoing with the Eagle & Child in Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Christopher Gilson notes Parma Eldalamberon 21-23 are again available (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as print-on-demand, both US and UK [Bluesky]

Events & Shows

The festival Yggdrasil in Lyon, France, has a ~7,000€ ‘one ring’ to find on a treasure hunt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).[Feb 8-9]

Publishing Fantasy for Younger Readers: A Symposium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will take place in Glasgow in April, with Tom Emanuel championing LotR.

Oxonmoot registration (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is available now. [Tolkien Society]

According to a post with the Middle-earth Festival’s Facebook page (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) it will finally take place again - ‘weekend after Oxonmoot’, so possibly Sept 13/14.

The Tolkien Seminar Series (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford has Rafael Pascual with ‘Tolkien's Forms of Detachment’ (Feb 7).

The outstanding Verlyn Flieger has Tolkien on Tolkien, A Study of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Sun 2 & 9), an online class with Politics & Prose (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Sao Paolo, Brasil, smial Imladris has laid out its plans for 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Instagram]

Many of the Australian fellowships recently came together for OzMoot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). 2026 will take place in Canberra. [Facebook]

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*

The fires in California have seen so many people suffer - David Bratman has shared a personal experience (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Birmingham Oratory - where Tolkien spent many formative years - has The Lord of the Rings Talk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Dr Julian Murphy.

The open source magazine Well Played has Michał Żmuda’s The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game: A Machine That Generates Possible Worlds (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Burden of Belongings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Andrew Higgins has Elvish Pronouns in the late 1930's - Part One (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Michael Martinez has Was J.R.R. Tolkien Woke? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Call for Papers: Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Michael Drout’s Tower and the Ruin has an Amazon listing for Dec 2, 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Joel Merriner has announced his upcoming book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc for September 18 [Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Renga in Blue has another early computer game write-up on Arkenstone (1982) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

A massive film and tv report on US viewers by Luminate on 2024 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) notes that season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has seen a 60% drop in minutes watched.

The Bookseller notes for 2024: “JRR Tolkien’s sales rising 21.3% year-on-year (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).”

An Interview with Stephen Gallagher (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube; h/t BreeCrossroads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Tansy Gardam has And Back Again: The Enduring Appeal of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A six film 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition of the Middle-earth trilogies has been announced for March 18th, 2025. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [IGN]

Lord Of The Rings Very First Squishmallows Are Finally Up For Pre-Order (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (US) [The Gamer] - Frodo, Gandalf, Gollum.

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Inter alia & Back in the Day

Brandon Sanderson says studios and streamers aren’t ready to adapt his work (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Polygon; also mentions WoT and RoP]

Ellen Kushner has Some spells against despair (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) now has ebooks (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Terry Pratchett Estate has made clear in a statement on its Good Omens: the Official (and Ineffable) Graphic Novel Kickstarter page that Neil Gaiman is no longer affiliated with this project (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [see also Rhianna Pratchett, Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Ansible 451 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been published.

• Ansible 211 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) had this LotR film trilogy summary from the Jan 29, 2005, Independent: “The plucky hobbits cross treacherous mountains to stop the evil Lord Sarumon obtaining the ring he needs for world domination.”

George Orwell’s £2 Coin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) could not be more on point right now. [Royal Mint]

A two day academic conference on Medieval Metal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - Reception of the Middle Ages in metal music is happening in Kassel [March 19-20; h/t Gwyndor] (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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