The One hundred and twenty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Feb 14, 1896. Tolkien dictates a letter to his father (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Feb 15, 1896. Arthur Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Tolkien's father, dies.
Feb 16, 1974. On the advice of Christopher Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), The Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) appoints J.R.R. Tolkien as Honorary President in perpetuo.
Feb 18, 1937. Tolkien's poem "Knocking at the Door (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" is published in The Oxford Magazine. [See Mewlips (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Youtube]
Feb 20, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 25 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in answer to an Observer article on The Hobbit.

A private collection of some note (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is being sold with Tom Wayling.

Events & Shows

February 15. A Light in the Darkness Reading Day Event (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - please participate for a good cause.

The Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has Beyond Elvish: Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds in September (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Submissions possible until Feb 29.
[The Fantastic Library manages and maintains the world's largest publicly accessible collection of fantastic literature with a collection of over 300k titles.]

Tolkien & the Organ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Exeter College Chapel with Stuart Lee [Feb 27]

Rafael Pascual (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (University of Granada) ‘Tolkien and old English prosody’ will happen in Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Feb 21.

The Slovenian Tolkien Society has extended an invitation to “Malo letno srečanje” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Feb 28 - March 1; Instagram]

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

Stephen C. Winter has Time to Start Writing Again (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has interviews: One to watch, one to hear, one look out for (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady]

Hall of Beorn’s posts on the LotR: TCG are offering beautiful art, even if you’re not playing - Homebrew: Nightmare The Withered Heath (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Journal of Tolkien Research’s vol. 20, issue 2, is filling up nicely (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Jeff LaSala has Valentine’s in Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

TV & Film Awards Season Has Started (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [TORn]

Warner Bros. gaming division facing leadership fallout (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Checkpoint Gaming; Bloomberg (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) originally reporting, paywall]

Living Card Game Changes – Fantasy Flight Announce The End of Classic Products (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tabletop Gaming UK]

The Story Shop (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Monroe, GA, has a hobbit hole, a yellow brick road, and a magical wardrobe. [Instagram; website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

LotRO now has an official Discord server (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Prime Video confirms Season Three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Amazon press release; Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Jumping forward several years from the events of Season 2, Season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last. [Source (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

How ‘Wallace and Gromit’ Pays Homage to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

James Joyce’s The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [McSweeney’s Internet Tendency; humour]

How to train your dragon has a trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Netflix and Wizards of the Coast put FORGOTTEN REALMS live-action show into development (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wertzone]

The Silent Fade-Out of Scanline VFX Germany: A Loss for the German VFX Industry & Its Artists (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [LinkedIn; h/t INDAC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The headline is just too good: “'Bilbo Baggins was a burglar' charity shop thief tells court” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [NWE Mail]

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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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