The One hundred and twenty-fifth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Feb 21, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 205 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Christopher's lecture presentation at Oxford; proud father moment.
Feb 23, 1961. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) writes Letter 229 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), his “reaction to Åke Ohlmarks (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)' ‘nonsense’” in the Swedish translation to Lord of the Rings.
Feb 27, 1930. Joseph Wright (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), former tutor of Tolkien, dies.
Feb 28, 1949. Tolkien writes Letter 119 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), ‘busily working, anticipating a period of leave’, planning to use it to type the LotR manuscript himself, assuming this would cost way more than £3,000 if done professionally (in today’s currency).

• Third Age. The breaking of the Fellowship of the Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [3019, Feb 26.]

Events & Shows

The Hobbit is on with the Hillcrest Center for the Arts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Thousand Oaks, California.

The Tales after Tolkien Society has the full program to Kalamazoo, (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that is, the International Congress on Medieval Studies. (simply search for ‘Tolkien’, there are a number of items.)

News on the LotR musical (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - after Perth it will go “to Melbourne and the Gold Coast.” [Limelight; my supporters at Steady had already heard of the Australian shows (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Dec ‘21.]

Tolkien fans in Birmingham should not mistake the upcoming Hobbit concert at the ICC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with Middle-earth - this is Jack Hobbs called ‘Hobbit’, a British beatboxer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)of quite some renown.

The Online MidSummer Seminar 2025 of the Mythopoeic Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a date and its CfP (deadline March 31): More Perilous and Fair: Women and Gender in Mythopoeic Fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Middle-earth Festival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has finalised its date and place: Sept 13-14, 2025, at the “Festival field off Norton Lane in Wythall, B47 6HA. It's a few minutes walk from Wythall train station”, in the south of Birmingham, UK.

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 “I Must Find The Mountain of Fire and Cast The Thing Into The Gulf of Doom. Gandalf Said So. I Do Not Think I Shall Ever Get There.” Frodo Speaks of His Task to Faramir and of Its Impossibility. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Wander the medieval streets that inspired ‘The Lord of The Rings’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Our Sunday Visitor; h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Lord of the Rings Online dev Q&A talks about class revamps, kinship refresh, and the next roadmap (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively Overpowered; bullet point list with the forums (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Tom Hillman has "a path of ascent however hard" -- Tolkien to Lewis on the mysteries and opportunities of pain (Letters² #113) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as Pearls before swine, Aelfric of Eynsham, and the catherdral at Chartres (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

I have listed Posts published with Steady for the months of September 2024 – January 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [thetolkienist.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Nick Polk has Agatha All Along and Tolkien's Warning of Dangerous Myths (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Putri Prihatini has made the shorter version of her TS Seminar 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) presentation available with her blog: “The Sea Goddess and the King: on Aldarion, Uinen, and Javanese Queen of the Southern Sea (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).”

New material has been added to the most recent issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Eugene's fantasy boom: Hobbit feasts, magic markets and a new wave of whimsy and culture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [The Register Guard; Oregon]

Bon Bergstrom GoodKnight shared memories of her daughter Arwen Joy GoodKnight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [File770]

doubtfulsea has Into the Fire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

I have only now noticed that the Birmingham, Sarehole Mill-adjacent based Hungry Hobb(it) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has closed its doors in Nov ‘24. [Facebook; h/t File770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Lord of the Rings: Woobles (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are here (crochet.)

The next video game has pushed its schedule to July: Tales of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Instagram]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

Fantasy fiction doesn’t need reclaiming for women – they already write and read it (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

Daisy Ridley Talks the Physical Toll of ‘Cleaner’ and Quality Over Quickness for Her Next ‘Star Wars’ Movie (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter]

Step Into the Free and Infinite Laboratory of the Mind (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [on science fiction; issues.org]

Register for free on a “Directors Discussion with Oscars Animated Shorts Contenders” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Feb 27; h/t INDAC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Lewis Carroll collection given to his Oxford college in surprise US donation (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

The SELIM Research Seminar 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on Middle English Literature and Culture will take place in Madrid and online (free and open to the public); I am mentioning this as Thomas Honegger is offering “Animals in Medieval Literature and Art: Between Symbol, Allegory, and Real Animal.”

The Plain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) roundabout in Oxford is incredibly dangerous and it still has ads on it. A community effort (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is trying to get the council to take more precautions for pedestrians’ and cyclists’ safety.

From 2020 but more valid than ever: The Fantastic From Counterpublic to Public Imaginary: The Darkest Timeline? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[JSTOR; free download]

J.K. Rowling’s Agency Hires Former Disney Exec to Lead Harry Potter Franchise Team, Taps Universal Music Alum as CCO (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety]

Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Jordan S. Carroll may be read free online.

James Bond has been sold, now for real (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Variety]

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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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