The One hundred and twentieth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

Jan 17, 1973. Tolkien writes a Letter to N.J. Kyle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the Silmarillion.
Jan 18, 1934. Tolkien's poem "Looney (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
Jan 19, 1965. Tolkien writes Letter 268 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the fate of Shadowfax.
Jan 20, 1912. Vincent Trought (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a member of the T.C.B.S., dies.
Jan 21, 1889. Edith Bratt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is born in Gloucestershire.
Jan 22, 1956. The NYT Book Review publishes Auden (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)'s review of RotK, "At the End of the Quest, Victory (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)".
Jan 24, 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 332 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) about Merton College taking him in.

• Third Age. Gandalf pursued the creature for eight days until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), where they fought (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for three days and two nights [death of the Balrog, Jan 25]

All information available with Tolkien Gateway (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Events & Shows

The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale review (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian; for the Sydney edition] | [Broadway World (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)] | [Limelight Magazine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)] | [Scenestr (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The library of the Belgian city Aubange has a wide range of events from January 25 to March 15 with the theme “from book to film (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).”

The HOTA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Australia has an exhibition coming up in April called “Writers Revealed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster): Treasures from the British Library and National Portrait Gallery, London”, including letters from J.R.R. Tolkien (to Michael George Tolkien).

The Phantastische Bibliotek (Library of the Fantastic) in Wetzlar in cooperation with the German Inklings Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a conference coming up: Beyond Elvish. Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds (Sept 2025). (CfP in German/English (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [pdf]; deadline Feb 28)

France sees an online event with Fandival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) pulling together four fandoms: GoT, HP, Tolkien, and WoT (Jan 25-25).

The New England Youth Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Brattleboro, VT, is doing a Puppet Design and Build Workshop (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for their upcoming Hobbit stage adaptation.

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 Prancing Pony Podcast is coming up with something new on Jan 21 - here is the announcement (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]

The conference proceedings of the Mythopoeic Society’s “Something Mighty Queer” are now available online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Jason Fisher has A short review of The Mythmakers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

PlaymOkapix (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has done Thorin's Charge - in Playmobil. [Youtube]

Andrew Higgins has Early Elvish Pronouns and The 1920's Early Qenya Grammar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The New York Times has a (paywalled?) article on the most excellent Karen Wynn Fonstad (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of the Atlas of Middle-earth; Jeff LaSala has some thoughts about her work (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Sørina Higgins has Barfield Halfway Along Life’s Journey (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The JTR issue 20/2 has another piece: The English and the Welsh: Tolkien’s Rewriting of History in the Legendarium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

Lord of the Rings Online’s lead explains how the new 64-bit servers are going to work (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively Overpowered]

The steelbook edition of LotR: War of the Rohirrim has a date with Amazon - Feb 18 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A new merchandise agreement (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for Middle-earth Enterprises - the German Burgschneider Group, a company specialised in costumes and character design, with roots in LARP and major conventions - and which already has D&D and Warhammer licenses.

The Roving Ranger and other of my ventures are reader-supported publications. To receive additional posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
—— Now available until Jan 31 ➡️ the 7-day-trial option.

Inter alia & Back in the Day

David Lodge has passed away (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Guardian; Penguin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); h/t David Bratman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

David Lynch has passed away (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Wertzone; BBC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Variety (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Ellen Kushner has Progress and Resolutions (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

Then do consider using Steady (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany and free of enshittification (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Do use my invite link (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

According to German law I have to inform you all links to enterprises, artists, products etc. are [unpaid advertisements.] Some purchase links may earn me a small commission from Blackwell's (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the (independent) bookshops of my personal trust (one with a Tolkien connection!)

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.

Are you interested in a gift for someone you really like?
... and that person happens to like Tolkien? Look no further 😁🥳

I have gift plans for a Steady membership with 300+ posts, rants, reviews, event reports, Fingolfin's Findings, Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments and more...