The One hundred and twenty-ninth Roving Ranger
Life and Works
March 21, 1967. Tolkien writes a letter to Humphrey Carpenter (Opens in a new window), on turning The Hobbit into a children's musical play.
March 22, 1916. Tolkien & Edith Bratt get married in the church of St Mary Immaculate (Opens in a new window) in Warwick.
March 24, 1953. Tolkien writes Letter 136 (Opens in a new window) on the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
March 27, 1972. Rayner Unwin (Opens in a new window) organizes a party in celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien's CBE the following day (Opens in a new window).
Third Age. The destruction of the One Ring, downfall of Barad-dûr (Opens in a new window) and passing of Sauron (Opens in a new window). [3019, March 25.]
The Hobbit takes a Welsh twist (Opens in a new window) at Morriston Library [Swansea Bay News]
Events & Shows
I am part of the A Long-Expected Soundscape Tolkien Reading Day 2025 (Opens in a new window) with many amazing speakers [March 23rd, Noon Eastern, Youtube]
The Tolkien Society will be hosting its Tolkien Reading Day event with their Discord server today (Opens in a new window).
The Racine Theatre Guild (Wisconsin) will be staging the Hobbit (Opens in a new window) (again.) [Apr 10-19] Great opportunity to also see Marquette!
The Academy of Children's Theatre, in Richland, Washington, is also up to the Hobbit (Opens in a new window). [March 21-30; Instagram (Opens in a new window)]
Tickets for the Tolkien Lecture of 2025 are now available (Opens in a new window). [Pembroke College, Oxford info (Opens in a new window)]
[Lost and found] I must have missed this Nova Scotia theatre festival rendition of the Hobbit, somewhere out in the woods (Opens in a new window)! [August 2022, Keppoch Mountains, by the Festival Antigonish (Opens in a new window); see information on Youtube (Opens in a new window)]
For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window). Tolkien Reading Day (Opens in a new window) is being celebrated globally.
Scholarship & Fandom
doubtfulsea has Doom (Opens in a new window).
Jason Fisher has Hallucinations (Opens in a new window).
Miriam Ellis has The Fairbairns of Westmarch - Traditions Worth Keeping (Opens in a new window).
Stephen C. Winter has “I Declare You Free in The Realm of Gondor to The Furthest of its Ancient Bounds.” Why Does Faramir Set Frodo Free? (Opens in a new window)
Nick Polk has Resonances of Universalism in Tolkien's Legendarium (Opens in a new window).
Merchandise & Franchise
Why not take part in a Hobbit pot glazing workshop (Opens in a new window) in Pennsylvania?
Lord of the Rings Online’s 64-bit server transfers begin to catch up as devs acknowledge server load stress (Opens in a new window) [Massively OP]
The Lord of the Rings musical has opened in Perth, Australia (Opens in a new window); see its trailer with Gandalf, Galadriel, and Frodo going for a walk around town (Opens in a new window). [Instagram]
Not commenting on the relevance of the claim but the Evesham Festival of Words has “Bikes and Books” - a bike ride with connections (Opens in a new window) to “writers such as JM Barrie, JRR Tolkien and William Morris.” [July 19, 2025]
LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIE MARATHON FESTIVAL is Coming to The Park Theatre (Opens in a new window) [Mar 30; Broadway World]
Inter alia
Fun Fact Terry Pratchett passed away ten years ago and in memoriam I had requested to have footnotes added to the Steady backend - which has now happened1! Glorious! 😇
What It Was Like to Write on George Lucas’ Unproduced Star Wars Show (Opens in a new window) [Gizmodo]
A Humble Bundle is happening on Dragonlance (Opens in a new window).
The British Science Fiction Association announced the shortlist of nominees (Opens in a new window)for the BSFA Awards, including several nominations for Luna Press, a UK specialist publishing house with many Tolkien-related titles (Opens in a new window). [File 770]
The Royal Mail has issued stamps from MYTHS AND LEGENDS (Opens in a new window), including Beowulf and Grendel.
In Memory of Professor Vincent Gillespie (1954 – 2025) (Opens in a new window) [Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford]
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The Tolkienist Blog (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window).
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)
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.
If you would to know why Terry Pratchett is well-known to be the most hilarious proponent of the “footnote” in fantasy novels - his assistant and literary executor Rob Wilkins has written the official biography with the title: “Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes (Opens in a new window).” ↩
