The One hundred and eighteenth Roving Ranger

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)
Going forward this newsletter will return to its weekly schedule.

Could I ask you for a favour? 🤩

Would you be so kind as to promote this newsletter on J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday?

[see ‘Tolkien Birthday Toast (Opens in a new window)’ with the Tolkien Society]

In a time where social media and so many of our layers of our communication are in the hands of huge conglomerates with no other interest but profit independent sources of news are becoming ever more important.

A newsletter is as “old school” as it gets - it just needs an email to work.

The beautiful thing is - it is independent of the enshittification (Opens in a new window) of those conglomerates, it is easy to use, and it allows for people with a common interest to get together.

My aim is to get you the most relevant, most informative and entertaining information on all things Tolkienian out there. I am bringing 30+ years of fandom activism and knowledge about Middle-earth to the curation of the Roving Ranger.

Unfortunately, I do not have money to spend on advertisements to promote my work. Against the likes of Youtube and TikTok a newsletter has little chance of promotion - but if you were to share the subscription page to the Roving Ranger with your blog, your newsletters, your social media accounts, this would truly help.

Thank you very much for your time - and belatedly: Happy New Year!

As a small thank you for helping me out I have activated the 7-days-trial option to my Steady for the month of January. Do have a look around and enjoy reading!

Life & Works

Jan 3, 1892. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Opens in a new window) is born.

Events & Shows

Corpus Christi in Oxford is continuing its excellent speakers’ series on Tolkien in January up to March.

Creating Fantastical Worlds: Tolkien and the Kalevala (Opens in a new window) is happening at Malmö University [May 2025]

The newly founded “Schweizerische Tolkienfördergesellschaft” (‘Swiss Society for the Furtherance of Interest in Tolkien’) has its inaugural conference at the University of Zurich on March 15, 2025: Environmentalism in Tolkien’s World:  Ecocritical perspectives on Middle-earth (Opens in a new window).

The Antiques Roadshow on BBC 1 will have “a collection of signed Tolkien books dedicated to a man whose relatives were neighbours of the author (Opens in a new window)” [Jan 5]

The Sydney edition of the Lord of the Rings Musical (Opens in a new window) is opening Jan 7.

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).

Scholarship & Fandom

Will Sherwood has Nameless Things in Deep Places: Moria as Eerie Heterotopia (Opens in a new window).

Thoughts on Tolkien has a review of the first year of blogging (Opens in a new window).

Andrew Higgins has moved to Substack; see his post on Parma Eldalamberon 23 and more (Opens in a new window) (do subscribe for free.)

The most recent Bree Crossroads newsletter has some excellent Tolkienian suggestions (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has a beautiful commission for the Tolkien Collector’s Guide: A Seat at Professor Tolkien’s Desk (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

This is a first and certainly a remnant of the holiday season:
… nothing of import to report.

Inter alia & Back in the Day

The First ‘Peter Pan’ Blockbuster Turns 100 but Hasn’t Grown Up (Opens in a new window) [New York Times; link should bypass paywall; h/t File770 (Opens in a new window)]

Amy Sturgis has some of her talks online (Opens in a new window) - on the history of speculatice fiction.

Ansible 450 (Opens in a new window) has been published.

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

Then do consider using Steady (Opens in a new window) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Opens in a new window), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better.

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), 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 (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).

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...