One hundred and twenty-sixth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Parma Eldalamberon 20 : The Qenya Alphabet is available again on demand at Barnes & Noble (Opens in a new window) as well as The Great British Bookshop (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky (Opens in a new window)]

Events & Shows

Michael Drout will be giving a talk at UMass Lowell titled "Making I = Eye: How the One Ring Works in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings'" (Opens in a new window) [March 24]

The Hobbit is on with the Theatre of Youth (Opens in a new window) [Buffalo, NY]

The Hobbit is on with the Kings Mountain Little Theatre (Opens in a new window) [North Carolina]

The New England Youth Theatre (Opens in a new window) is offering effects classes (Opens in a new window) meant for their upcoming Hobbit rendition.

The Magic of Middle-Earth exhibition is on tour again, this time in Dorset (Opens in a new window).

The seven-graders (Opens in a new window) at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School in Baton Rouge, LA, loved dressing in Hobbit attire as well.

Aragorn's Birthday - Lord of the Rings Party! (Opens in a new window) is happening at Serpentine Cider in San Diego. [h/t Tolkien Guide]

The New York Tolkien Conference has - in preparation for its 2025 rendition - a look back at 2019 (Opens in a new window) (which was quite exceptional; (Opens in a new window) I participated but need to write on the conference - and even more things as well.)

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

John Garth has Mordor on the Oxford express. (Opens in a new window)

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Vocation of Faramir (Opens in a new window).

Stephen C. Winter has ” Good Night, Captain, my Lord,” Sam Said to Faramir. “You Took the Chance, Sir.” Praise From the Praiseworthy in Henneth Annûn. (Opens in a new window)

Will Sherwood has Eldest and Oldest: Middle-earth’s Mother/Father Trees (Opens in a new window).

A redditor has come up with renditions of Tolkien swords (Opens in a new window).

There are two new posts at thetolkienist.com: “Hearses at Daybreak”: How a Tolkien birthday card has made the rounds on the Internet (Opens in a new window) & F2M2: How Aragorn is Sherlock Holmes and Germanicus and was married to Minerva McGonagall (Opens in a new window).

The German Tolkien Society’s Seminar has its CfP (Opens in a new window) - Tolkien’s Works on the Book Market.

Robin Reid has Horses (a fun post!) (Opens in a new window)

Gandalf's First Lessons in Pity for Hobbits? [Miriam Ellis]

Merchandise & Franchise

Warner Bros. is shuttering Monolith Productions (Opens in a new window) (LotR: Shadows of Mordor etc.) [Wertzone]

Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum Movie Gets Release Window (Opens in a new window) from Andy Serkis [The Direct]

Amazon to launch linear TV channel Prime in Germany (Opens in a new window) [Broadband TV News]

Lord of the Rings Online unexpectedly breaks out Update 43 (Opens in a new window): Secrets of Utug-bûr [Massively OP]

Inter alia

BBC radio drama is in grave danger. Without it we may lose the next generation of writing talent (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]

Robot with 1,000 muscles twitches like human while dangling from ceiling (Opens in a new window) [Ars Technica]

Have you ever wondered… (Opens in a new window) how Ancestry make so many records available on their website? Following an enquiry last year, we realised some of you may be curious as to the details… [The Iron Room aka Library of Birmingham]

Cristian Spagnuolo: Technicolor´s Failure: The End of an Era of Exploitation (Opens in a new window) [h/t INDAC]; Shaun Severi: The problem wasn’t talent or execution — it was mismanagement at the highest levels (Opens in a new window).

Lord of the Rings actor Bruce Hopkins continues charity tradition (Opens in a new window) with 69 backflips for 69 years of life [New Zealand Herald; Gamling is the best!]

Kathleen Kennedy Speaks On Her Lucasfilm Plans — She Is Not Soon Retiring (Opens in a new window)— & The Films That Will Keep Her In ‘Star Wars’ Orbit For Years To Come [Deadline]

 The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction Nominations (Opens in a new window) are now open.

The five-year RIDDELL (Opens in a new window) [Brian Sibley]

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. It is based in Germany and free of enshittification (Opens in a new window).

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).
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.

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 370+ posts, rants, reviews, event reports, Fingolfin's Findings, Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments and more...