The One hundred and twenty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Feb 14, 1896. Tolkien dictates a letter to his father (Opens in a new window).
Feb 15, 1896. Arthur Tolkien (Opens in a new window), Tolkien's father, dies.
Feb 16, 1974. On the advice of Christopher Tolkien (Opens in a new window), The Tolkien Society (Opens in a new window) appoints J.R.R. Tolkien as Honorary President in perpetuo.
Feb 18, 1937. Tolkien's poem "Knocking at the Door (Opens in a new window)" is published in The Oxford Magazine. [See Mewlips (Opens in a new window) on Youtube]
Feb 20, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 25 (Opens in a new window) in answer to an Observer article on The Hobbit.

A private collection of some note (Opens in a new window) is being sold with Tom Wayling.

Events & Shows

February 15. A Light in the Darkness Reading Day Event (Opens in a new window) - please participate for a good cause.

The Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar (Opens in a new window) has Beyond Elvish: Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds in September (Opens in a new window). Submissions possible until Feb 29.
[The Fantastic Library manages and maintains the world's largest publicly accessible collection of fantastic literature with a collection of over 300k titles.]

Tolkien & the Organ (Opens in a new window) at Exeter College Chapel with Stuart Lee [Feb 27]

Rafael Pascual (Opens in a new window) (University of Granada) ‘Tolkien and old English prosody’ will happen in Oxford (Opens in a new window) on Feb 21.

The Slovenian Tolkien Society has extended an invitation to “Malo letno srečanje” (Opens in a new window) [Feb 28 - March 1; Instagram]

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

Stephen C. Winter has Time to Start Writing Again (Opens in a new window).

John Garth has interviews: One to watch, one to hear, one look out for (Opens in a new window) [Steady]

Hall of Beorn’s posts on the LotR: TCG are offering beautiful art, even if you’re not playing - Homebrew: Nightmare The Withered Heath (Opens in a new window).

The Journal of Tolkien Research’s vol. 20, issue 2, is filling up nicely (Opens in a new window).

Jeff LaSala has Valentine’s in Middle-earth (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

TV & Film Awards Season Has Started (Opens in a new window) [TORn]

Warner Bros. gaming division facing leadership fallout (Opens in a new window) [Checkpoint Gaming; Bloomberg (Opens in a new window) originally reporting, paywall]

Living Card Game Changes – Fantasy Flight Announce The End of Classic Products (Opens in a new window) [Tabletop Gaming UK]

The Story Shop (Opens in a new window) in Monroe, GA, has a hobbit hole, a yellow brick road, and a magical wardrobe. [Instagram; website (Opens in a new window)]

LotRO now has an official Discord server (Opens in a new window).

Prime Video confirms Season Three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Opens in a new window) [Amazon press release; Instagram (Opens in a new window)]

Jumping forward several years from the events of Season 2, Season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last. [Source (Opens in a new window)]

How ‘Wallace and Gromit’ Pays Homage to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (Opens in a new window) [Variety]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

James Joyce’s The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [McSweeney’s Internet Tendency; humour]

How to train your dragon has a trailer (Opens in a new window).

Netflix and Wizards of the Coast put FORGOTTEN REALMS live-action show into development (Opens in a new window) [Wertzone]

The Silent Fade-Out of Scanline VFX Germany: A Loss for the German VFX Industry & Its Artists (Opens in a new window) [LinkedIn; h/t INDAC (Opens in a new window)]

The headline is just too good: “'Bilbo Baggins was a burglar' charity shop thief tells court” (Opens in a new window) [NWE Mail]

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

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Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) and start with three months fee-free.
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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.

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