The One hundred and seventeenth Roving Ranger

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

Special note

The Tolkien Birthday Toast, January 3

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.

Life & Works

Dec 29, 1966. Tolkien writes Letter 293 (Opens in a new window) - denying a request for an interview with the Scotsman (see note).
Dec 30, 1961. Tolkien writes Letter 236 (Opens in a new window) - niggling over the Puffin Hobbit edition and its “elfish” as well as mentioning a fell winter in Oxford.
Dec 31, 1960. Tolkien writes Letter 226 (Opens in a new window) - on ‘influences’
Jan 1, 1910. The earliest preserved diary entry (Opens in a new window) by Tolkien.
Jan 2, 1917. Tolkien declares himself fit to report for duty (Opens in a new window).
Jan 3, 1892. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Opens in a new window) is born.

Events & Shows

Arden Theatre in Philadelphia has The Hobbit in April & May 2025 (Opens in a new window).

Cannock Chase Council is proposing the closure of the Cannock Chase Museum (Opens in a new window), host to a Tolkien exhibition that attracted 90,000 visitors in 2016 (Opens in a new window).

The Silmarillion Writers’ Guild is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with Mereth Aderthad (Opens in a new window)(July 2025; proposals due Jan 15, 2025)

The people at the Tolkien Guide did a 2024 review (Opens in a new window). [Youtube]

The Lord of the Rings musical is coming to Singapore in August 2025. (Opens in a new window)

Jean Christoph-Carron, co-director and head of documentary films and series with ZDF/ Arte, notes that the new Tolkien documentary I am a part of has over “700k views plus 11k likes and over 700 supportive comments and praise on ARTE’s Youtube channels alone” (Opens in a new window) [Linkedin]

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

Tom Hillman has Lúthien Unbound? (Opens in a new window)

Robin Reid has War of the Rohirrim & Hollywood "Feminism" (Opens in a new window) and Feminists & Tolkien (Opens in a new window).

doubtfulsea has The Toys of Dale (Opens in a new window).

Jeff LaSala has So I Saw The War of the Rohirrim . . . (Opens in a new window)

Merchandise & Franchise

The Yard VFX has provided a Rings of Power season 2 breakdown (Opens in a new window) | Interview: Production Designer Kristian Milsted Discusses (Opens in a new window) Season Two of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ [Awards Radar]

The Folio Society sees pre-tax profit up 137% for 2023-4 (Opens in a new window) [Bookseller]

Brick Tap says that two LEGO Icons sets with LotR in mind will happen 2025 - “Bag End” & “Gandalf vs. Durin’s Bane book nook" (Opens in a new window) | Théoden and Snowmane as a moving brick version (Opens in a new window) [both Instagram]

LotR: War of the Rohirrim will be coming to streaming services on Dec 27th, 2024 (Opens in a new window) [Deadline] and the steelbook edition (Opens in a new window) is scheduled for December 2025. [Blu-ray.com (Opens in a new window)]

There are now LotR Squishmallows (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

Warner Bros. has an Eye of Sauron Yule (Opens in a new window) log fire [Youtube]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

Lord of the Rings - Barliman Butterbur - actor, NZ screen and stage star David Weatherley dies aged 85 (Opens in a new window) [NZ Herald]

You can see Jay R Tolkien (Opens in a new window) at the trots in New Zealand. [Harness Link]

Witcher IV (Opens in a new window) is coming [Wertzone]

PEN America Report Confirms School Book Bans Are Surging (Opens in a new window) [Publishers Weekly]

For all things literature have a look at the Library Thing 2024 in Review (Opens in a new window).

Books by Richard Adams That Are Not By The Author of Watership Down (Opens in a new window).

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