The One hundred and twenty-first Roving Ranger

Events & Shows

The Lure of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is happening in March (largest METW TCG convention in the world; 25th anniversary GoH is Ted Nasmith; set in a German medieval castle (Si apre in una nuova finestra)).

The Tolkien Society has announced Carl Phelpstead as this year’s guest speaker (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with their annual.

Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will be shown in the UK - in its Japanese version (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [TORn]

Hobbit House champs of British School Meet (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Daily News; Sri Lanka]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

Nominations open for Tolkien Society Awards 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (until Jan 31).

Nota bene: Yes, you can nominate thetolkienist.com and/or the Roving Ranger for ‘best online content’ 😇 *winkwink*

Also, the Tolkien Society is publishing the proceedings of the 2019 conference on February 28 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Garth has A birthday post for Tolkien’s ‘second father’, Francis Morgan. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady]

Some excellent speakers with From Myth to Manuscript: Exploring Inklings Archival Collections (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including Bill Fliss (Marquette), Catherine McIlwaine (Bodleian Libraries), and Laura Stanifer (Wheaton College) [Vimeo]

Gerry Canavan (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has The lesson of J.R.R. Tolkien’s abandoned Lord of the Rings seque (Si apre in una nuova finestra)l [Washington Post]

Erik Mueller-Harder has posted a quick update of recent months. Please note he has done “more work on Anduin™ (Si apre in una nuova finestra)”, which researchers visiting Marquette have the pleasure of using.

Tom Hillman has A Point about Elf Ears (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Andrew Higgins has Early Elvish Pronouns in Action (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Jason Fisher has J.A.W. Bennett on Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Archivist’s Nook: Robert T. Meyer – “Bespectacled Linguist” and Friend of J.R.R. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Catholic University of America; h/t Tolkien Gleanigs]

The Silver Key has Blogging the Silmarillion (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Wade Center has announced the Walter Hooper Papers (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Vol. 11 No. 1–2 of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research has a number of Tolkien items (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Nick Polk has Skeleton Crew and the Scouring of the Shire (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

A new board game is coming: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [BGG; game designer Substack (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

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Inter alia & Back in the Day

New plans for the Eagle & Child (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Oxford have been approved. [This is Oxfordshire]

The amazing Una McCormack is in Oxford with an An Evening of Science Fiction (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Eventbrite; at Trinity College]

The Hobbit - Rap Battle of the Five Armies (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Warp Zone; Youtube]

A 2,500 years old sword from China is “like something from the J.R.R. Tolkien universe that has entered the actual historical record” (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Res Obscura; the Sword of Gouijan (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Adaptation for Netflix Gets Imax Release (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Variety]

The most popular books in public libraries in the US (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as a bar chart rade (Canada, Australia and UK will be added, too) [Syndetics; h/t LibraryThing (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Film Courage: Day I Realized That CGI Was Taking Over Hollywood – Craig Caton-Largent (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [INDAC]

Charles Williams’s War in Heaven (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Aquila et Infans]

UKL: The Journal of Ursula K. Le Guin Studies has Violence and Taoist Ethics in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The 45th Razzie® Award Nominations (Si apre in una nuova finestra) are out.

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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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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