The One hundred and nineteenth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

Jan 11, 1943. Michael George Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra), grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, is born.
Jan 12, 1928. A New Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with foreword by Tolkien.
Jan 14, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 180 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on the sub-creation process.
Jan 17, 1937. Tolkien writes Letter 10 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on illustrations for Hobbit & Mr. Bliss.

Events & Shows

There are tengwar courses with Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in March & April [h/t Vincent Ferré]

Líre Itarildeo (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (song translated by Christopher Gilson) [Youtube]

Tolkien Stage Adaptations - Performance Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for January.

1962: Tolkien on LotR (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - Writers & Wordsmiths with BBC Archive [Youtube]

GIFCon at Glasgow University will be taking place 7-9 May (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Check the list of events with Signum University for 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Boise, Idaho, has a new smial (Si apre in una nuova finestra). As well as New Zealand (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

TolkienCon is happening in Prague, Jan 17-19 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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

Douglas A. Anderson has Borges on Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - including a very lively discussion in the comments.

John Garth has A mathom on Tolkien’s birthday (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
[consider supporting John’s Garth with Steady - I convinced him to be there!]

Andrew Higgins has Explorations into Tolkien's Elvish Languages (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Black Metal fans might like that Summoning (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Facebook] have reissued Lugburz, Minas Morgul and Dol Guldur (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as picture discs. [Napalm Records]

The Lembas 2025 issue (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will be published in April, including proceedings to last year’s seminar Evil in Eä. [Facebook, h/t Renée Vink]

My report on the fan screening of “War of the Rohirrim (Si apre in una nuova finestra)” in Lucerne.

Kristine Larsen has J.R.R. Tolkien – Geologist? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Roberto Arduini has Receiver of a Tolkien’s letter discovered (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

If ever need to Cite.Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Digital Tolkien]

Mike Glyer of File770 collected What’s your favourite Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for #TolkienBirthdayToast.

The Wertzone has The Longest SFF Novels of All Time (Si apre in una nuova finestra)(2025 update), including The Lord of the Rings.

doubtfulsea has Bacon and Eggs, Etc. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

The Tolkien Society has changed its status to better serve its members and the community - here is the “new” TS’ entry (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with the charity commission.

Volume 20, issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research is filling up nicely (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John D. Rateliff has Happy Tolkien Day (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with David Bratman answering. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)
[Let’s see whether someone adds another perspective in mentioning that modern writers do not use “South Africa” as a geographical umbrella term but always as a term for the Republic of South Africa 😃]

Taruithorn: The Oxford Tolkien Society is reviving its magazine Miruvor (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - contributions are welcome. [Instagram]

Merchandise & Franchise

Beast Kingdom has Gandalf (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Making ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ Nearly Killed Its Director (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [IndieWire] | ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’: A Tokyo Take (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [AWN]

The Silent Hill 2 Remake Team Pitched A Lord Of The Rings Horror Game (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [80lv]

Ex-Annapurna Staff Reportedly Form New Company to Inherit Private Division IPs (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [about Tales of the Shire]

Check out Morgan’s Tolkien collection, selling via Tradera now (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Sweden]

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.
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Inter alia & Back in the Day

Fun Fact Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Si apre in una nuova finestra) premiered on Jan 3, 1993, thirty-two years ago. Tolkien was born on Jan 3.

Our culture isn't fantasy - so stop misusing it for mystical books (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [BBC News]

The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at Glasgow Uni has Fantasy in the Midst of War: Perspectives from Ukraine (Si apre in una nuova finestra) coming up Feb 26.

I love xkcd.

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Threads (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
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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