The One hundred and twenty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

Jan 31, 1892. Tolkien is christened at the Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Michael (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Bloemfontein (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Feb 1, 1913. Tolkien writes a postcard to Edith Bratt (Si apre in una nuova finestra), showing his seat at the table in Exeter College dining hall.
Feb 2, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 35 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), asking for the latest date of turning in the new story, The Lord of the Rings.
Feb 4, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 22 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), possibly detailing Christopher Tolkien’s first ever documented “study” of his father’s works - finding mistakes in The Hobbit, receiving twopence each.
Feb 5, 1968. First day of filming for the documentary Tolkien in Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Feb 6, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Renovations are ongoing with the Eagle & Child in Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Christopher Gilson notes Parma Eldalamberon 21-23 are again available (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as print-on-demand, both US and UK [Bluesky]

Events & Shows

The festival Yggdrasil in Lyon, France, has a ~7,000€ ‘one ring’ to find on a treasure hunt (Si apre in una nuova finestra).[Feb 8-9]

Publishing Fantasy for Younger Readers: A Symposium (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will take place in Glasgow in April, with Tom Emanuel championing LotR.

Oxonmoot registration (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is available now. [Tolkien Society]

According to a post with the Middle-earth Festival’s Facebook page (Si apre in una nuova finestra) it will finally take place again - ‘weekend after Oxonmoot’, so possibly Sept 13/14.

The Tolkien Seminar Series (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Corpus Christi College, Oxford has Rafael Pascual with ‘Tolkien's Forms of Detachment’ (Feb 7).

The outstanding Verlyn Flieger has Tolkien on Tolkien, A Study of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (Sun 2 & 9), an online class with Politics & Prose (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Sao Paolo, Brasil, smial Imladris has laid out its plans for 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Instagram]

Many of the Australian fellowships recently came together for OzMoot (Si apre in una nuova finestra). 2026 will take place in Canberra. [Facebook]

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*

The fires in California have seen so many people suffer - David Bratman has shared a personal experience (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Birmingham Oratory - where Tolkien spent many formative years - has The Lord of the Rings Talk (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Dr Julian Murphy.

The open source magazine Well Played has Michał Żmuda’s The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game: A Machine That Generates Possible Worlds (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Burden of Belongings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Andrew Higgins has Elvish Pronouns in the late 1930's - Part One (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Michael Martinez has Was J.R.R. Tolkien Woke? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Call for Papers: Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Michael Drout’s Tower and the Ruin has an Amazon listing for Dec 2, 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Joel Merriner has announced his upcoming book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc for September 18 [Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Renga in Blue has another early computer game write-up on Arkenstone (1982) (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

A massive film and tv report on US viewers by Luminate on 2024 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) notes that season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has seen a 60% drop in minutes watched.

The Bookseller notes for 2024: “JRR Tolkien’s sales rising 21.3% year-on-year (Si apre in una nuova finestra).”

An Interview with Stephen Gallagher (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Youtube; h/t BreeCrossroads (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Tansy Gardam has And Back Again: The Enduring Appeal of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

A six film 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition of the Middle-earth trilogies has been announced for March 18th, 2025. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [IGN]

Lord Of The Rings Very First Squishmallows Are Finally Up For Pre-Order (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (US) [The Gamer] - Frodo, Gandalf, Gollum.

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Inter alia & Back in the Day

Brandon Sanderson says studios and streamers aren’t ready to adapt his work (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Polygon; also mentions WoT and RoP]

Ellen Kushner has Some spells against despair (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra) now has ebooks (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Terry Pratchett Estate has made clear in a statement on its Good Omens: the Official (and Ineffable) Graphic Novel Kickstarter page that Neil Gaiman is no longer affiliated with this project (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [see also Rhianna Pratchett, Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Ansible 451 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

• Ansible 211 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) had this LotR film trilogy summary from the Jan 29, 2005, Independent: “The plucky hobbits cross treacherous mountains to stop the evil Lord Sarumon obtaining the ring he needs for world domination.”

George Orwell’s £2 Coin (Si apre in una nuova finestra) could not be more on point right now. [Royal Mint]

A two day academic conference on Medieval Metal (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - Reception of the Middle Ages in metal music is happening in Kassel [March 19-20; h/t Gwyndor] (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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

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