The One hundred and twenty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

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

A private collection of some note (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is being sold with Tom Wayling.

Events & Shows

February 15. A Light in the Darkness Reading Day Event (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - please participate for a good cause.

The Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has Beyond Elvish: Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds in September (Si apre in una nuova finestra). 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Exeter College Chapel with Stuart Lee [Feb 27]

Rafael Pascual (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (University of Granada) ‘Tolkien and old English prosody’ will happen in Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on Feb 21.

The Slovenian Tolkien Society has extended an invitation to “Malo letno srečanje” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Feb 28 - March 1; Instagram]

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

Stephen C. Winter has Time to Start Writing Again (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Garth has interviews: One to watch, one to hear, one look out for (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Journal of Tolkien Research’s vol. 20, issue 2, is filling up nicely (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Jeff LaSala has Valentine’s in Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

TV & Film Awards Season Has Started (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [TORn]

Warner Bros. gaming division facing leadership fallout (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Checkpoint Gaming; Bloomberg (Si apre in una nuova finestra) originally reporting, paywall]

Living Card Game Changes – Fantasy Flight Announce The End of Classic Products (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Tabletop Gaming UK]

The Story Shop (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Monroe, GA, has a hobbit hole, a yellow brick road, and a magical wardrobe. [Instagram; website (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

LotRO now has an official Discord server (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Prime Video confirms Season Three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Amazon press release; Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

How ‘Wallace and Gromit’ Pays Homage to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Variety]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

James Joyce’s The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [McSweeney’s Internet Tendency; humour]

How to train your dragon has a trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Netflix and Wizards of the Coast put FORGOTTEN REALMS live-action show into development (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wertzone]

The Silent Fade-Out of Scanline VFX Germany: A Loss for the German VFX Industry & Its Artists (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [LinkedIn; h/t INDAC (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

The headline is just too good: “'Bilbo Baggins was a burglar' charity shop thief tells court” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [NWE Mail]

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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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (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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