The One hundred and twenty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

March 21, 1967. Tolkien writes a letter to Humphrey Carpenter (Abre numa nova janela), on turning The Hobbit into a children's musical play.
March 22, 1916. Tolkien & Edith Bratt get married in the church of St Mary Immaculate (Abre numa nova janela) in Warwick.
March 24, 1953. Tolkien writes Letter 136 (Abre numa nova janela) on the publication of The Lord of the Rings.
March 27, 1972. Rayner Unwin (Abre numa nova janela) organizes a party in celebration of J.R.R. Tolkien's CBE the following day (Abre numa nova janela).

• Third Age. The destruction of the One Ring, downfall of Barad-dûr (Abre numa nova janela) and passing of Sauron (Abre numa nova janela). [3019, March 25.]

The Hobbit takes a Welsh twist (Abre numa nova janela) at Morriston Library [Swansea Bay News]

Events & Shows

I am part of the A Long-Expected Soundscape Tolkien Reading Day 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) with many amazing speakers [March 23rd, Noon Eastern, Youtube]

The Tolkien Society will be hosting its Tolkien Reading Day event with their Discord server today (Abre numa nova janela).

The Racine Theatre Guild (Wisconsin) will be staging the Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) (again.) [Apr 10-19] Great opportunity to also see Marquette!

The Academy of Children's Theatre, in Richland, Washington, is also up to the Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela). [March 21-30; Instagram (Abre numa nova janela)]

Tickets for the Tolkien Lecture of 2025 are now available (Abre numa nova janela). [Pembroke College, Oxford info (Abre numa nova janela)]

[Lost and found] I must have missed this Nova Scotia theatre festival rendition of the Hobbit, somewhere out in the woods (Abre numa nova janela)! [August 2022, Keppoch Mountains, by the Festival Antigonish (Abre numa nova janela); see information on Youtube (Abre numa nova janela)]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Abre numa nova janela). Tolkien Reading Day (Abre numa nova janela) is being celebrated globally.

Scholarship & Fandom

doubtfulsea has Doom (Abre numa nova janela).

Jason Fisher has Hallucinations (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has The Fairbairns of Westmarch - Traditions Worth Keeping (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “I Declare You Free in The Realm of Gondor to The Furthest of its Ancient Bounds.” Why Does Faramir Set Frodo Free? (Abre numa nova janela)

Nick Polk has Resonances of Universalism in Tolkien's Legendarium (Abre numa nova janela).

Merchandise & Franchise

Why not take part in a Hobbit pot glazing workshop (Abre numa nova janela) in Pennsylvania?

Lord of the Rings Online’s 64-bit server transfers begin to catch up as devs acknowledge server load stress (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively OP]

The Lord of the Rings musical has opened in Perth, Australia (Abre numa nova janela); see its trailer with Gandalf, Galadriel, and Frodo going for a walk around town (Abre numa nova janela). [Instagram]

Not commenting on the relevance of the claim but the Evesham Festival of Words has “Bikes and Books” - a bike ride with connections (Abre numa nova janela) to “writers such as JM Barrie, JRR Tolkien and William Morris.” [July 19, 2025]

LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIE MARATHON FESTIVAL is Coming to The Park Theatre (Abre numa nova janela) [Mar 30; Broadway World]

Inter alia

Fun Fact Terry Pratchett passed away ten years ago and in memoriam I had requested to have footnotes added to the Steady backend - which has now happened¹! Glorious! 😇

What It Was Like to Write on George Lucas’ Unproduced Star Wars Show (Abre numa nova janela) [Gizmodo]

‘Something must have gone wrong with us’: David Cronenberg and Howard Shore on four decades of body horror (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

A Humble Bundle is happening on Dragonlance (Abre numa nova janela).

The British Science Fiction Association announced the shortlist of nominees (Abre numa nova janela)for the BSFA Awards, including several nominations for Luna Press, a UK specialist publishing house with many Tolkien-related titles (Abre numa nova janela). [File 770]

The Royal Mail has issued stamps from MYTHS AND LEGENDS (Abre numa nova janela), including Beowulf and Grendel.

The TV fantasy gold rush is over. Now maybe Wheel of Time can finally be itself [Polygon (Abre numa nova janela)]

In Memory of Professor Vincent Gillespie (1954 – 2025) (Abre numa nova janela) [Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford]

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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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.

1. If you would to know why Terry Pratchett is well-known to be the most hilarious proponent of the “footnote” in fantasy novels - his assistant and literary executor Rob Wilkins has written the official biography with the title: “Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes (Abre numa nova janela).” ↩