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 (Abre numa nova janela) in Bloemfontein (Abre numa nova janela).
Feb 1, 1913. Tolkien writes a postcard to Edith Bratt (Abre numa nova janela), showing his seat at the table in Exeter College dining hall.
Feb 2, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 35 (Abre numa nova janela), asking for the latest date of turning in the new story, The Lord of the Rings.
Feb 4, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 22 (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela).
Feb 6, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Vera Chapman and the Tolkien Society (Abre numa nova janela).

Renovations are ongoing with the Eagle & Child in Oxford (Abre numa nova janela).

Christopher Gilson notes Parma Eldalamberon 21-23 are again available (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela).[Feb 8-9]

Publishing Fantasy for Younger Readers: A Symposium (Abre numa nova janela) will take place in Glasgow in April, with Tom Emanuel championing LotR.

Oxonmoot registration (Abre numa nova janela) is available now. [Tolkien Society]

According to a post with the Middle-earth Festival’s Facebook page (Abre numa nova janela) it will finally take place again - ‘weekend after Oxonmoot’, so possibly Sept 13/14.

The Tolkien Seminar Series (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela) (Sun 2 & 9), an online class with Politics & Prose (Abre numa nova janela).

The Sao Paolo, Brasil, smial Imladris has laid out its plans for 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) [Instagram]

Many of the Australian fellowships recently came together for OzMoot (Abre numa nova janela). 2026 will take place in Canberra. [Facebook]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

Nominations open for Tolkien Society Awards 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) (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 (Abre numa nova janela).

The Birmingham Oratory - where Tolkien spent many formative years - has The Lord of the Rings Talk (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela) [h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Abre numa nova janela)]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Burden of Belongings (Abre numa nova janela).

Andrew Higgins has Elvish Pronouns in the late 1930's - Part One (Abre numa nova janela).

Michael Martinez has Was J.R.R. Tolkien Woke? (Abre numa nova janela)

Call for Papers: Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments’ (Abre numa nova janela).

Michael Drout’s Tower and the Ruin has an Amazon listing for Dec 2, 2025 (Abre numa nova janela).

Joel Merriner has announced his upcoming book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc for September 18 [Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela)]

Renga in Blue has another early computer game write-up on Arkenstone (1982) (Abre numa nova janela).

Merchandise & Franchise

A massive film and tv report on US viewers by Luminate on 2024 (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela).”

An Interview with Stephen Gallagher (Abre numa nova janela) [Youtube; h/t BreeCrossroads (Abre numa nova janela)]

Tansy Gardam has And Back Again: The Enduring Appeal of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Abre numa nova janela).

A six film 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition of the Middle-earth trilogies has been announced for March 18th, 2025. (Abre numa nova janela) [IGN]

Lord Of The Rings Very First Squishmallows Are Finally Up For Pre-Order (Abre numa nova janela) (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 (Abre numa nova janela) [Polygon; also mentions WoT and RoP]

Ellen Kushner has Some spells against despair (Abre numa nova janela).

Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) now has ebooks (Abre numa nova janela).

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 (Abre numa nova janela). [see also Rhianna Pratchett, Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela)]

Ansible 451 (Abre numa nova janela) has been published.

• Ansible 211 (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela) could not be more on point right now. [Royal Mint]

A two day academic conference on Medieval Metal (Abre numa nova janela) - Reception of the Middle Ages in metal music is happening in Kassel [March 19-20; h/t Gwyndor] (Abre numa nova janela)

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Threads (Abre numa nova janela) : Mastodon (Abre numa nova janela).
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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