The One hundred and twenty-fourth Roving Ranger
Life and Works
Feb 14, 1896. Tolkien dictates a letter to his father (Abre numa nova janela).
Feb 15, 1896. Arthur Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela), Tolkien's father, dies.
Feb 16, 1974. On the advice of Christopher Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela), The Tolkien Society (Abre numa nova janela) appoints J.R.R. Tolkien as Honorary President in perpetuo.
Feb 18, 1937. Tolkien's poem "Knocking at the Door (Abre numa nova janela)" is published in The Oxford Magazine. [See Mewlips (Abre numa nova janela) on Youtube]
Feb 20, 1938. Tolkien writes Letter 25 (Abre numa nova janela) in answer to an Observer article on The Hobbit.
A private collection of some note (Abre numa nova janela) is being sold with Tom Wayling.
Events & Shows
February 15. A Light in the Darkness Reading Day Event (Abre numa nova janela) - please participate for a good cause.
The Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar (Abre numa nova janela) has Beyond Elvish: Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds in September (Abre numa nova janela). 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 (Abre numa nova janela) at Exeter College Chapel with Stuart Lee [Feb 27]
Rafael Pascual (Abre numa nova janela) (University of Granada) ‘Tolkien and old English prosody’ will happen in Oxford (Abre numa nova janela) on Feb 21.
The Slovenian Tolkien Society has extended an invitation to “Malo letno srečanje” (Abre numa nova janela) [Feb 28 - March 1; Instagram]
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
Stephen C. Winter has Time to Start Writing Again (Abre numa nova janela).
John Garth has interviews: One to watch, one to hear, one look out for (Abre numa nova janela) [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 (Abre numa nova janela).
The Journal of Tolkien Research’s vol. 20, issue 2, is filling up nicely (Abre numa nova janela).
Jeff LaSala has Valentine’s in Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela).
Merchandise & Franchise
TV & Film Awards Season Has Started (Abre numa nova janela) [TORn]
Warner Bros. gaming division facing leadership fallout (Abre numa nova janela) [Checkpoint Gaming; Bloomberg (Abre numa nova janela) originally reporting, paywall]
Living Card Game Changes – Fantasy Flight Announce The End of Classic Products (Abre numa nova janela) [Tabletop Gaming UK]
The Story Shop (Abre numa nova janela) in Monroe, GA, has a hobbit hole, a yellow brick road, and a magical wardrobe. [Instagram; website (Abre numa nova janela)]
LotRO now has an official Discord server (Abre numa nova janela).
Prime Video confirms Season Three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Abre numa nova janela) [Amazon press release; Instagram (Abre numa nova janela)]
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 (Abre numa nova janela)]
How ‘Wallace and Gromit’ Pays Homage to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (Abre numa nova janela) [Variety]
Inter alia & Back in the Day
James Joyce’s The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) [McSweeney’s Internet Tendency; humour]
How to train your dragon has a trailer (Abre numa nova janela).
The Silent Fade-Out of Scanline VFX Germany: A Loss for the German VFX Industry & Its Artists (Abre numa nova janela) [LinkedIn; h/t INDAC (Abre numa nova janela)]
The headline is just too good: “'Bilbo Baggins was a burglar' charity shop thief tells court” (Abre numa nova janela) [NWE Mail]
https://xkcd.com/3048/ (Abre numa nova janela)Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?
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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 (Abre numa nova janela), Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela), or Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (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)
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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