The One hundred and seventeenth Roving Ranger

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

Special note

The Tolkien Birthday Toast, January 3

The Roving Ranger and other of my ventures are reader-supported publications. To receive additional posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Life & Works

Dec 29, 1966. Tolkien writes Letter 293 (Abre numa nova janela) - denying a request for an interview with the Scotsman (see note).
Dec 30, 1961. Tolkien writes Letter 236 (Abre numa nova janela) - niggling over the Puffin Hobbit edition and its “elfish” as well as mentioning a fell winter in Oxford.
Dec 31, 1960. Tolkien writes Letter 226 (Abre numa nova janela) - on ‘influences’
Jan 1, 1910. The earliest preserved diary entry (Abre numa nova janela) by Tolkien.
Jan 2, 1917. Tolkien declares himself fit to report for duty (Abre numa nova janela).
Jan 3, 1892. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) is born.

Events & Shows

Arden Theatre in Philadelphia has The Hobbit in April & May 2025 (Abre numa nova janela).

Cannock Chase Council is proposing the closure of the Cannock Chase Museum (Abre numa nova janela), host to a Tolkien exhibition that attracted 90,000 visitors in 2016 (Abre numa nova janela).

The Silmarillion Writers’ Guild is celebrating its twentieth anniversary with Mereth Aderthad (Abre numa nova janela)(July 2025; proposals due Jan 15, 2025)

The people at the Tolkien Guide did a 2024 review (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube]

The Lord of the Rings musical is coming to Singapore in August 2025. (Abre numa nova janela)

Jean Christoph-Carron, co-director and head of documentary films and series with ZDF/ Arte, notes that the new Tolkien documentary I am a part of has over “700k views plus 11k likes and over 700 supportive comments and praise on ARTE’s Youtube channels alone” (Abre numa nova janela) [Linkedin]

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

Tom Hillman has Lúthien Unbound? (Abre numa nova janela)

Robin Reid has War of the Rohirrim & Hollywood "Feminism" (Abre numa nova janela) and Feminists & Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela).

doubtfulsea has The Toys of Dale (Abre numa nova janela).

Jeff LaSala has So I Saw The War of the Rohirrim . . . (Abre numa nova janela)

Merchandise & Franchise

The Yard VFX has provided a Rings of Power season 2 breakdown (Abre numa nova janela) | Interview: Production Designer Kristian Milsted Discusses (Abre numa nova janela) Season Two of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ [Awards Radar]

The Folio Society sees pre-tax profit up 137% for 2023-4 (Abre numa nova janela) [Bookseller]

Brick Tap says that two LEGO Icons sets with LotR in mind will happen 2025 - “Bag End” & “Gandalf vs. Durin’s Bane book nook" (Abre numa nova janela) | Théoden and Snowmane as a moving brick version (Abre numa nova janela) [both Instagram]

LotR: War of the Rohirrim will be coming to streaming services on Dec 27th, 2024 (Abre numa nova janela) [Deadline] and the steelbook edition (Abre numa nova janela) is scheduled for December 2025. [Blu-ray.com (Abre numa nova janela)]

There are now LotR Squishmallows (Abre numa nova janela) [Instagram]

Warner Bros. has an Eye of Sauron Yule (Abre numa nova janela) log fire [Youtube]

Inter alia & Back in the Day

Lord of the Rings - Barliman Butterbur - actor, NZ screen and stage star David Weatherley dies aged 85 (Abre numa nova janela) [NZ Herald]

You can see Jay R Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) at the trots in New Zealand. [Harness Link]

Witcher IV (Abre numa nova janela) is coming [Wertzone]

PEN America Report Confirms School Book Bans Are Surging (Abre numa nova janela) [Publishers Weekly]

For all things literature have a look at the Library Thing 2024 in Review (Abre numa nova janela).

Books by Richard Adams That Are Not By The Author of Watership Down (Abre numa nova janela).

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