The One hundred and thirty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 11, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 189 (Abre numa nova janela), stating “Nothing… for me replaces the bloom on a book, the freshness of the unread.”
April 12, 1970. Tolkien writes a letter to Tom Shippey (Abre numa nova janela) on The Author as Philologist.
April 13, 1937. Tolkien writes Letter 12 (Abre numa nova janela), enclosed a draft of the dust cover for The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela).
April 14, 1955. Tolkien writes Letter 161 (Abre numa nova janela), talking about ‘map difficulties for The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela).’
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Abre numa nova janela) at Glasgow University on the religious themes adultery, temptation and repentance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Abre numa nova janela).
April 18, 1917. Tolkien and Christopher Wiseman (Abre numa nova janela), the Great Twin Brethren, meet in Harrogate, and discuss the fate of the Barrovians (Abre numa nova janela) and the future of the Society.

• Third Age, 3018. In the morning Gandalf examines Bilbo's Ring and determines from its inscription that it is the One Ring. He tells Frodo of the Ring's history and Frodo volunteers to leave the Shire in order to secure the Ring. [April 13]

A handwritten letter (Abre numa nova janela) by JRRT can be yours with 17k+€… [Sotheby’s]

J.R.R. Tolkien has become part of a Birmingham easter egg surprise (Abre numa nova janela). [Paradise]

Events & Shows

The Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Heights, OH, will be playing The Hobbit, starting December (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube trailer (Abre numa nova janela)]

The Hobbit is also on in Harrisburg, PA, in April (Abre numa nova janela).

The Story Museum in Oxford has Tolkien on Dragons (Abre numa nova janela). [April 26]

The Lord of the Rings Musical is moving to Melbourne (Abre numa nova janela).

John Garth will do The Epic History of Lord of the Rings: Journey into Tolkien’s imagination in Cork, Ireland (Abre numa nova janela)[May 5, Eventbrite]

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

An absolutely splendid piece on Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Stephen C. Winter has “Do Not Go to Cirith Ungol!” Some Further Thoughts on an Impossible Decision (Abre numa nova janela).

John Garth has How Tolkien left the land of his birth 130 years ago today – registered as a girl (Abre numa nova janela). [Steady]

I am so happy to see Jason Fisher is ‘back in the game’ after a years’ long hiatus: More details on Tolkien’s election to the General Board of the Faculties, Oxford (Abre numa nova janela) | A new profile of Karen Wynn Fonstad (Abre numa nova janela) | An ephemeral coincidence (Abre numa nova janela) | A warm welcome in a not quite dead language (Abre numa nova janela).

I have done another piece in my Tolkien References Project: Marvel (Abre numa nova janela) [Steady¹]

Tom Hillman has Elrond's long westward road (Abre numa nova janela).

Dimitra Fimi has On Tolkien's Letter 131 (3): Gods and Heroes out of the Sea (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Andrew Higgins has "Eald enta geweorc." (Abre numa nova janela) [Substack]

If you are interested in finding out how doubtful sea manages in the post Two Fingers to get from pirates to Tolkien’s typewriter… there you go! (Abre numa nova janela)

TORn did their Middle-earth March Madness again, this time on art - this is the winner (Abre numa nova janela).

The Middle-earth Extended Edition (Abre numa nova janela), a mod for the EA game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela), has been published as version 1.0 after thirteen years.

Merchandise & Franchise

Weta Workshop has shared another bts video on Tales of the Shire (Abre numa nova janela), titled: ‘The Heart and Art of Tales of the Shire.’ [Youtube]

Lord of the Rings Online is launching a new EU 64-bit server (Abre numa nova janela), Grond, tomorrow, followed by Sting in the US [Massively OP]

A theme park including LotR is coming to the UK (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian; see press release (Abre numa nova janela) at Comcast NBC Universal²]

Restoring a 1977 The Hobbit Poster (Abre numa nova janela) [Youtube]

Inter alia

Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford recently noted they had members of the 1 Royal Regiment Fusiliers (Abre numa nova janela) for a visit, including a “talk on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and service…” [Instagram]

Robert McGinnis, one of the most legendary book and film poster illustrators (think Breakfast at Tiffany’s or James Bond), has passed away. [Vanity Fair (Abre numa nova janela) | Michael Whelan (Abre numa nova janela) | Variety (Abre numa nova janela) | Legacy (Abre numa nova janela)]

Fantasy Novels for People Who Think They Don’t Like Fantasy (Abre numa nova janela) - by Leigh Bardugo [New York Times]

The airport in Hamburg, Germany, has been promoting its career service with a bunch of wildly helpful orcs (Abre numa nova janela) [Instagram]

Maestro: Doom Bound will have music from the first film trilogy (Abre numa nova janela) [Instagram]

The world is going to the dogs - and GRRM and Peter Jackson team up to bring direwolves back (Abre numa nova janela). [Not a blog]

Nicholas Whyte has done it again: 2025 Hugo final ballot: Goodreads / LibraryThing stats (Abre numa nova janela) as well as Nebula and BSFA shortlists – Goodreads and LibraryThing stats (Abre numa nova janela).

Majority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups, not parents (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

Amy H. Sturgis is offering her class on Dystopian Tradition (Abre numa nova janela) again [tumblr]

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

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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)

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. I also have a review of ‘The Inklings of Oxford. C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Their Friends’ (Abre numa nova janela) by Harry Lee Poe but that is very much a rant. 😇 ↩

2. (c) Universal Destinations & Experiences (Abre numa nova janela) ↩