The One hundred and nineteenth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

Jan 11, 1943. Michael George Tolkien (Opens in a new window), grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, is born.
Jan 12, 1928. A New Glossary of the Dialect of the Huddersfield District (Opens in a new window) with foreword by Tolkien.
Jan 14, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 180 (Opens in a new window) on the sub-creation process.
Jan 17, 1937. Tolkien writes Letter 10 (Opens in a new window) on illustrations for Hobbit & Mr. Bliss.

Events & Shows

There are tengwar courses with Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Opens in a new window) in March & April [h/t Vincent Ferré]

Líre Itarildeo (Opens in a new window) (song translated by Christopher Gilson) [Youtube]

Tolkien Stage Adaptations - Performance Calendar (Opens in a new window) for January.

1962: Tolkien on LotR (Opens in a new window) - Writers & Wordsmiths with BBC Archive [Youtube]

GIFCon at Glasgow University will be taking place 7-9 May (Opens in a new window).

Check the list of events with Signum University for 2025 (Opens in a new window).

Boise, Idaho, has a new smial (Opens in a new window). As well as New Zealand (Opens in a new window).

TolkienCon is happening in Prague, Jan 17-19 (Opens in a new window).

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

Douglas A. Anderson has Borges on Tolkien (Opens in a new window) - including a very lively discussion in the comments.

John Garth has A mathom on Tolkien’s birthday (Opens in a new window).
[consider supporting John’s Garth with Steady - I convinced him to be there!]

Andrew Higgins has Explorations into Tolkien's Elvish Languages (Opens in a new window).

Black Metal fans might like that Summoning (Opens in a new window) [Facebook] have reissued Lugburz, Minas Morgul and Dol Guldur (Opens in a new window) as picture discs. [Napalm Records]

The Lembas 2025 issue (Opens in a new window) will be published in April, including proceedings to last year’s seminar Evil in Eä. [Facebook, h/t Renée Vink]

My report on the fan screening of “War of the Rohirrim (Opens in a new window)” in Lucerne.

Kristine Larsen has J.R.R. Tolkien – Geologist? (Opens in a new window)

Roberto Arduini has Receiver of a Tolkien’s letter discovered (Opens in a new window).

If ever need to Cite.Tolkien (Opens in a new window). [Digital Tolkien]

Mike Glyer of File770 collected What’s your favourite Tolkien (Opens in a new window) for #TolkienBirthdayToast.

The Wertzone has The Longest SFF Novels of All Time (Opens in a new window)(2025 update), including The Lord of the Rings.

doubtfulsea has Bacon and Eggs, Etc. (Opens in a new window)

The Tolkien Society has changed its status to better serve its members and the community - here is the “new” TS’ entry (Opens in a new window) with the charity commission.

Volume 20, issue 2, of the Journal of Tolkien Research is filling up nicely (Opens in a new window).

John D. Rateliff has Happy Tolkien Day (Opens in a new window) with David Bratman answering. (Opens in a new window)
[Let’s see whether someone adds another perspective in mentioning that modern writers do not use “South Africa” as a geographical umbrella term but always as a term for the Republic of South Africa 😃]

Taruithorn: The Oxford Tolkien Society is reviving its magazine Miruvor (Opens in a new window) - contributions are welcome. [Instagram]

Merchandise & Franchise

Beast Kingdom has Gandalf (Opens in a new window).

Making ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ Nearly Killed Its Director (Opens in a new window) [IndieWire] | ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’: A Tokyo Take (Opens in a new window) [AWN]

The Silent Hill 2 Remake Team Pitched A Lord Of The Rings Horror Game (Opens in a new window). [80lv]

Ex-Annapurna Staff Reportedly Form New Company to Inherit Private Division IPs (Opens in a new window) [about Tales of the Shire]

Check out Morgan’s Tolkien collection, selling via Tradera now (Opens in a new window) [Sweden]

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.
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Inter alia & Back in the Day

Fun Fact Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Opens in a new window) premiered on Jan 3, 1993, thirty-two years ago. Tolkien was born on Jan 3.

Our culture isn't fantasy - so stop misusing it for mystical books (Opens in a new window) [BBC News]

The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at Glasgow Uni has Fantasy in the Midst of War: Perspectives from Ukraine (Opens in a new window) coming up Feb 26.

I love xkcd.

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 (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), 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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window).
Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

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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