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

Renovations are ongoing with the Eagle & Child in Oxford (Opens in a new window).

Christopher Gilson notes Parma Eldalamberon 21-23 are again available (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).[Feb 8-9]

Publishing Fantasy for Younger Readers: A Symposium (Opens in a new window) will take place in Glasgow in April, with Tom Emanuel championing LotR.

Oxonmoot registration (Opens in a new window) is available now. [Tolkien Society]

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

The Tolkien Seminar Series (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) (Sun 2 & 9), an online class with Politics & Prose (Opens in a new window).

The Sao Paolo, Brasil, smial Imladris has laid out its plans for 2025 (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

Many of the Australian fellowships recently came together for OzMoot (Opens in a new window). 2026 will take place in Canberra. [Facebook]

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

Nominations open for Tolkien Society Awards 2025 (Opens in a new window) (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 (Opens in a new window).

The Birmingham Oratory - where Tolkien spent many formative years - has The Lord of the Rings Talk (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) [h/t Tolkien Gleanings (Opens in a new window)]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Burden of Belongings (Opens in a new window).

Andrew Higgins has Elvish Pronouns in the late 1930's - Part One (Opens in a new window).

Michael Martinez has Was J.R.R. Tolkien Woke? (Opens in a new window)

Call for Papers: Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – ‘Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments’ (Opens in a new window).

Michael Drout’s Tower and the Ruin has an Amazon listing for Dec 2, 2025 (Opens in a new window).

Joel Merriner has announced his upcoming book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc for September 18 [Bluesky (Opens in a new window)]

Renga in Blue has another early computer game write-up on Arkenstone (1982) (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

A massive film and tv report on US viewers by Luminate on 2024 (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).”

An Interview with Stephen Gallagher (Opens in a new window) [Youtube; h/t BreeCrossroads (Opens in a new window)]

Tansy Gardam has And Back Again: The Enduring Appeal of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Opens in a new window).

A six film 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition of the Middle-earth trilogies has been announced for March 18th, 2025. (Opens in a new window) [IGN]

Lord Of The Rings Very First Squishmallows Are Finally Up For Pre-Order (Opens in a new window) (US) [The Gamer] - Frodo, Gandalf, Gollum.

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.
—— Now available until Jan 31 ➡️ the 7-day-trial option.

Inter alia & Back in the Day

Brandon Sanderson says studios and streamers aren’t ready to adapt his work (Opens in a new window) [Polygon; also mentions WoT and RoP]

Ellen Kushner has Some spells against despair (Opens in a new window).

Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) now has ebooks (Opens in a new window).

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 (Opens in a new window). [see also Rhianna Pratchett, Bluesky (Opens in a new window)]

Ansible 451 (Opens in a new window) has been published.

• Ansible 211 (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) could not be more on point right now. [Royal Mint]

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

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

Then do consider using Steady (Opens in a new window) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Opens in a new window), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany and free of enshittification (Opens in a new window).

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

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.

Are you interested in a gift for someone you really like?
... and that person happens to like Tolkien? Look no further 😁🥳

I have gift plans for a Steady membership with 300+ posts, rants, reviews, event reports, Fingolfin's Findings, Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments and more...