The One hundred and seventy-fourth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

February 10, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 36 (Abre numa nova janela), on The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela) & Farmer Giles of Ham (Abre numa nova janela).

[Tolkien] planned to make a special effort to finish it before June 15 since Furth had said that they needed the new story no later than that time to publish it by Christmas.

February 11, 2008. The Tolkien Estate (Abre numa nova janela), The Tolkien Trust (Abre numa nova janela) and HarperCollins (Abre numa nova janela) file a lawsuit against New Line Cinema (Abre numa nova janela) and the Saul Zaentz Company (Abre numa nova janela).
February 12, 1960. Tolkien writes letter 222b (Abre numa nova janela), on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, The Silmarillion, and Ancrene Wisse.

Tolkien wrote to Unwin to inform him that work on his translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl had to be paused while he was getting The Silmarillion typed out.

February 13, 1923. Tolkien writes Letter 6 (Abre numa nova janela), with thanks for an off print, and on measles in the household.
February 14, 1896. Tolkien dictates a letter to his father (Abre numa nova janela).

I am so glad I am coming back to see you it is such a long time since we came away from you I hope the ship will bring us all back to you Mamie and Baby (Abre numa nova janela) and me ... I am got such a big man now because I have got a man's coat and a mans [sic] bodice ... Auntie Gracie [Grace Mountain née Tolkien] has been to see us I walk every day and only ride in my mailcart a little bit ... your loving Ronald.

February 15, 1896. Arthur Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela), J.R.R. Tolkien's father, dies.

Events & Shows

The German Tolkien Society in cooperation with the German National Library, the German Literature Archive Marbach, and German Tolkien Publishers Hobbitpresse (plus the German voice actor of Elijah Wood) will be starting off a nation-wide series titled ‘Literature as self-defense’ with an evening under the heading off: “I wish it need not have happened in my time (Abre numa nova janela).” [Hybrid; sold out in-person; Instagram]

Registration for Oxonmoot 2026 (Abre numa nova janela) is open.

Consider registering for the 54th Anniversary of the Swedish Tolkien Society Forodrim (Abre numa nova janela). [May 28-31]

Last chance to get a ticket for Lure of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) [Feb 20-22; Castle Stahleck, Germany]

Erik Jampa Andersson will give his talk at Corpus Christi College, Oxford: "Tolkien's 'Luxuriant Animism': Unseen Beings and the Animacy of Arda" (Abre numa nova janela) [Feb 10, today; ]

A musical inspired by Tolkien’s World War I experiences, Una luz en la oscuridad (Abre numa nova janela), will be shown on Feb 28 in Spain at the Diocese of Getafe (Abre numa nova janela).¹

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Abre numa nova janela).

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Abre numa nova janela) | YT (Abre numa nova janela) | RSS feed (Abre numa nova janela)]

Scholarship & Fandom

Wayne Hammond has Book Notes, July 2022–December 2023 (Abre numa nova janela) [Wordpress]

Thomas Hillman has Túrin's "tide of ill" in The Book of Lost Tales (LT II.87) (Abre numa nova janela), Foalókë & The Digital Tolkien Project -- How it Helps my Work, part 2 (Abre numa nova janela), and "I will bear Frodo, though I do not know the way." (Abre numa nova janela) [Blogspot]

Andrew Higgins has Exploring Invented Languages (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

[The] Silmarillion; book-collecting minutiae has Preface to an Imagined Catalogue: Why Collect The Silmarillion? (Abre numa nova janela) [Blogspot]

David Bratman has dissing on sf cons, again (Abre numa nova janela). [Blogspot]

Dimitra Fimi has Why did Tolkien mention a plate in his "On Fairy-stories" lecture? (or, Mabel Lucie Attwell's fairies and why Tolkien hated them! (Abre numa nova janela)) [Substack]

Stephen C. Winter has “I Must Go Down Also to Minas Tirith, But I Do Not Yet See The Road.” Aragorn Ponders His Way Ahead (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has Frodo's Authorship: A Work of Effort and Hope (Abre numa nova janela).

Between Mount Doom and the wall of "likes". Part One: Christian values in the work of Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) [Elfenomeno]

Tolkien’s Macaroni (Abre numa nova janela) led me to a review of the Bovadium Fragments (Abre numa nova janela).

Merchandise & Franchise

The D20 Kickstarter for Foes of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) has started.

In an interview with Stephen Colber (Abre numa nova janela)t Ian McKellen mentioned filming of ‘Hunt for Gollum’ would begin this summer - which would be unfortunate as that is winter in New Zealand. [Youtube]

The Lord of the Rings Online Opens Three New Kingdoms of Harad Instances and First Phase of UI Scaling (Abre numa nova janela) [MMORPG]

Three artists have obviously come together to produce Stonefoot (Abre numa nova janela), a graphic novel inspired by Tolkien’s works. [Instagram; publication imminent]

Inter alia

Another excellent piece by Bret Devereaux on ‘Ancient Migrations’ (Abre numa nova janela).

BALDUR'S GATE TV series in development at HBO from LAST OF US team (Abre numa nova janela) [Wertzone, Blogspot]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has The “Gorm” in Gormenghas (Abre numa nova janela)t.² [Substack]

Baggins Book Bazaar in Rochester High Street, named after JRR Tolkien character The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, celebrates 40 years of trading (Abre numa nova janela) [Kent Online]

Hobbit-Inspired Startup Becomes First New Bank Greenlighted by Trump 2.0 (Abre numa nova janela) [Wall Street Journal; paywall]

Becoming obsessed with the idea of what if Robert E Howard wrote LoTR (Abre numa nova janela) [Bluesky]

Why the infinite-scroll childhood may be coming to an end (Abre numa nova janela) [Platformer]

I love xkcd so much.

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

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

Do use my invite link (Abre numa nova janela) and start with three months fee-free.
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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) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

As this is 2026 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 minimum time of curating this newsletter ranges from 8-12 hours every week. Please consider supporting me so I can continue offering the Roving Ranger - thank you.

1. h/t Tolkien Gleanings 379 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

2. h/t to File770 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩