The One hundred and seventy-fourth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

February 10, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 36 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra) & Farmer Giles of Ham (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

[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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), The Tolkien Trust (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and HarperCollins (Si apre in una nuova finestra) file a lawsuit against New Line Cinema (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and the Saul Zaentz Company (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
February 12, 1960. Tolkien writes letter 222b (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), with thanks for an off print, and on measles in the household.
February 14, 1896. Tolkien dictates a letter to his father (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).” [Hybrid; sold out in-person; Instagram]

Registration for Oxonmoot 2026 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is open.

Consider registering for the 54th Anniversary of the Swedish Tolkien Society Forodrim (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [May 28-31]

Last chance to get a ticket for Lure of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [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" (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Feb 10, today; ]

A musical inspired by Tolkien’s World War I experiences, Una luz en la oscuridad (Si apre in una nuova finestra), will be shown on Feb 28 in Spain at the Diocese of Getafe (Si apre in una nuova finestra).¹

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | YT (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | RSS feed (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Scholarship & Fandom

Wayne Hammond has Book Notes, July 2022–December 2023 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wordpress]

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

Andrew Higgins has Exploring Invented Languages (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

[The] Silmarillion; book-collecting minutiae has Preface to an Imagined Catalogue: Why Collect The Silmarillion? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blogspot]

David Bratman has dissing on sf cons, again (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [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! (Si apre in una nuova finestra)) [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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Miriam Ellis has Frodo's Authorship: A Work of Effort and Hope (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Between Mount Doom and the wall of "likes". Part One: Christian values in the work of Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Elfenomeno]

Tolkien’s Macaroni (Si apre in una nuova finestra) led me to a review of the Bovadium Fragments (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

The D20 Kickstarter for Foes of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has started.

In an interview with Stephen Colber (Si apre in una nuova finestra)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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [MMORPG]

Three artists have obviously come together to produce Stonefoot (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a graphic novel inspired by Tolkien’s works. [Instagram; publication imminent]

Inter alia

Another excellent piece by Bret Devereaux on ‘Ancient Migrations’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

BALDUR'S GATE TV series in development at HBO from LAST OF US team (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wertzone, Blogspot]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has The “Gorm” in Gormenghas (Si apre in una nuova finestra)t.² [Substack]

Baggins Book Bazaar in Rochester High Street, named after JRR Tolkien character The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, celebrates 40 years of trading (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Kent Online]

Hobbit-Inspired Startup Becomes First New Bank Greenlighted by Trump 2.0 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wall Street Journal; paywall]

Becoming obsessed with the idea of what if Robert E Howard wrote LoTR (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Bluesky]

Why the infinite-scroll childhood may be coming to an end (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Platformer]

I love xkcd so much.

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Threads (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩

2. h/t to File770 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩