The One hundred and thirty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 11, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 189 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on The Author as Philologist.
April 13, 1937. Tolkien writes Letter 12 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), enclosed a draft of the dust cover for The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
April 14, 1955. Tolkien writes Letter 161 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), talking about ‘map difficulties for The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).’
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Glasgow University on the religious themes adultery, temptation and repentance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
April 18, 1917. Tolkien and Christopher Wiseman (Si apre in una nuova finestra), the Great Twin Brethren, meet in Harrogate, and discuss the fate of the Barrovians (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by JRRT can be yours with 17k+€… [Sotheby’s]

J.R.R. Tolkien has become part of a Birmingham easter egg surprise (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Paradise]

Events & Shows

The Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Heights, OH, will be playing The Hobbit, starting December (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

The Hobbit is also on in Harrisburg, PA, in April (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Story Museum in Oxford has Tolkien on Dragons (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [April 26]

The Lord of the Rings Musical is moving to Melbourne (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Garth will do The Epic History of Lord of the Rings: Journey into Tolkien’s imagination in Cork, Ireland (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[May 5, Eventbrite]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John Garth has How Tolkien left the land of his birth 130 years ago today – registered as a girl (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | A new profile of Karen Wynn Fonstad (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | An ephemeral coincidence (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | A warm welcome in a not quite dead language (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

I have done another piece in my Tolkien References Project: Marvel (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady¹]

Tom Hillman has Elrond's long westward road (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Dimitra Fimi has On Tolkien's Letter 131 (3): Gods and Heroes out of the Sea (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Andrew Higgins has "Eald enta geweorc." (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [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! (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

TORn did their Middle-earth March Madness again, this time on art - this is the winner (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Middle-earth Extended Edition (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a mod for the EA game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra), has been published as version 1.0 after thirteen years.

Merchandise & Franchise

Weta Workshop has shared another bts video on Tales of the Shire (Si apre in una nuova finestra), titled: ‘The Heart and Art of Tales of the Shire.’ [Youtube]

Lord of the Rings Online is launching a new EU 64-bit server (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Grond, tomorrow, followed by Sting in the US [Massively OP]

A theme park including LotR is coming to the UK (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Guardian; see press release (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at Comcast NBC Universal²]

Restoring a 1977 The Hobbit Poster (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Youtube]

Inter alia

Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford recently noted they had members of the 1 Royal Regiment Fusiliers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Michael Whelan (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Variety (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | Legacy (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Fantasy Novels for People Who Think They Don’t Like Fantasy (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - by Leigh Bardugo [New York Times]

The airport in Hamburg, Germany, has been promoting its career service with a bunch of wildly helpful orcs (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Instagram]

Maestro: Doom Bound will have music from the first film trilogy (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Instagram]

The world is going to the dogs - and GRRM and Peter Jackson team up to bring direwolves back (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Not a blog]

Nicholas Whyte has done it again: 2025 Hugo final ballot: Goodreads / LibraryThing stats (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as Nebula and BSFA shortlists – Goodreads and LibraryThing stats (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Majority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups, not parents (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Guardian]

Amy H. Sturgis is offering her class on Dystopian Tradition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) again [tumblr]

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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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (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).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra) by Harry Lee Poe but that is very much a rant. 😇 ↩

2. (c) Universal Destinations & Experiences (Si apre in una nuova finestra) ↩