The One hundred and seventy-fourth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

February 10, 1939. Tolkien writes Letter 36 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on The Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) & Farmer Giles of Ham (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).” [Hybrid; sold out in-person; Instagram]

Registration for Oxonmoot 2026 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is open.

Consider registering for the 54th Anniversary of the Swedish Tolkien Society Forodrim (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [May 28-31]

Last chance to get a ticket for Lure of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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" (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Feb 10, today; ]

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

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | YT (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | RSS feed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Scholarship & Fandom

Wayne Hammond has Book Notes, July 2022–December 2023 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wordpress]

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

Andrew Higgins has Exploring Invented Languages (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

[The] Silmarillion; book-collecting minutiae has Preface to an Imagined Catalogue: Why Collect The Silmarillion? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Blogspot]

David Bratman has dissing on sf cons, again (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [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! (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)) [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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Miriam Ellis has Frodo's Authorship: A Work of Effort and Hope (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Between Mount Doom and the wall of "likes". Part One: Christian values in the work of Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Elfenomeno]

Tolkien’s Macaroni (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) led me to a review of the Bovadium Fragments (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

The D20 Kickstarter for Foes of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has started.

In an interview with Stephen Colber (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [MMORPG]

Three artists have obviously come together to produce Stonefoot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a graphic novel inspired by Tolkien’s works. [Instagram; publication imminent]

Inter alia

Another excellent piece by Bret Devereaux on ‘Ancient Migrations’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

BALDUR'S GATE TV series in development at HBO from LAST OF US team (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wertzone, Blogspot]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has The “Gorm” in Gormenghas (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)t.² [Substack]

Baggins Book Bazaar in Rochester High Street, named after JRR Tolkien character The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, celebrates 40 years of trading (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Kent Online]

Hobbit-Inspired Startup Becomes First New Bank Greenlighted by Trump 2.0 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wall Street Journal; paywall]

Becoming obsessed with the idea of what if Robert E Howard wrote LoTR (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Bluesky]

Why the infinite-scroll childhood may be coming to an end (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Platformer]

I love xkcd so much.

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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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Threads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. h/t to File770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩