The One hundred and sixty-seventh Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

It’s the time of the year - and you can help me continue offering the Roving Ranger and all the other things I am working on by gifting a membership (Opens in a new window) or two to friends and family. Thank you! 🤩

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Opens in a new window) | YT (Opens in a new window) | RSS feed (Opens in a new window)]

Events & Shows

You can visit John Howe’s workshop in Neuchâtel, starting December 18 (Opens in a new window).

On this weekend: The Prancing Pony Podcast Moot (Opens in a new window).

Don’t forget January 3rd is Tolkien’s birthday.

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

The bomber crash that sent Tolkien racing from his home (Opens in a new window) [Steady; paywall]

Dimitra Fimi has Magical Christmas (2): St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas in children's fantasy (Opens in a new window).

Kristine Larsen has Immeasurable Halls and Dreamlike Forms: Tracing the Caves of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien’s Legendarium (and Beyond). (Opens in a new window)

‘The Tower and the Ruin’ Review: Seeking Tolkien’s Past (Opens in a new window) [Wall Street Journal]

doubtfulsea has On the Roads Again—Once More (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has Oh, to walk down into Hobbiton! (Opens in a new window) and The Three Remarkable Daughters of the Old Took: Female Hobbit Adventure (Opens in a new window).

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: The Lone-lands (Part 2) (Opens in a new window).

On reddit you get the “Tolkien Metal jacket” (Opens in a new window) :)

Stephen C. Winter has Further Thoughts on Gandalf’s “Fountain of Mirth”. Gandalf and The Shire (Opens in a new window).

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: Into the Wild (Part 3) (Opens in a new window).

A review of Tolkien among the Theologians (2025) edited by Austin M. Freeman (Opens in a new window). [Journal of Tolkien Research; vol. 23, issue 1 beginning]

Merchandise & Franchise

Jacinda Ardern once auditioned to be a Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [BBC]

Weta FX Deepens Its AI Strategy (Opens in a new window) With New AMD Partnership [Cartoon Brew]

Paramount Launches $108.4 Billion Hostile Bid For Warner Bros. Discovery (Opens in a new window) [Cartoon Brew]

Tom Henderson clarifies Eidos Montreal layoffs, projects, and rumors: P11, LOTR game cancellation (Opens in a new window), and more [reddit]

Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is with The Best Board Games of 2025 (Opens in a new window) [GameInformer]

This Lord of the Rings Total War mod, ten years in the making, turns the Roman Empire into Middle-earth (Opens in a new window) [PCGamesN]

Lord of the Rings Online’s next update includes three new instances – and the first stages of UI scaling (Opens in a new window) [Massively OP]

Rings of Power Season 3 release date, cast and filming update: Prime Video series release schedule, cast, storyline, show future (Opens in a new window) [India Times]

Candlelight concerts (Opens in a new window) are happening globally [Lord of the Rings; WB & Fever]

Books you might like to buy…

This is a perfectly random and incomplete list of Tolkienian publications I appreciate and you might like to get for yourself or for someone you’d like to present a gift to at the end of 2025.

Please do support independent bookstores wherever and whenever possible - thank you. At the end of this newsletter you’ll find the reasons why I am supporting these three bookshops.

[Blackwell’s & Genialokal for the EU etc.; Bookshop for the US etc.]

A Real Taste for Fairy-Stories Essays by Verlyn Flieger
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)| Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Art of Mercy in Middle-Earth
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Hobbit Graphic Novel (revised and expanded)
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)]
Queer Approaches to Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)]
Doomed to Die. An A-Z of Death in Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window)| Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Tower & the Ruin
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]

With thanks to Tim Bolton’s 2025 & 2026 Upcoming Tolkien-related books list (Opens in a new window).

Inter alia

Novelist Lev Grossman on Why Fantasy Isn’t About Escapism (Opens in a new window) [Harvard Magazine]

Rob Reiner, RIP (Opens in a new window) [John Scalzi]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for The Princess Bride. It is one of those few films that made me who I am today. MRB

Creative industries 'incredibly worried' about OpenAI-Disney deal (Opens in a new window) [BBC]

Disney Accuses Google Of ‘Massive’ AI Copyright Theft (Opens in a new window) [Cartoon Brew]

In An Era Of AI Slop Christmas Ads, This Hand-Crafted Scandinavian PSA Went Viral (Opens in a new window) [Cartoon Brew]

GRRM really has some news (Opens in a new window).

Tolkien is in Fackham Hall (Opens in a new window).

Thanks to the gritters we have … SNOWDO Baggins (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, free of enshittification (Opens in a new window) and nazis.

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) - and 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 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.