The One hundred and thirty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

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

J.R.R. Tolkien has become part of a Birmingham easter egg surprise (Opens in a new window). [Paradise]

Events & Shows

The Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Heights, OH, will be playing The Hobbit, starting December (Opens in a new window). [Youtube trailer (Opens in a new window)]

The Hobbit is also on in Harrisburg, PA, in April (Opens in a new window).

The Story Museum in Oxford has Tolkien on Dragons (Opens in a new window). [April 26]

The Lord of the Rings Musical is moving to Melbourne (Opens in a new window).

John Garth will do The Epic History of Lord of the Rings: Journey into Tolkien’s imagination in Cork, Ireland (Opens in a new window)[May 5, Eventbrite]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).

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 (Opens in a new window).

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

I have done another piece in my Tolkien References Project: Marvel (Opens in a new window) [Steady¹]

Tom Hillman has Elrond's long westward road (Opens in a new window).

Dimitra Fimi has On Tolkien's Letter 131 (3): Gods and Heroes out of the Sea (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Andrew Higgins has "Eald enta geweorc." (Opens in a new window) [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! (Opens in a new window)

TORn did their Middle-earth March Madness again, this time on art - this is the winner (Opens in a new window).

The Middle-earth Extended Edition (Opens in a new window), a mod for the EA game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Opens in a new window), has been published as version 1.0 after thirteen years.

Merchandise & Franchise

Weta Workshop has shared another bts video on Tales of the Shire (Opens in a new window), titled: ‘The Heart and Art of Tales of the Shire.’ [Youtube]

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

A theme park including LotR is coming to the UK (Opens in a new window) [Guardian; see press release (Opens in a new window) at Comcast NBC Universal²]

Restoring a 1977 The Hobbit Poster (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]

Inter alia

Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford recently noted they had members of the 1 Royal Regiment Fusiliers (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) | Michael Whelan (Opens in a new window) | Variety (Opens in a new window) | Legacy (Opens in a new window)]

Fantasy Novels for People Who Think They Don’t Like Fantasy (Opens in a new window) - by Leigh Bardugo [New York Times]

The airport in Hamburg, Germany, has been promoting its career service with a bunch of wildly helpful orcs (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

Maestro: Doom Bound will have music from the first film trilogy (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

The world is going to the dogs - and GRRM and Peter Jackson team up to bring direwolves back (Opens in a new window). [Not a blog]

Nicholas Whyte has done it again: 2025 Hugo final ballot: Goodreads / LibraryThing stats (Opens in a new window) as well as Nebula and BSFA shortlists – Goodreads and LibraryThing stats (Opens in a new window).

Majority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups, not parents (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]

Amy H. Sturgis is offering her class on Dystopian Tradition (Opens in a new window) again [tumblr]

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).

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 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’ (Opens in a new window) by Harry Lee Poe but that is very much a rant. 😇 ↩

2. (c) Universal Destinations & Experiences (Opens in a new window) ↩