The One hundred and sixty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Dec 8, 1955. Tolkien writes letters 176 (Abre numa nova janela) and 177 (Abre numa nova janela), mostly about The Lord of the Rings (1955 radio series) (Abre numa nova janela).
Dec 9, 1959. Tolkien writes Letter 222 (Abre numa nova janela), promising to work on translations of two poems for publication. Note The translations of these two poems, plus Sir Orfeo (Abre numa nova janela), were not published until 1975, after Tolkien's death.
Dec 10, 1944. Tolkien writes letter 91c (Abre numa nova janela), on World War II.
Dec 12, 1955. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) writes Letter 178 (Abre numa nova janela), on the inspiration for the Shire (Abre numa nova janela).
Dec 13, 1967. Margaret Carroux (Abre numa nova janela) comes to meet Tolkien in Oxford (Abre numa nova janela) to talk about her German translation.
Dec 14, 1955. Tolkien makes a a speech at the opening of the new Deddington Library (Abre numa nova janela). Copies of Tolkien’s correspondence with the county librarian are to be found at the library (Abre numa nova janela).
Dec 15, 1937. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) writes a letter to Arthur Ransome (Abre numa nova janela).

• Third Age, (Abre numa nova janela) 3018 (Abre numa nova janela). Frodo (Abre numa nova janela) and Samwise (Abre numa nova janela) rest in Rivendell (Abre numa nova janela) and prepare for their quest to destroy the One Ring (Abre numa nova janela). [until Dec 25]

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 (Abre numa nova janela) or two to friends and family. Thank you! 🤩

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Abre numa nova janela) | YT (Abre numa nova janela) | RSS feed (Abre numa nova janela)]

Events & Shows

Next year’s Inspiring Oxford summer school programme will set bank your account quite a bit - but it’s a week with John Garth: Tolkien. The Great War and the Beginnings of Middle-Earth (Abre numa nova janela). [July 2026]

Photos of The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) at Dobama Theatre, Cleveland, US.

A member of the Tolkien Society has donated her collection to the cause - these items are now up for auction (Abre numa nova janela).

‘Lord of the Rings’ lands at the Philadelphia Orchestra, but the magic remained in the music (Abre numa nova janela) [conductor: Ludwig Wicki; Inquirer]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

The community stalwart, Bard of Arda, has had a terrible accident - and the community is doing a fundraiser (Abre numa nova janela) to cover his medical costs, among other things. Please chip in, if you can.

In sixty years of publication the most successful title with Kent State University Press is Bandersnatch (Abre numa nova janela) by Diana Glyer.

Get it with [Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]

[I am so glad to have backed the audio edition back in the day 🔉👍]

Miriam Ellis has Something wonderful I noticed while painting Professor and Mrs. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela).

Tom Hillman has The Last Word of Tolkien's Teacher, Joseph Wrigh (Abre numa nova janela)t.

Karen Pollock has Trauma Therapy for Orcs: A Psychotherapeutic Consideration of Orcs in Tolkien's Legendarium (Abre numa nova janela) [Journal of Tolkien Research]

Dimitra Fimi will be doing something special for this December (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack[

Brenton Dickieson has Let’s Talk About Samwise Gamgee: Tolkien’s Greatest Characters on the Plunge Podcast with Derek Holser (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “Pippin Perceived That Gandalf Had The Greater Power, and a Deeper Wisdom, and a Majesty That Was Veiled.” Pippin Begins to Ask The Question, “What Was Gandalf?” (Abre numa nova janela)

Tolkien’s character or place names - cretic, yes or no? (Abre numa nova janela)[Bluesky; with James Tauber]

Merchandise & Franchise

Office Dog Games have a few Tolkien-inspired games (Abre numa nova janela) on offer for the holiday season.

If you feel like knowing how the developers of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship and the recent trick games look like you can simply hop over to Matt Leacock’s report from Spiel Essen (Abre numa nova janela) (among other things). [Substack]

The NYT Strands theme for Dec 6, 2025 was ‘Tolkien’s World (Abre numa nova janela).’ [Economic Times]

Buying Warner Bros. Discovery Just Gave Netflix a Ticket Into the Theme Park Wars Against Disney and Universal (Abre numa nova janela) [Inside the Magic; see also Cartoon Brew, (Abre numa nova janela) Hollywood Reporter (Abre numa nova janela), Fortune (Abre numa nova janela), press release (Abre numa nova janela)]

‘Lord of the Rings’ Extended Editions Return to Theaters as ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ Turns 25 (Abre numa nova janela) [Variety]

As a former, long-time World of Warcraft player seeing housing used to build hobbit holes (Abre numa nova janela)… is satisfying. [Youtube; more info on early housing with MMORPG (Abre numa nova janela)]

Mondo's New Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Posters Bring Beautiful Battles (Abre numa nova janela) [Slash Film]

Lord of the Rings Online launches its Kingdoms of Harad expansion (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively OP]

Former Weta Workshop Senior Concept Artist Paul Tobin Joins Chaosium (Abre numa nova janela) [Tech Raptor]

New LORD OF THE RINGS Funko Pops Will Take You Back to Middle earth (Abre numa nova janela) [GeekTyrant]

Tom Henderson: Eidos Montreal cancelled a Lord of the Rings card game with a Telltale story-spin on it (Abre numa nova janela)¹ [Youtube]

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 (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela)| Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
The Art of Mercy in Middle-Earth
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
The Hobbit Graphic Novel (revised and expanded)
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela)]
Queer Approaches to Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela)]
Doomed to Die. An A-Z of Death in Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela)| Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]
The Tower & the Ruin
[Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]

With thanks to Tim Bolton’s 2025 & 2026 Upcoming Tolkien-related books list (Abre numa nova janela).

Inter alia

Angoulême 2026 is cancelled - these are the reasons (Abre numa nova janela). [France24; Youtube]

The SFE has Transgressive Embedment (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Alan Rickman's Die Hard and Harry Potter Scripts and Personal Books to Auction (Abre numa nova janela) [Fine Books Magazine]

Opinion: LEGO is sinking further into the moral abyss by partnering with FIFA (Abre numa nova janela) [Brick Fanatics]

With thanks to Troels Forchhammer - this one’s hilarious, again.

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

Then do consider using Steady (Abre numa nova janela) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Abre numa nova janela), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Abre numa nova janela) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela), Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela), or Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Threads (Abre numa nova janela) : Mastodon (Abre numa nova janela) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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.

1. h/t reddit (Abre numa nova janela). ↩