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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) or two to friends and family. Thank you! 🤩

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

Events & Shows

You can visit John Howe’s workshop in Neuchâtel, starting December 18 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

On this weekend: The Prancing Pony Podcast Moot (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

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

Scholarship & Fandom

The bomber crash that sent Tolkien racing from his home (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady; paywall]

Dimitra Fimi has Magical Christmas (2): St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas in children's fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Kristine Larsen has Immeasurable Halls and Dreamlike Forms: Tracing the Caves of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien’s Legendarium (and Beyond). (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

‘The Tower and the Ruin’ Review: Seeking Tolkien’s Past (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wall Street Journal]

doubtfulsea has On the Roads Again—Once More (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: The Lone-lands (Part 2) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

On reddit you get the “Tolkien Metal jacket” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) :)

Stephen C. Winter has Further Thoughts on Gandalf’s “Fountain of Mirth”. Gandalf and The Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: Into the Wild (Part 3) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

Merchandise & Franchise

Jacinda Ardern once auditioned to be a Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [BBC]

Weta FX Deepens Its AI Strategy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) With New AMD Partnership [Cartoon Brew]

Paramount Launches $108.4 Billion Hostile Bid For Warner Bros. Discovery (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

Tom Henderson clarifies Eidos Montreal layoffs, projects, and rumors: P11, LOTR game cancellation (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), and more [reddit]

Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is with The Best Board Games of 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [GameInformer]

This Lord of the Rings Total War mod, ten years in the making, turns the Roman Empire into Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [PCGamesN]

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

Rings of Power Season 3 release date, cast and filming update: Prime Video series release schedule, cast, storyline, show future (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [India Times]

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

With thanks to Tim Bolton’s 2025 & 2026 Upcoming Tolkien-related books list (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Inter alia

Novelist Lev Grossman on Why Fantasy Isn’t About Escapism (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Harvard Magazine]

Rob Reiner, RIP (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [BBC]

Disney Accuses Google Of ‘Massive’ AI Copyright Theft (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

In An Era Of AI Slop Christmas Ads, This Hand-Crafted Scandinavian PSA Went Viral (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

GRRM really has some news (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Tolkien is in Fackham Hall (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thanks to the gritters we have … SNOWDO Baggins (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

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

Do use my invite link (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (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 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.