The One hundred and thirty-third Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 18, 1917. Tolkien and Christopher Wiseman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the Great Twin Brethren, meet in Harrogate, and discuss the fate of the Barrovians (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and the future of the Society.
April 20, 1973. Tolkien writes a letter to John Higgins (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), declining the request to be part of a literary jury.
April 23, 1925. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published.
April 25, 1954. J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) writes Letter 144 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to Naomi Mitchison on The Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and languages (Öffnet in neuem Fenster),

• Third Age, 2841. Thráin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) sets out for the Lonely Mountain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Balin and Dwalin with him. [April 21]

Events & Shows

I have published my report of the first ever Omentië Nolwë conference in Zurich, Switzerland.

Tolkien's Medieval Worldbuilding (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is a talk given as part of the Medieval Fair Free Lectures Series in Oklahoma (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [April 18]

Meet the amazing Shawn Marchese at the Greater Austin Book Festival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and get a signed copy of Why We Love Middle-earth [April 26]

The Arden Theatre Company has a trailer for their Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

If you feel like combining the City Nature Challenge with a visit to Sarehole Mill, April 25th is a good day to visit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Birmingham Museums]

The New York Tolkien Conference has added Tom Hillman as guest speaker (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A new LotR LCG event is coming to France: La Communauté des Cartes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Instagram; May 31; h/t Lure of Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

Mythlore’s Volume 43, Number 2 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)(Spring/Summer 2025, #146) has much to offer; Tom Emanuel’s An Aspirational Cultus? Tolkien Fandom at the Borders of Belief (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is just one of the many interesting pieces.

The Journal of Tolkien Research has added Sounds of Battle and Battle of Sounds: Belliphonic in Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Ardacraft has How we're building trees for Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

Stephen C. Winter has “I Looked For no Such Friendship as You Have Shown. To Have Found it Turns Evil to Great Good.” The Redeeming Friendship of Frodo and Faramir. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Henry Gee has proven his comedic qualities once again (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), making light fun of a certain recent “de-extinction” with paragraphs like this:

Ents
In ‘Project Treebeard’, scientists at Humungous Biosciences have been trying to create ents by splicing actin and myosin genes into banyan trees. The results have been encouraging, if disconcerting. The trees really do seem to move around, but only when nobody is looking.

The Exeter College magazine EXON has a piece on Tolkien’s poetry (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [PDF¹]

The Oxford Tolkien Network on Youtube has added five videos to its channel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The British Fantasy Society Journal has a call for submissions for their winter special issue: War in Fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), with Tolkien being named as potential topic.

doutbfulsea has Lingua Orca (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Adam Roberts has On Tolkien's ‘Lay of Leithian’ (1925-31) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Substack]

The Tolkien Scciety has announced the shortlist for The Tolkien Society Awards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 2025; members can now vote until April 25 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

An adorable new Hobbit board game is coming from tabletop legend Reiner Knizia (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wargamer]

Weta Workshop is already stirring the proverbial Hobbit cooking pot with Oven Mitten Sets, Tea Towels, and Ingredients of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tales of the Shire merchandise]

Lord of the Rings Online has announced compensation for all the server transfer woes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Massively OP]

At the time of writing the Lord of the Rings Fountain Pen & Ink Collection (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Kickstarter was financed at 9287% of the originally asked for sum.

The Burgschneider Middle-earth Adventures - The Brandywine Festival (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Kickstarter was financed at 398% of the originally asked for sum (the starting sum was much higher to begin with than the Ferris Wheel Press one.)

Not a huge fan of the Shmun but they have Lord of the Rings to get HUGE attraction in new UK theme park – 30 years after first film hit screens (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Sun]

The script for LotR: Hunt for Gollum, written by Philippa Boyens (?), might be turned in this May (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Deadline]

Inter alia

File770 has: Op-Ed: “No More Worldcons in the United States?” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); another view is: Worldcon In An Age Of American Truculence (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). In answer Mike Glyer wrote: Op-Ed: Solidarity Not Divisiveness. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs; Willow; Dr. Who) has passed away. [Wertzone (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Guardian (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Big Finish (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ]

Quite a few Pratchett fans² will rejoice: Announcing the Discworld Graphic Novel Universe (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [TP Estate]

An important question that should be compared with other countries: Do Charity Bookshops Drive Out Other Second-Hand Bookshops? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wormwoodiana; this is on the UK³; do also read the follow-up (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The big idea: will sci-fi end up destroying the world? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

Jeff LaSala has Faith & Heresy. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Finally, an Affordable Reprint of Medusa by E.H. Visiak (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wormwoodiana]

We need more heroes like this, that is, we need more Jason Statham!

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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).

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 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. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #297 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ↩

2. I am definitely looking forward to this as I am Moist von Lipwig ↩

3. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #297 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ↩