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 (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

You can visit John Howe’s workshop in Neuchâtel, starting December 18 (Abre numa nova janela).

On this weekend: The Prancing Pony Podcast Moot (Abre numa nova janela).

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

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

Scholarship & Fandom

The bomber crash that sent Tolkien racing from his home (Abre numa nova janela) [Steady; paywall]

Dimitra Fimi has Magical Christmas (2): St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas in children's fantasy (Abre numa nova janela).

Kristine Larsen has Immeasurable Halls and Dreamlike Forms: Tracing the Caves of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien’s Legendarium (and Beyond). (Abre numa nova janela)

‘The Tower and the Ruin’ Review: Seeking Tolkien’s Past (Abre numa nova janela) [Wall Street Journal]

doubtfulsea has On the Roads Again—Once More (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has Oh, to walk down into Hobbiton! (Abre numa nova janela) and The Three Remarkable Daughters of the Old Took: Female Hobbit Adventure (Abre numa nova janela).

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: The Lone-lands (Part 2) (Abre numa nova janela).

On reddit you get the “Tolkien Metal jacket” (Abre numa nova janela) :)

Stephen C. Winter has Further Thoughts on Gandalf’s “Fountain of Mirth”. Gandalf and The Shire (Abre numa nova janela).

Matej Cadil has The Road Goes Ever On: Into the Wild (Part 3) (Abre numa nova janela).

A review of Tolkien among the Theologians (2025) edited by Austin M. Freeman (Abre numa nova janela). [Journal of Tolkien Research; vol. 23, issue 1 beginning]

Merchandise & Franchise

Jacinda Ardern once auditioned to be a Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela) [BBC]

Weta FX Deepens Its AI Strategy (Abre numa nova janela) With New AMD Partnership [Cartoon Brew]

Paramount Launches $108.4 Billion Hostile Bid For Warner Bros. Discovery (Abre numa nova janela) [Cartoon Brew]

Tom Henderson clarifies Eidos Montreal layoffs, projects, and rumors: P11, LOTR game cancellation (Abre numa nova janela), and more [reddit]

Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is with The Best Board Games of 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) [GameInformer]

This Lord of the Rings Total War mod, ten years in the making, turns the Roman Empire into Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) [PCGamesN]

Lord of the Rings Online’s next update includes three new instances – and the first stages of UI scaling (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively OP]

Rings of Power Season 3 release date, cast and filming update: Prime Video series release schedule, cast, storyline, show future (Abre numa nova janela) [India Times]

Candlelight concerts (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (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

Novelist Lev Grossman on Why Fantasy Isn’t About Escapism (Abre numa nova janela) [Harvard Magazine]

Rob Reiner, RIP (Abre numa nova janela) [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 (Abre numa nova janela) [BBC]

Disney Accuses Google Of ‘Massive’ AI Copyright Theft (Abre numa nova janela) [Cartoon Brew]

In An Era Of AI Slop Christmas Ads, This Hand-Crafted Scandinavian PSA Went Viral (Abre numa nova janela) [Cartoon Brew]

GRRM really has some news (Abre numa nova janela).

Tolkien is in Fackham Hall (Abre numa nova janela).

Thanks to the gritters we have … SNOWDO Baggins (Abre numa nova janela).

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.