The One hundred and sixty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life & Works

Isengard in Oxford (Abre numa nova janela) [Review of Bovadium Fragments; LARB]

Cat Eldridge has Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) [File 770]

Tolkien Birthday Toast (Abre numa nova janela): January 3rd.

Please note

After fifty Roving Rangers in 2025 - mostly on time for Monday evenings - I’ll use Christmas¹ and the start of the new year² to - hopefully - recharge the batteries for another year of Middle-earthian shenanigans. And don’t forget…

It’s the time of the year - 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 & family. Thank you - from Marcel! 🤩

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

The Cailloux Theater in Kerrville, Texas, USA, will have its Youth Theatre perfom The Hobbit [March 2026 (Abre numa nova janela)]

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

Scholarship & Fandom

Why I Keep Returning to Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) [Michael Drout; New York Times, paywall; see this option, too (Abre numa nova janela)]

David Bratman has left the Tolkien Studies building (Abre numa nova janela). He has a few more things to add (Abre numa nova janela). [Thank you for your hard work, David!]

doubtfulsea has A Moon disfigured (Abre numa nova janela).

Dimitra Fimi has Magical Christmas (3): Gothic and Ghost stories at Christmas (Abre numa nova janela) [Substack]

Stephen C. Winter has “Opposing The Fire That Devours and Wastes With The Fire That Kindles.” Gandalf Kindles a Flame in The Hearts of The Free Peoples of Middle-earth. (Abre numa nova janela)

Two more items with the Journal of Tolkien Research: Belliphonic Tolkien: Listening to the Wars in Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) and The High Hallow: Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (2025) by Ben Reinhard (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has Tolkien's Eagles: Friends in High Places. (Abre numa nova janela)

The answer is pretty simple³: The only fantasy author with a massive US audience (and beginning globally) at the time… was Tolkien. So his stories’ backcloth provided much of the recognisable ‘framework’ to the game. It could have possibly been anything - but Gary wanted success, so he went for the bestseller [imho] ⬇️⁴

Merchandise & Franchise

LOTRO Legendarium: Looking back at Lord of the Rings Online’s weird 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively OP]

In one of the most hilarious video game articles this year we get a lot of Middle-earth related titles: The 176 video games that only sold one copy in 2025 (Abre numa nova janela). [Polygon]

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

Lucasfilm wins bid to throw out UK lawsuit over 'resurrection' of 'Star Wars' character (Abre numa nova janela)[Reuters]

Follow Snowdo Baggins around Oxfordshire on this map (Abre numa nova janela).

Heritage Auctions Establishes New World Record With $3.875 Million ‘Star Wars’ Painting in Landmark Hollywood & Entertainment Sale (Abre numa nova janela) [press release; fans with a keen eye will see the connection to ‘Tolkien’]

The Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries (Abre numa nova janela) [ProQuest]

The Oscars Are Heading To YouTube In 2029 (Abre numa nova janela) [Cartoon Brew]

Warner Bros. plans to reject Paramount bid on funding, terms (Abre numa nova janela) [Fortune]

kchchchchchch.😅

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. Here is a list (Abre numa nova janela) for international well wishes for the end of the year festivities, Christmas among them - including Alassëa merendë! ↩

2. Festivities like Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, Kwanzaa and Diwali, to name but a few; for a longer list have a look at Wikipedia (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

3. Do not quarter and hang me, appreciated! ↩

4. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #367 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩