The One hundred and sixty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

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

• Third Age, (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 3018 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Frodo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Samwise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) rest in Rivendell (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and prepare for their quest to destroy the One Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [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 (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

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [July 2026]

Photos of The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

‘Lord of the Rings’ lands at the Philadelphia Orchestra, but the magic remained in the music (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [conductor: Ludwig Wicki; Inquirer]

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

Scholarship & Fandom

The community stalwart, Bard of Arda, has had a terrible accident - and the community is doing a fundraiser (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Diana Glyer.

Get it with [Blackwell’s (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

[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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Tom Hillman has The Last Word of Tolkien's Teacher, Joseph Wrigh (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)t.

Karen Pollock has Trauma Therapy for Orcs: A Psychotherapeutic Consideration of Orcs in Tolkien's Legendarium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Journal of Tolkien Research]

Dimitra Fimi will be doing something special for this December (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack[

Brenton Dickieson has Let’s Talk About Samwise Gamgee: Tolkien’s Greatest Characters on the Plunge Podcast with Derek Holser (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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?” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Tolkien’s character or place names - cretic, yes or no? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Bluesky; with James Tauber]

Merchandise & Franchise

Office Dog Games have a few Tolkien-inspired games (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (among other things). [Substack]

The NYT Strands theme for Dec 6, 2025 was ‘Tolkien’s World (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).’ [Economic Times]

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

‘Lord of the Rings’ Extended Editions Return to Theaters as ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ Turns 25 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety]

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

Mondo's New Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Posters Bring Beautiful Battles (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Slash Film]

Lord of the Rings Online launches its Kingdoms of Harad expansion (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively OP]

Former Weta Workshop Senior Concept Artist Paul Tobin Joins Chaosium (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tech Raptor]

New LORD OF THE RINGS Funko Pops Will Take You Back to Middle earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [GeekTyrant]

Tom Henderson: Eidos Montreal cancelled a Lord of the Rings card game with a Telltale story-spin on it (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)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 (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

Angoulême 2026 is cancelled - these are the reasons (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [France24; Youtube]

The SFE has Transgressive Embedment (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Alan Rickman's Die Hard and Harry Potter Scripts and Personal Books to Auction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Fine Books Magazine]

Opinion: LEGO is sinking further into the moral abyss by partnering with FIFA (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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 (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.

1. h/t reddit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩