The One hundred and thirty-second Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 11, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 189 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), stating “Nothing… for me replaces the bloom on a book, the freshness of the unread.”
April 12, 1970. Tolkien writes a letter to Tom Shippey (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on The Author as Philologist.
April 13, 1937. Tolkien writes Letter 12 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), enclosed a draft of the dust cover for The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
April 14, 1955. Tolkien writes Letter 161 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), talking about ‘map difficulties for The Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).’
April 15, 1953. Tolkien gives the W.P. Ker Lecture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Glasgow University on the religious themes adultery, temptation and repentance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
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.

• Third Age, 3018. In the morning Gandalf examines Bilbo's Ring and determines from its inscription that it is the One Ring. He tells Frodo of the Ring's history and Frodo volunteers to leave the Shire in order to secure the Ring. [April 13]

A handwritten letter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by JRRT can be yours with 17k+€… [Sotheby’s]

J.R.R. Tolkien has become part of a Birmingham easter egg surprise (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Paradise]

Events & Shows

The Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Heights, OH, will be playing The Hobbit, starting December (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The Hobbit is also on in Harrisburg, PA, in April (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Story Museum in Oxford has Tolkien on Dragons (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [April 26]

The Lord of the Rings Musical is moving to Melbourne (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth will do The Epic History of Lord of the Rings: Journey into Tolkien’s imagination in Cork, Ireland (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[May 5, Eventbrite]

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

An absolutely splendid piece on Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Stephen C. Winter has “Do Not Go to Cirith Ungol!” Some Further Thoughts on an Impossible Decision (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has How Tolkien left the land of his birth 130 years ago today – registered as a girl (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Steady]

I am so happy to see Jason Fisher is ‘back in the game’ after a years’ long hiatus: More details on Tolkien’s election to the General Board of the Faculties, Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | A new profile of Karen Wynn Fonstad (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | An ephemeral coincidence (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | A warm welcome in a not quite dead language (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

I have done another piece in my Tolkien References Project: Marvel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady¹]

Tom Hillman has Elrond's long westward road (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Dimitra Fimi has On Tolkien's Letter 131 (3): Gods and Heroes out of the Sea (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Andrew Higgins has "Eald enta geweorc." (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Substack]

If you are interested in finding out how doubtful sea manages in the post Two Fingers to get from pirates to Tolkien’s typewriter… there you go! (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

TORn did their Middle-earth March Madness again, this time on art - this is the winner (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Middle-earth Extended Edition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a mod for the EA game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), has been published as version 1.0 after thirteen years.

Merchandise & Franchise

Weta Workshop has shared another bts video on Tales of the Shire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), titled: ‘The Heart and Art of Tales of the Shire.’ [Youtube]

Lord of the Rings Online is launching a new EU 64-bit server (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Grond, tomorrow, followed by Sting in the US [Massively OP]

A theme park including LotR is coming to the UK (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian; see press release (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Comcast NBC Universal²]

Restoring a 1977 The Hobbit Poster (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

Inter alia

Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford recently noted they had members of the 1 Royal Regiment Fusiliers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for a visit, including a “talk on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and service…” [Instagram]

Robert McGinnis, one of the most legendary book and film poster illustrators (think Breakfast at Tiffany’s or James Bond), has passed away. [Vanity Fair (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Michael Whelan (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Variety (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Legacy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Fantasy Novels for People Who Think They Don’t Like Fantasy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - by Leigh Bardugo [New York Times]

The airport in Hamburg, Germany, has been promoting its career service with a bunch of wildly helpful orcs (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Instagram]

Maestro: Doom Bound will have music from the first film trilogy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Instagram]

The world is going to the dogs - and GRRM and Peter Jackson team up to bring direwolves back (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Not a blog]

Nicholas Whyte has done it again: 2025 Hugo final ballot: Goodreads / LibraryThing stats (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as Nebula and BSFA shortlists – Goodreads and LibraryThing stats (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Majority of attempts to ban books in US come from organised groups, not parents (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

Amy H. Sturgis is offering her class on Dystopian Tradition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) again [tumblr]

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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. I also have a review of ‘The Inklings of Oxford. C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Their Friends’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Harry Lee Poe but that is very much a rant. 😇 ↩

2. (c) Universal Destinations & Experiences (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) ↩