The One hundred and sixty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

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

• Third Age, (Opens in a new window) 3018 (Opens in a new window). Frodo (Opens in a new window) and Samwise (Opens in a new window) rest in Rivendell (Opens in a new window) and prepare for their quest to destroy the One Ring (Opens in a new window). [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 (Opens in a new window) or two to friends and family. Thank you! 🤩

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Opens in a new window) | YT (Opens in a new window) | RSS feed (Opens in a new window)]

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 (Opens in a new window). [July 2026]

Photos of The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window).

‘Lord of the Rings’ lands at the Philadelphia Orchestra, but the magic remained in the music (Opens in a new window) [conductor: Ludwig Wicki; Inquirer]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

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

Get it with [Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]

[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 (Opens in a new window).

Tom Hillman has The Last Word of Tolkien's Teacher, Joseph Wrigh (Opens in a new window)t.

Karen Pollock has Trauma Therapy for Orcs: A Psychotherapeutic Consideration of Orcs in Tolkien's Legendarium (Opens in a new window) [Journal of Tolkien Research]

Dimitra Fimi will be doing something special for this December (Opens in a new window). [Substack[

Brenton Dickieson has Let’s Talk About Samwise Gamgee: Tolkien’s Greatest Characters on the Plunge Podcast with Derek Holser (Opens in a new window).

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?” (Opens in a new window)

Tolkien’s character or place names - cretic, yes or no? (Opens in a new window)[Bluesky; with James Tauber]

Merchandise & Franchise

Office Dog Games have a few Tolkien-inspired games (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) (among other things). [Substack]

The NYT Strands theme for Dec 6, 2025 was ‘Tolkien’s World (Opens in a new window).’ [Economic Times]

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

‘Lord of the Rings’ Extended Editions Return to Theaters as ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ Turns 25 (Opens in a new window) [Variety]

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

Mondo's New Lord Of The Rings Trilogy Posters Bring Beautiful Battles (Opens in a new window) [Slash Film]

Lord of the Rings Online launches its Kingdoms of Harad expansion (Opens in a new window) [Massively OP]

Former Weta Workshop Senior Concept Artist Paul Tobin Joins Chaosium (Opens in a new window) [Tech Raptor]

New LORD OF THE RINGS Funko Pops Will Take You Back to Middle earth (Opens in a new window) [GeekTyrant]

Tom Henderson: Eidos Montreal cancelled a Lord of the Rings card game with a Telltale story-spin on it (Opens in a new window)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 (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)| Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Art of Mercy in Middle-Earth
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Hobbit Graphic Novel (revised and expanded)
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)]
Queer Approaches to Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window)]
Doomed to Die. An A-Z of Death in Tolkien
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window)| Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]
The Tower & the Ruin
[Blackwell’s (Opens in a new window) | Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window) | Genialokal (Opens in a new window)]

With thanks to Tim Bolton’s 2025 & 2026 Upcoming Tolkien-related books list (Opens in a new window).

Inter alia

Angoulême 2026 is cancelled - these are the reasons (Opens in a new window). [France24; Youtube]

The SFE has Transgressive Embedment (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Alan Rickman's Die Hard and Harry Potter Scripts and Personal Books to Auction (Opens in a new window) [Fine Books Magazine]

Opinion: LEGO is sinking further into the moral abyss by partnering with FIFA (Opens in a new window) [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 (Opens in a new window) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Opens in a new window), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Opens in a new window) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), 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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

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 (Opens in a new window). ↩