The One hundred and fifty-second Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Sept 1, 1917. Tolkien is working on The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel (Opens in a new window) while in Brooklands Officers' Hospital (Opens in a new window), Kingston upon Hull (Opens in a new window).

Sept 2, 1973. After visiting friends in Bournemouth (Opens in a new window), J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) becomes ill and dies, at the age of eighty-one. He is buried next to his wife, Edith (Opens in a new window).

Sept 3, 1953. Tolkien writes Letter 140b (Opens in a new window), on ‘recording excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Opens in a new window).’
Sept 4, 1954. Tolkien writes letter 200a (Opens in a new window), on ‘visit from Ackerman (Opens in a new window), Zimmerman (Opens in a new window), adaptation of Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window).’
Sept 5, 2005. A version of Smith of Wootton Major (Opens in a new window) is released, edited by Verlyn Flieger (Opens in a new window).
Sept 6, 1973. A requiem Mass for Tolkien is held in the Church of St Anthony of Padua in Headington (Opens in a new window), Oxford (Opens in a new window). Father Robert Murray (Opens in a new window) assists.

• Third Age, 2. After the victory over Sauron (Opens in a new window) and his stay in Gondor (Opens in a new window), Isildur (Opens in a new window) sets out for Arnor (Opens in a new window). [Sept 5]

Letters from J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Bretherton (Opens in a new window) have recently been donated to the Bodleian Library.

The Gaelic Literature Awards 2025: Shortlists has A’ Hobat (Opens in a new window) – J.R.R. Tolkien, translated by Moray Watson (Evertype) nominated.

The first five issues of Parma Eldalamberon (Opens in a new window) have been made available online.¹

Did Tolkien know? 🤪 14th century ‘Oxford’s homicide rate was three to four times higher than that of London or York.’² See for yourself in Medieval Murder Maps (Opens in a new window). (The High Street was really bad!)

‘If you read Tolkien and then Old English literature, Old English literature seems like primitive Tolkien. If you read Old English literature and then Tolkien, Tolkien seems like just watered-down Old English literature. The order in which you read is important.’³

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Events & Shows

Two free lectures coming up in Helsinki, Finland (Opens in a new window): Oct 3 (Christian and pagan influences) & Oct 10 (Finnish language and the Kalevala.)

The Children’s Theater of Madison will be showing The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [Feb ‘26]

Hobbiton XXIX is happening Sept 12-14 (Opens in a new window). [Gorizia, northern Italy]

The Hobbit is on The Greenhouse Theater Center (Opens in a new window), Chicago, US [Feb ‘26 ff.]

A quick report (Opens in a new window) on the first Tolkien Festival in Malta, including the founding of a society.

The Richland County Inklings have Tolkien & Beowulf (Opens in a new window) in Mansfield, Ohio, US[Sep 20; Facebook event (Opens in a new window)]

The presentations given with the Mythopoeic Society (Opens in a new window)’s Online Midsummer Seminar #4 are available online (Opens in a new window).

Your best option to visit Tolkienian spaces in Oxford are the Open Doors, happening September 13-14 (Opens in a new window). [programme as PDF (Opens in a new window)]

I would have loved to be at Oxonmoot this year (Opens in a new window).

Roving Ranger (Opens in a new window) [Youtube] - Roving Ranger (Opens in a new window) [Spotify]

Scholarship & Fandom

onthetrail with the Tolkien Guide has collected Tolkien journals, blogs, societies, and podcasts (Opens in a new window). [I am happy to say the Roving Ranger is named in it!]

TolkienGuide also has Paul Corfield Godfrey and Simon Crosby Buttle talk Operatic Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window)[Youtube]

David Bratman has Tolkien Studies 21: an announcement (Opens in a new window).

Robin Reid has a Call for Papers: SWPCA Tolkien in Popular Culture Area (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has Tom, Goldberry, and a Different Kind of River Dance (Opens in a new window) as well as The Hobbit, the Hill and the Wardrobe (Opens in a new window).

ElderDays has a Variorum “Silmarillion”: One Day, Conceivably (Opens in a new window).

Eleanor Parker has The Real Middle Earth (Opens in a new window) [via History Today, UK]⁴

Another archive (hopefully!) saved: Faerie: Tolkien Fanfiction is Moving to the AO3 (Opens in a new window).

The ACLA 2026 conference in Montréal - Aesthetics and Politics of Magic in Literature and Media (Opens in a new window)- has a CfP [Oct 2, 2025 deadline; Fabula.org] … referencing Tolkien.

In Deep Geek has What's so Special about Orthanc? (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]⁵

Historian Bret Deveraux has quite a few things to say on Tolkien (Opens in a new window) - and it is always worth reading.

doubtfulsea has Return to Horrors? (Opens in a new window) [mentioning The Hobbit]

Renga in Blue has been continuing it’s Hobbit game related posts with… Ring Quest (1983) (Opens in a new window), Ring Quest: Whispering Inside the Tree (Opens in a new window), Ring Quest: A Rage of Loss and Suspicion Was in His Heart (Opens in a new window) and Ring Quest: Last Battle of the Oathbreakers (Opens in a new window).

Hot Take: The Abstraction of Science Fiction (Opens in a new window) with the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog offers this line:

Film and television are the primary access points for viewing and engaging with The Lord Of The Rings (Opens in a new window).

Funnily enough, Ansible 458 (Opens in a new window) notes (with the 40 million copies statement in the quote before in mind):

Tough luck on Dickenses and Tolkiens whose big sales are lost in the mists of prehistory. (in reaction to the Bookseller, Aug 28. (Opens in a new window)]

The actor who played Gandalf in the quasi-legendary Russian 1985 TV version (Opens in a new window) of The Hobbit, Ivan Krasko, has passed away.⁶ He was named a People's Artist of Russia in 1992 (Opens in a new window).

The Inklings Jahrbuch 41 (Opens in a new window) is freely available online; quite a few articles are in English.

Josef Madlener’s “Der Berggeist”: Not the “Origin of Gandalf” (Opens in a new window) [Journal of Tolkien Research]; funnily enough there is this post with my Steady:

Fellow Tolkienian newsletter, Tolkien Gleanings, has a new URL and RSS feed (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

A triple for Howard Shore: ‘Lord of the Rings’ voted nation’s favourite film score in Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame (Opens in a new window) [UK, that is]

Simon Tolkien: Spanish Civil War Novels, Rings of Power & J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legac (Opens in a new window)y [Youtube]

NPR did a survey in its “Books you love” series: What books shaped you in high school? Here's what you said (Opens in a new window). [LotR mentioned]

Inter alia

To give you a prime example of posts I am NOT usually sharing because they are essentially clickbait - and quite frankly wrong on a number of points - is this one from WinterIsComing: 10 reasons why The Hunt for Gollum is the riskiest LOTR project yet (Opens in a new window). lesigh

One of the posts I would always share: On the Necessary Uselessness of the Humanities (Opens in a new window) by Christopher Lockett [Substack]

Updated sales figures for Brandon Sanderson and Sarah J. Maas (Opens in a new window) [Wertzone]

Netflix Publishes Generative AI Use Guidelines: Here’s What Is/Isn’t Allowed (Opens in a new window) [Cartoon Brew]

You Don’t Actually Own That Movie You Just “Bought.” A New Class Action Lawsuit Targets Amazon (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]⁷

A detached former Mill House in need of renovation located near the coast, with reputed links to Tolkien's Two Towers. [No, there is no link. Do read Michael J Flowers’ work (Opens in a new window)⁸ on this and Phil Mathison’s.]

This week’s oddity? “Jewellery shop raids in Thrissur (Opens in a new window)”, India, were run under the codename Arkenstone. [New Indian Express]

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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).

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 TolkienGuide (Opens in a new window). ↩

2. h/t Conversation (Opens in a new window). ↩

3. h/t Ansible 458 (Opens in a new window), Michael Dirda [see Reboantic Norns.] ↩

4. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #327 (Opens in a new window). ↩

5. Transparency note I wrote the script to this; Robert did the editing. ↩

6. h/t Ansible 458 (Opens in a new window). ↩

7. h/t File770 (Opens in a new window). ↩

8. h/t to Michael making some fun points in the Tolkien Society Facebook group. ↩