The One hundred and sixty-third Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Tolkien’s Desk (Opens in a new window) from his years at Merton College is up for auction. [Tolkien Guide; my expectation would 250k+ quid upwards]

An Unfinished Tales Special Edition is coming (Opens in a new window) [Tolkien Guide]

The Bovadium Fragments were mentioned in one of my favourite publications, the Oxford Clarion (Opens in a new window) [Nov 7]

Cllr Emma Garnett (Green, Parks) actually read out an excerpt in this week’s County Council meeting.

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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

The Leadership in Tolkien’s Middle-earth hybrid conference will take place at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, on March 14, 2026 (Opens in a new window).

Edmund Weiner of The Ring of Words (Opens in a new window) will be talking about Lewis, the Lexicographer at Pusey House, Oxford. (Opens in a new window)

EYE OF MELIAN, Featuring DELAIN And AURI Members, Announces 'Forest Of Forgetting' Album (Opens in a new window) - and Finnish tour.

A short trailer for the Lithopolis rendition of The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]

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

Scholarship & Fandom

The lovely people over at the Tolkien Guide have just published their new Guide to Tolkien Calendars (Opens in a new window).

Dimitra Fimi has Tolkien Tuesday: Two unexpected places in which Tolkien recalls the Great War (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

doubtfulsea has To Bree (Part 2) (Opens in a new window).

Lord of the wrongs! Tolkien hotel makes bedroom blunder (Opens in a new window) [Telegraph]

Queer Approaches to Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth (Opens in a new window) has a publication date - Nov 28. [Substack]

The Kent State University Press has a 60th Anniversary offer (Opens in a new window)- 40% off and free shipping. Check out their Tolkien, Lewis, and Inklings Studies (Opens in a new window) - home to such excellent books as Verlyn Flieger’s Splintered Light (Opens in a new window), Tom Hillman’s Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring (Opens in a new window), or Diana Glyer’s The Company They Keep (Opens in a new window).¹

Miriam Ellis has Tolkien's Goldilocks Easter Egg: "Very Ancient Indeed (Opens in a new window)."

Stephen C. Winter has “What is Wrong With Strider?” Gandalf Gives Pippin a Rapid Briefing on Aragorn Just Before They Enter the Throne Room of Gondor (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

Please note Whenever the BBC writes an article with a title similar to “Has region/ place X inspired Tolkien to Y?” please take this with a grain of salt. The Beeb has made many unproven or misleading claims when it comes to ‘Tolkien’s sources’ in the last 20+ years which plague us to this very day…

Free League Publishing have announced Hands of the White Wizard and Trials of Saruman as well as Hobbit Tales (Opens in a new window) for their LotR RPG.

The Smithsonian Associates’ series on the History of Fantasy has its last event Fantasy After Dungeons & Dragon (Opens in a new window)s on Nov 19. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) was #3 of five presentations.

Move Over Frodo Baggins, Luxury-Home Buyers Are Coming for Prime ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape (Opens in a new window) [Mansion Global]

Inter alia

This will make quite a few people happy: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) met Pope Leo in Rome (Opens in a new window) and gave him a gift. [YouTube]

LibraryThing is offering its Secret Santa (Opens in a new window) for the 19th time, supporting independent bookstores the world over [not the Big A!], so that members on LT can send/ and or get surprise books for Christmas!

Vatican newspaper editor critiques Palantir Technologies’ meritocracy fellowship (Opens in a new window) [Catholic Culture]

Does this mean… Lucas likes Tolkien? (Opens in a new window)

The recently started congestion charge in Oxford cannot be circumvented simply by buying the Ghosterbuster’s hearse (Opens in a new window) [Oxford Clarion]

“I knew well that I risked death…” #RLSDay (Opens in a new window). [Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings]

If you want to know what the Ellison family - with an Oxfordian link now - is all about, read this: DEI is dead at Paramount, David Ellison’s Skydance promises FCC (Opens in a new window) [LA Times]

New ‘Star Trek’ Movie In Works At Paramount From Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley (Opens in a new window) [Deadline; see also The Verge (Opens in a new window)]

The trace of Russian business and poor-quality shelters: "GDN of Ukraine" overpaid half a million hryvnias for structures with thinner walls than required by SBS (Opens in a new window) [Antikor; deals with the owners of the UA ‘hobbit houses’)

Romantastic: Romantic Fantasy leads SFF to its best-ever year (Opens in a new window) [Bookseller, UK]

In case you had not noticed, I like xkcd.
And I dislike SUV’s with a burning passion…

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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 to Tom Hillman (Opens in a new window). ↩