The One hundred and eighty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

June 22, 1911 Tolkien and several other cadets of King Edward's School (Opens in a new window)'s Officer Training Corps line the route at the Coronation of George V (Opens in a new window). Tolkien stands near Buckingham Palace.
June 23, 1945 Tolkien is elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (Opens in a new window).
June 24, 2022 The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien (Opens in a new window) is published.
June 25, 1957 Tolkien writes Letter 200 (Opens in a new window), on the nature of Sauron.
June 26, 1968 Tolkien writes Letter 305 (Opens in a new window) to Rayner Unwin, telling him he broke a leg falling down the stairs at home which would prove disastrous for his work and arrangements.
June 27, 1916 Tolkien leaves Étaples (Opens in a new window), and goes to the Somme front (Opens in a new window).
June 28, 1919 The Treaty of Versailles (Opens in a new window) is signed and the First World War officially ends.
June 29, 1972 The Daily Telegraph describes actions of the Forestry Commission as bringing a "Tolkien gloom". Tolkien responds (Opens in a new window).

HarperCollins are following up on publishers in Germany and France and their editions of The Hobbit with Tove Jansson illustrations - all you need to know about this you can listen to in the first ever episode of A Talk with the Tolkienist and read up on the German edition I presented with Frankfurt Book Fair (Opens in a new window).

The rather clickbaity 100 best novels of all time (Opens in a new window) by the Guardian [May 18, 2026] has led to quite some - certainly intended - engagement on the web and beyond. It has been kept alive by a number of consequent articles, including this particular statement:

The same might be true of the now unfashionable postwar writers: there’s no CS Lewis, William Golding or Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings was the nation’s favourite in the BBC’s Big Read). [my emphasis; Who’s in, who’s out (Opens in a new window)]

On June 6, the readers’ top 100 novels of all time (Opens in a new window) came out.

#1. Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.

James Tauber of the Digital Tolkien Project (Opens in a new window) has done a beautiful comparison of the two polls (Opens in a new window).

[I am working on an exhaustive list of awards Tolkien has been named (Opens in a new window) in with Steady.]

The way the internet is going reliable information will be more difficult to find every day - so a curated newsletter like the Roving Ranger is more needed than ever.
Share it, let people know! Thank you 😊

Events & Shows

Please make a note of October 3-4, 2026 (Opens in a new window), for the 20th Anniversary celebrations with the TolkienGuide, one of the best websites on Tolkien for… twenty years!

July 11-12, 2026 will see the Great Haywood Tolkien Weekend (Opens in a new window), organised by local historian David Robbie (Opens in a new window) [youtube] in cooperation with the village councils involved.¹

Brandon Sanderson delivered 2026 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: 'On Fantasy' (Opens in a new window) [Pembroke College]

The German Inklings’ Society will hold its conference “Enmonsterisations in the Fantastic” (Opens in a new window) [Jun 26-28]

Tabletop fans should have a look for tournaments at Tabletopturniere.de (Opens in a new window) [Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic]

I will be participating in this year’s EuroCon in Berlin (organised via MetropolCon) with my podcast SmallTolk - our topic will be a “Ranking insults in Tolkien’s Legendarium” [Jul 3 (Opens in a new window); yes, this is not a serious live show!]

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

Scholarship & Fandom

A Tolkien letter up for auction with Christie’s (Opens in a new window) is offering two interesting tidbits: Ents in the Shire seem to have been a thing and the name of the hobbit village Crickhollow was meant to refer to the Welsh town Crickhowell [Dimitra Fimi makes note of this (Opens in a new window); Substack]

Now, Middle-earth and Wales have been reason for quite a few studies but this letter will only turn the Tolkien Tourism notch up a bit, with the landlord of Treebeards Bar in Crickhowell (Opens in a new window) having started a crowdfunder to keep the letter in Wales (Opens in a new window) [Nation Cymru]

Fearing that the letter could, again, get lost to time, local business owner Frank Ady has launched an online fundraiser with the hopes that the precious letter can find a final resting place in the charming Powys town and perhaps act as a draw for future visitors.

Perhaps researchers should keep in mind that Tolkien lived two streets down from Crick Road (Opens in a new window) in Oxford where the Haldane family had their home (Naomi Mitchison (Opens in a new window) belonged to that family), one stress across from Dragon School (Opens in a new window) which both Christopher and Simon Tolkien attended; and if Tolkien wanted to go for a walk or a bike ride to/ through the University Parks he would have passed Crick Road. Inspirations may have many sources.

Miriam Ellis has also written about this (Opens in a new window).

Tom Emanuel has:

Stephen C. Winter has “Take All These Things and Bear Them to Good Fortune!” Merry and The Importance of Being Dressed For Battle (Opens in a new window).

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Ring Goes South (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

Dawn Walls-Thumma of the Silmarillion Writers Guild can be heard with the BBC’s Conversation: Fan fiction: a writer's playground (Opens in a new window).

John Garth has Tolkien, the critics, and why I’m starting an Oxford doctoral project on The Lord of the Rings and war (Opens in a new window) [Wordpress.com (Opens in a new window)]²

Tim Bolton has done Imladris - The Tolkien license infographic 2026 Update (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

About 50 Polish fans made a trip to England and Wales (Opens in a new window) [add. photos (Opens in a new window)]

Vivien Stocker has “A Description of the Island of Númenor”: a reconstruction (Opens in a new window) [English translation of article with Tolkiendil (Opens in a new window); TolkienGuide]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Opens in a new window). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

Everyone, including Amazon, is being extremely weird about the Lord of the Rings MMO (Opens in a new window) [Massively Overpowered]

Comic artist and editor Scott Dunbier mentioned in a Facebook post (Opens in a new window) that “the Tolkien Estate” had shut down a project bringing The Lord of the Rings to the comic world.

[My comment: I highly doubt that the “Estate” was responsible - at the time Tolkien Enterprises (now Middle-earth Enterprises) had free reign to do such a comic; the Estate would have had no legal means to stop this as this is supposedly part of the rights’ deal made with TE/ MEE (Opens in a new window))]

Inter alia

Stronghold 4 (Opens in a new window) is coming [Youtube]

Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Continues Concerning Trend Of Media Consolidation (Opens in a new window) [Cartoon Brew]

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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 2026 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 Trotter from TolkienGuide (Opens in a new window) for letting me know about a mistake on the Great Haywood date and misspelling Treebeards Bar. Thank you, they have been corrected with this online edition. ↩

2. Also wonderfully noted with the Clarion (Opens in a new window). ↩