The One hundred and fifty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Parma Eldalamberon 18: Tengwesta Qenderinwa and Pre-Fëanorian Alphabets, Part 2 is available again on demand at The Great British Bookshop (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and at Barnes and Noble (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Events & Shows

'Hobbit' designer builds dragon, other fantasy creatures at Ohio Shakespeare Festival (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Beacon Journal]

Fantasy’s Present Pasts – Call for Papers and Sessions (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [University of Glasgow]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

I wrote a little piece on Christopher Lee on meeting the Professor (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Collider stole it the day after; not linking this]

Dimitra Fimi has Constructions of Childhood in Tolkien’s Legendarium (1): Childhood and the Elves (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Substack]

John Garth has The day Tolkien became a WW2 air raid warden (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady]

News: The Fall of Númenor Preview (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Hall of Beorn]

Anna Smol has Rereading The Notion Club Papers: Sauron and the Barber (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

To my disappointment I had to write Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments: Part 7: Scouring the net for all things Tolkienian in the age of AI slop… (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady]

Way more positive: My Oxford Year (Si apre in una nuova finestra) review has been mentioned with the Oxford Clarion (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Miriam Ellis has Little Bilbo's Superpower: Seeing the End of the Road (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

What Does “Home” Mean? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blog Tolkien Indonesia]

Stephen C. Winter has “Do You Understand, Mr. Frodo? I’ve Got to Go On.” Sam Gamgee Makes The Hardest Choice of His Life (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

It is lovely to see some people are fighting back: Malvern 'did not inspire' CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Ledbury Reporter]

Merchandise & Franchise

Magic: The Gathering’s foray into other franchises continues with the (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[WizardsotC]

Game studios on target to be $1b industry as Government ups funding (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [The Post, NZ]

Lord of the Rings Online has opened preorders for its fall expansion (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Kingdoms of Harad [Massively OP]; A player from Lord of the Rings Online traverses Middle-earth on foot, impressively showcasing what makes the MMORPG so special (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [mein-MMO.de]

Asmodee reveals study on board gaming (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [ICv2; see also Board game giant Asmodee made 100 times less profit than Games Workshop (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (Wargamer) ]

Lord of Rings legend a finalist at Surrey (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Newsroom NZ; on the legend that is Gamling - Bruce Hopkins]

Inter alia

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Walrus, Canada]

Star Trek is starting its 60th Anniversary - with a float (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [StarTrek.com (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

STAR TREK fans finally get the Battle of Wolf 359 they were denied by 1990s budgets (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wertzone]

Ten Years of The City of Lost Books (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [University of Glasgow, fantasy literature]

Christian homeschoolers in the year 3000 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Less Wrong]

The true cost of a pint (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Oxford Drinker]

My favourite all things books website, LibraryThing, is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Yes, part of my library (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is online thanks to their efforts.

If you care for one of the nicest spaces in Oxford you might like to chip in: Save the Vaults & Garden Café (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Crowdjustice]

Electronic Arts has been sold (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [AP News; no surprise now that about the same time rumours were spread that a new LotR IP video game would be coming, then…]

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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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.