The One hundred and eighty-eighth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Soul’s Ward: A critical edition of his unpublished translation of the early Middle English homily Sawles Warde (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [OUP]

Dimitra Fimi notes on Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [plus manuscript pages]

NEW TOLKIEN JUST OUT: delighted to see “JRR #Tolkien’s (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Soul’s Ward: A critical edition of his unpublished translation of the early Middle English homily Sawles Warde” edited by Andoni Cossio and Nelson Goering (…) Chuffed to have played a minor role in this…

Telegraph (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (paywall)

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Events & Shows

Visit this year’s EuroCon and meet me (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 😇

The Tolkien Society has announced its seminar date and topic: Tolkien’s Invented Languages (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Nov 21; CfP deadline is 31st July]

History came alive for third-graders at Heritage Elementary (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Byron Center, Michigan, USA [School News Network; including Tolkien]

If you are in the Rochester (New York, USA) area check out this request on Craigslist to start a Tolkien reading group (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Reviews on the Stratford Festival’s Hobbit: The Road Goes On, But the Adventure Never Quite Arrives for Stratford’s “The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra)” [Front Mezz Junkies] | Stratford Festival’s unimaginative ‘Hobbit’ strips the colour and heart from the beloved novel (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Toronto Star] | The Stratford Festival's The Hobbit is an Exciting Adventure (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Broadway World]

Composer & Sound Designer Debashis Sinha Talks About The Hobbit At The Stratford Festival (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Ludwig Van]

The Family Pinecone Book Club in the Art Center East has a number of reading performances of The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in June [La Grande, Oregon, USA]

The Hobbit will be staged at the Alberta Theatre Projects (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Dec 1 - Jan 3, 2027; Calgary, Canada]

The Zephyr Theatre will do an outdoor edition of The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [July 23 - Aug; Stillwater, Minnesota, USA]

Bedrock Gardens are having their Annual Fairy and Hobbit Festival again (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Jul 17-19; Lee, New Hampshire, USA]

Registration is now open (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for June 19-21, 2026.

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

A documentary about the Tolkien Society Forodrim (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is now live with Kickstarter.

Dimitra Fimi has The Slow LotR Re-read (7): "hobbit talk" and non-standard English (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as The Slow LotR Re-read (8): Sam Gamgee, folklore, and the numinous (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Substack]

Robin Reid has Pope Leo, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Peter Thiel (Si apre in una nuova finestra)¹,

Shawn E Marchese has Dispatch from Westmoot 2026 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Substack]

French Tolkien scholar Vincent Ferré has participated² in Les mondes et les peuples de la fantasy (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a Radio France four part documentary podcast on fantastic worlds.

The 2026 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have been announced.³

Tolkien Guide has an interview with Giuseppe Pezzini, editor of J.R.R. Tolkien and G.B. Smith (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Youtube]

A new book has been announced: Tolkien's Material Culture by Marie Loughlin (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Bloomsbury; it seems to be an expansion of this Tolkien Studies article (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

John Garth has Tolkien, the critics, and why I’m starting an Oxford DPhil on Lord of the Rings and war (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady]

A new special issue with the Journal of Tolkien Research has the topic Asexuality in Tolkien's Legendarium (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Tom Hillman has "Galadriel," he murmured (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blogspot]

The Silmarillion — Clowes Intermediate Second State (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (1977) [Blogspot]

Delving too deep: Morphological and molecular description of the cave-dwelling Dolichopoda balrogi (Si apre in una nuova finestra) sp. nov. [Journal of Othoptera; new type of cave cricket]

Matej Cadil has Mushrooms in Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has Galadriel's Weavers and Glorious Glimpses in The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Edith's Dance for J.R.R. Tolkien at Roos and the problem of war (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Anke Eissmann has…

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Council of Elrond, Part 2 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blogspot]

doubtfulsea has Tennis, Anyone? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Stephen C. Winter has “The Red Arrow Has Not Been Seen in The Mark in All My Years.” Rohan Receives The Call for Aid From Gondor. The Importance of Strong Ritual (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and “So We Come To It in The End… The Great Battle of Our Time, in Which Many Things Shall Pass Away.” A Great Cloud Comes From Mordor That Simplifies The Mind of Théoden (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Distant reading of The Lord of the Rings: visualization and statistical analyses of its character network (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Springer Nature]

Audiobook Review: The World of Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [by Dimitra Fimi]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Si apre in una nuova finestra). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

As one of the early Tolkienian-named companies (and now licensee of MEE) Rivendell Mountain Works (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have recently shared their new Lupine day packs [read up on their early days as Middle-earth fans (Si apre in una nuova finestra); and if any of you feel like Xmassing me - it’s either wine & coyote or brown & navy!]

Free League Publishing has shared: Available Now: New Middle-earth RPG Releases Explore Saruman, Isengard, and the Shire (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Mailchimp]

Stone Blade Entertainment have shared a first update on The Lord of the Rings: Ascension (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [GameFound; some of the artwork from the game]

Brick Fanatics has LEGO Minas Tirith Siege Tower instructions revealed (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Brick Tap has leaked the next major LotR LEGO project: the Oliphaunt (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Instagram]

Amazon Still Wants to Make a Lord of the Rings Game (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Despite Canceling the MMO It Was Working On [IGN]

German heo group has announced additional Hobbit Squaroes items - like Radagast (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [a brand of the Ultimate Group]

Dark Horse the latest publisher to unionize (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [icV2; part of Embracer and offering Middle-earth related merch like Gollum (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Exciting news of film exploring the magic of fandom and friendship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [TORn; on Wise Sam Gamgees]

The Board Games Insider has episode #421 The One About Small Publishers Getting Tolkien Licenses. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

German podcasters Annika Röttinger & Tobias M. Eckrich (chairman of the German TS) have started a project for #PrideMonth titled “Das Auenland ist bunt” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with a message of diversity and inclusion.

Inter alia

John Boorman’s son mentioned that for the Lord of the Rings film project sheep were supposed to replace… extras (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Instagram]

Numbers from the UK: Publishing reaches highest ever revenue in 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Publishers Association]

My favourite webradio is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a new look for its website and quite a few other perks if you support it: Radio Rivendell (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

You may consider them a traditional feature of Oxford colleges but they really aren’t as you migth believe: Should colleges scrap the quad? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Oxford Blue]

One way of following Oxford’s cultural history was Nightshift - and the last issue has hit the stands and the web (Si apre in una nuova finestra).⁴

SFWA Announces 61st Annual Nebula Awards Winners (Si apre in una nuova finestra).⁵

YouTube Is Taking Over Hollywood: How Three Films From Online Creators Are Dominating the Box Office Right Now (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Comic Basis]

‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Will Set An Unfortunate ‘Star Wars’ Record [Forbes]

RIP John Blanche (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wertzone; he also did Tolkien illustrations (Si apre in una nuova finestra), found with the Bestiary]

Benny Johnson (Si apre in una nuova finestra)'s advice for Trump on Iran: Be like Smaug from The Hobbit. “You got to go full dragon in Lord of the Rings, and scorched-earth the entire town” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Media Matters]

Ansible 467 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has arrived. My favourite quote?

Terry Pratchett (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’s works are apparently teetering on the brink of oblivion, according to someone called Helen Lewis: ‘One of England’s funniest writers is in danger of being lost to history.’ (The Atlantic, May) The point of the clickbait headline is that Lewis feels there’s never been a successful screen adaptation and Terry’s reputation can’t possibly survive on the strength of mere old-fashioned books.

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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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Threads (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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. Robin is so kind as to mention my talk at the 2019 Birmingham Tolkien Conference. ↩

2. h/t LinkedIn (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩

3. h/t File770. ↩

4. h/t Oxford Clarion (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Jun 2, 2026 edition. ↩

5. h/t File 770. ↩