The One hundred and sixtieth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Oct 27, 1983. The Book of Lost Tales: Part One (Abre numa nova janela) is published in the UK.
Oct 28, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 88 (Abre numa nova janela), on gloom.
Oct 30, 1936. Rayner Unwin (Abre numa nova janela), aged 10, writes a "Report on the Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela)".
Oct 31, 1954. "The Hero Is a Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela)", a review by W.H. Auden (Abre numa nova janela) of The Fellowship of the Ring (Abre numa nova janela), is published.
Nov 1, 1979. Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) is first published in the UK.
Nov 2, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 193 (Abre numa nova janela), on advice on "accents" for a BBC radio program.
Nov 3, 2016. The Bodleian Library (Abre numa nova janela) presented the Bodley Medal (Abre numa nova janela) to Christopher Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela), the Library's highest honour.

• Third Age, 3019. Battle of Bywater (Abre numa nova janela); passing of Saruman (Abre numa nova janela) and death of Gríma Wormtongue (Abre numa nova janela); end of the War of the Ring (Abre numa nova janela) [Nov 3]

The Digital Tolkien Project has announced the HoMe Base (Abre numa nova janela) today.

It is their “(…) hub for ongoing work on The History of Middle-earth. (Our)

goal is to provide a foundation for education and scholarship with an initial focus on metadata, search, data models, bibliography, and citation systems, with much more planned in the future!”¹

(Abre numa nova janela)

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Events & Shows

The Sci-Fi & Action Exhibition 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, UK, is offering, among others, ‘Lord of the Rings - legacy movie props, links to the historic collections, trails, and quizzes’ [Oct 25 ff.; see also BBC (Abre numa nova janela)]

The Wade Center has "an evening of music, poetry, and art inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Wendell Berry" (Abre numa nova janela) [Oct 28; free + livestream (Abre numa nova janela)]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

Bree Crossroads has another edition out (13 pt. 2) (Abre numa nova janela) and kindly enough mentions the Roving Ranger - thank you! [Substack]

Marie Bretagnolle has An insight into putting together the PhD appendices – pictures galore (Abre numa nova janela).

John Garth has Why I had to stop reading C.S. Lewis’s diary (Abre numa nova janela) [Steady, paywall]

A very young Tolkien fan can be seen in this Metro reel (Abre numa nova janela)with Facebook in the cinema - obviously someone missed out it is school time the next morning. What we don’t do for an EE marathon ☺️

As I mentioned before I had the pleasure of doing something with Tove Jansson’s illustrations on The Hobbit recently - now someone sent me a link to this lovely, short video combining the Moomins and LotR (Abre numa nova janela) (a reading by the exquisite Rob Inglis (Abre numa nova janela).)

Did you know that Spokane, Washington, United States, has a Hobbit House for Halloween (Abre numa nova janela) [Facebook] - and you can see it on Youtube (Abre numa nova janela)? One of its residents has also started writing about their amazing efforts with Stonewall News Northwest (Abre numa nova janela).

The Outsize Influence of Wales on Fantasy, Music, and Movies (Abre numa nova janela) [Literary Hub; I do not agree on Wales = the Shire, but there you go!]

Artist Michael Taffe is offering The Geometry Of Creation - How to Draw Tolkien’s Numenorean Tile (Part 1) (Abre numa nova janela) [Steady; paywall; see this sketch with Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) to get an idea what he is teaching]

Tolkien Guide has Doomed To Die - an A-Z of Death in Tolkien - an interview with artist and author Tom Racine (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube]

Lynn Forest-Hill has October – in all directions (Abre numa nova janela).

Co-Geeking has Grammatically Female Dwarves in Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “I am a Hobbit and No More Valiant Than I am a Man, Save Perhaps Now and Again By Necessity.” Pippin Declares Himself to The Guard at The Walls of The Pelennor (Abre numa nova janela).

doubtfulsea has It’s in Writing (2:  I’st a Prologue, or a Poesie for a Ring?) (Abre numa nova janela)

The Tolkien Fanfiction Survey 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) is available now.²

Adam Roberts has Howard Shore, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (2001–03) (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Perfectly lovely: Does Sean Bean Know His Lines? (He doesn't) (Abre numa nova janela) [Variety, Youtube]

MMO Burnout: Lord of the Rings Living Card Game is my gold standard for LOTR game adaptations (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively OP]

Reactions are coming in for the first Brandywine Festival, the Burgschneider-run LARP in Kentucky, and there seem to have been a number of issues, even though many participants truly enjoyed it (Abre numa nova janela). [reddit; this one is titled Beware Brandywine Festival KY - Thoughts From Paid Ticket Holder. Please read all reviews mentioned there to get your own view on this. A main criticism seems to have been: There were TWO full-time staff members to control THE ENTIRE GAME (Abre numa nova janela) for a total of ~1,200 players.] See also the reaction with TORn (Abre numa nova janela).

Good to see at least one other videogame gets an expansion: Return to Moria (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube; trailer for Durin’s Folk]

Estate of Play: The authors making millions years after their death (Abre numa nova janela) [RTÉ]

Inter alia

It is rather sad to see the Vaults & Garden Café (Abre numa nova janela) in Oxford close - let’s hope they will be able to reopen in another space (no thanks to the University church.)

Worth reading: AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism (Abre numa nova janela)³ [New Socialist]

Netflix Strikes Deal To Develop ‘Catan’ Game Into Film And Television Projects (Abre numa nova janela) [Forbes; please note Pete Fenlon is involved, formerly of Iron Crown Enterprises (Abre numa nova janela)]

Meet 'The Singing Hobbit' (Abre numa nova janela), Waikato's new comedy star [Waikato Times; official website (Abre numa nova janela)]

Warner Bros. Discovery — valued at $50 billion — puts itself up for sale with Paramount circling (Abre numa nova janela) [Independent; press release (Abre numa nova janela)]

Warner Bros. Keeps Taking a Beating That the Joker Would Be Proud Of (Abre numa nova janela) [Hollywood Reporter]

The 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction (Abre numa nova janela) has been announced.

The maps of Ursula K Le Guin reveal a fascinating insight into world-building in fantasy fiction (Abre numa nova janela) [The Conversation]

The Caithness Broch Project is planning on building… a broch (Abre numa nova janela)! [Thanks to Guèdelon!]

Is it a critical mineral or a Tolkien invention? Take the Guardian’s nerdiest quiz yet (Abre numa nova janela) [No, it is not 😅]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction now has a Substack (Abre numa nova janela) - for a reason.

What is the scariest book? 10 horror authors pick the most terrifying stories ever (Abre numa nova janela) [USA Today]

Lord of the Racists? UK University Course Claims Tolkien Demonised People of Colour in Fantasy Classic (Abre numa nova janela) [International Business Times]

Existential Comics doing it again.⁴

[Having said this, xkcd’s Emperor Palpatine (Abre numa nova janela) is rather exquisite, too!]

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
The Tolkienist Blog (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Threads (Abre numa nova janela) : Mastodon (Abre numa nova janela).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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 Jennie Starstuff at the DTP Discord (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

2. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #350 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

3. h/t Jenny Dolfen (Abre numa nova janela) [Bluesky] ↩

4. h/t Troels Forchhammer ↩