The One hundred and eighty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

June 22, 1911 Tolkien and several other cadets of King Edward's School (Abre numa nova janela)'s Officer Training Corps line the route at the Coronation of George V (Abre numa nova janela). Tolkien stands near Buckingham Palace.
June 23, 1945 Tolkien is elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature (Abre numa nova janela).
June 24, 2022 The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) is published.
June 25, 1957 Tolkien writes Letter 200 (Abre numa nova janela), on the nature of Sauron.
June 26, 1968 Tolkien writes Letter 305 (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela), and goes to the Somme front (Abre numa nova janela).
June 28, 1919 The Treaty of Versailles (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela).

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 (Abre numa nova janela).

The rather clickbaity 100 best novels of all time (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela)]

On June 6, the readers’ top 100 novels of all time (Abre numa nova janela) came out.

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

James Tauber of the Digital Tolkien Project (Abre numa nova janela) has done a beautiful comparison of the two polls (Abre numa nova janela).

[I am working on an exhaustive list of awards Tolkien has been named (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela), organised by local historian David Robbie (Abre numa nova janela) [youtube] in cooperation with the village councils involved.¹

Brandon Sanderson delivered 2026 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: 'On Fantasy' (Abre numa nova janela) [Pembroke College]

The German Inklings’ Society will hold its conference “Enmonsterisations in the Fantastic” (Abre numa nova janela) [Jun 26-28]

Tabletop fans should have a look for tournaments at Tabletopturniere.de (Abre numa nova janela) [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 (Abre numa nova janela); yes, this is not a serious live show!]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

A Tolkien letter up for auction with Christie’s (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela); 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 (Abre numa nova janela) having started a crowdfunder to keep the letter in Wales (Abre numa nova janela) [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 (Abre numa nova janela) in Oxford where the Haldane family had their home (Naomi Mitchison (Abre numa nova janela) belonged to that family), one stress across from Dragon School (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela).

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 (Abre numa nova janela).

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Ring Goes South (Abre numa nova janela) [Blogspot]

Dawn Walls-Thumma of the Silmarillion Writers Guild can be heard with the BBC’s Conversation: Fan fiction: a writer's playground (Abre numa nova janela).

John Garth has Tolkien, the critics, and why I’m starting an Oxford doctoral project on The Lord of the Rings and war (Abre numa nova janela) [Wordpress.com (Abre numa nova janela)]²

Tim Bolton has done Imladris - The Tolkien license infographic 2026 Update (Abre numa nova janela) [Blogspot]

About 50 Polish fans made a trip to England and Wales (Abre numa nova janela) [add. photos (Abre numa nova janela)]

Vivien Stocker has “A Description of the Island of Númenor”: a reconstruction (Abre numa nova janela) [English translation of article with Tolkiendil (Abre numa nova janela); TolkienGuide]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Abre numa nova janela). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

Everyone, including Amazon, is being extremely weird about the Lord of the Rings MMO (Abre numa nova janela) [Massively Overpowered]

Comic artist and editor Scott Dunbier mentioned in a Facebook post (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela))]

Inter alia

Stronghold 4 (Abre numa nova janela) is coming [Youtube]

Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Continues Concerning Trend Of Media Consolidation (Abre numa nova janela) [Cartoon Brew]

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

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 (Abre numa nova janela) 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 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩