The One hundred and forty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

August 1, 2008. Pauline Baynes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Tolkien's favourite artist, dies.
August 2, 1964. Tolkien writes Letter 258 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on the real-life usage of Tolkien's words.
August 2, 1966. Tolkien is interviewed by William Cater (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (see quote below).
August 3, 1991. Priscilla Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) speaks on "J.R.R. Tolkien: Scholar and Storyteller" at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.
August 4, 1953. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is angry over the fact that an editor at Allen and Unwin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has corrected dwarves to dwarfs, elvish to elfish, further to farther, and worst of all, elven to elfin.
August 5, 2002. The History of Middle-earth Index (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published.
August 7, 1954. Tolkien writes Letter 148 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on nasturtians, a busy year.

The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and those who are going to read them.¹

Events & Shows

Aug 4-8, 2005. The first ever Omentielva (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) takes place in Stockholm, the International Conference on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Invented Languages.

When visiting Oxford it has been quite strange not to have an official tourist information centre. The Clarion (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) reports that the city has now ‘opened’ eleven so-called ‘tourism hubs’ (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to alleviate some of the issues.

The Pembroke College-based Tolkien Lecture is now available as a podcast (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Spotify]

If you are in the Santa Cruz (CA) area you might like to join the Hobbit Hikers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Meetup]

Auditions for the 2025-2026 ACT! for Youth season will be for The Hobbit at Wilson Art (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); this weekend (NC).

Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Oct 18-19]²

As this is the first home game of the season the only Tolkien-inspired football fan club worldwide, Jenas Tirith (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), will be out in full force, with Tolkien scholar guest Hamish Williams (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) joining us at stadium block G = Gandalf. [See Instagram for photos (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Greek Horsemen (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Oronzo Cilli has The Wilton Diptych: a gift from Tolkien to the Convent of Santa Colette in Assisi (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

doubtfulsea has Pippin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Society calls for Tolkien to feature on a new bank note (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Tolkien Society; see also BBC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The archivist in charge of 11,000 pages of original Lord of the Rings drafts at Marquette University (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Milwaukee Tonight]

Merchandise & Franchise

Rebecca Romney has an uncorrected proof of Tree & Leaf, owned by W.H. Auden (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

Office Dog Game has Announcing The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers™ Trick Taking Game (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A Return to Moria expansion is coming at the end of this year (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [GameSpot]

The Rings Of Power Season 3 Enters Production As Amazon Teases Sauron’s Return (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Empire]

The Free League LotR RPG starter set has just been published (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

It's been a rough decade for Lord of The Rings games (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Polygon]

Inside the struggle to create a cozy Lord of the Rings game (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Verge]

The first reviews are coming in: Tales of the Shire. IGN (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Polygon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | PC Gamer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Youtube) | Guardian (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Tea with Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (Bluesky) | TolkienGuide, by Urulókë (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

• dreadfully boring and extremely buggy [IGN]

• It's a great premise, but these Hobbitses fail to stick the landing [Polygon]

• too cosy for comfort [Guardian]

• A game that could’ve been life-changing ended up pretty “meh”… 6/10 [Tea with Tolkien]

Inter alia

There’s A Huge Petition To Rename Birmingham Airport After Ozzy Osbourne – And BHX Has Responded With Its Plans To Honour The Black Sabbath Legend (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Secret Birmingham; JRRT named]

‘South Park’ Season 27 Premiere Draws Nearly 6M Viewers, Marks Franchise’s Biggest Cable Share Since 1999 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

Given the fact that I am on a ST: VOY rewatch right now this looks fun to me: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | First Look Teaser [Youtube]

Brian Sibley has Tom Lehrer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Simon Tolkien Shares His Writing Secrets! (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

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

Then do consider using Steady (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Threads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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 average time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours for the bi-weekly edition and 6-8 hours for the weekly one.

1. William Cater (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), The Sunday Times (UK), 2 January 1972. ↩

2. h/t Ian M (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Bluesky] ↩