The One hundred and fortieth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

June 7, 1957. Marquette University (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) acquires many of Tolkien's manuscripts for £1,500 (worth £50,714.96 in 202 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)5).
June 8, 1961. Tolkien writes Letter 230 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on Aragorn and languages.
June 9, 1963. Tolkien's paper "English and Welsh (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)" is published in Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a collection of lectures from the University of Wales.
June 10, 1915. Exams start at Oxford University (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Because of the war (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), only Tolkien and 24 others remain in the entire University. Tolkien would join the Army the same month, but wanted to finish his exams first.
June 11, 1953. Pearl (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), edited by E.V. Gordon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and including a contribution by Tolkien, is published.

Events & Shows

The largest Tolkien-centred event in the world (afaik), the Tolkien Days in Germany, organised by the German Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and its local branch at the Lower Rhine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), are celebrating their 15th anniversary and possibly more then 14,000 visitors (a new record.) [Jun 12-15; off. website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | FB in English (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)].
You can catch me there as a speaker, podcast coordinator, and the Tolkienist. 😅

These marathons are happening the world over at any given time but as this one’s well-announced I’ll share it as an example: Go to Australia (St. Kilda, near Melbourne) if you like. [LotR EEs shown (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Jun 28]

Tolkien exhibit at Ball State University. [until end of July (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Muncie, Indiana. The collection has 50+ books on Tolkien + merchandise & memorabilia from the films.]

A talk by Eliot Vale in Oxford: Imitative Translations of Beowulf: Tolkien, Lehmann, and McCully (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Jun 13]

Tulsa Youth Opera to Present ‘The Hobbit’ [Jun 7-8] (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

Andrew Higgins has Book Review - The Map of Wilderland by Amber Lehning (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has The Founding of the Fellowship at the Edge of a Forest.

2025 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Arda Philology 8 can now be ordered online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Lord of the Rings Online devs weigh in on the fate of the MMO’s old 32-bit servers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively OP]

doubtfulsea has Babeling (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Thoughts on Tolkien has Beowulf and the Bard (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Watch the Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee with an exclusive deal for The Lord of the Rings fans (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [TORn; use promo code ONERING for the digital download; (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)50% off.]

Stephen C. Winter has “Adventures, as I Used to Call Them.” Sam Gamgee Ponders the True Nature of Adventure Before the Hobbits Try to Enter the Nameless Land (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Australian Book Review]

Matt Leacock's new Lord of the Rings board game is like Pandemic but even better (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wargamer]

Bardic Brewing & Cider in Spokane has TOLKIEN on tap. [off. website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | IG (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Inter alia

How the Right Abuses Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Current Affairs]

Guilermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a trailer¹. [Youtube]

Inside Hollywood’s Succession Wars (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter]

Planets and Plastic: A History of the SFWA Trophies and Awards (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

xkcd wins again.

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. h/t PhantaNews (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩