The One hundred and eighty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

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

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The rather clickbaity 100 best novels of all time (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

On June 6, the readers’ top 100 novels of all time (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) came out.

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

James Tauber of the Digital Tolkien Project (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has done a beautiful comparison of the two polls (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

Brandon Sanderson delivered 2026 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: 'On Fantasy' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Pembroke College]

The German Inklings’ Society will hold its conference “Enmonsterisations in the Fantastic” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Jun 26-28]

Tabletop fans should have a look for tournaments at Tabletopturniere.de (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); yes, this is not a serious live show!]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

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

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Ring Goes South (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Blogspot]

Dawn Walls-Thumma of the Silmarillion Writers Guild can be heard with the BBC’s Conversation: Fan fiction: a writer's playground (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has Tolkien, the critics, and why I’m starting an Oxford doctoral project on The Lord of the Rings and war (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wordpress.com (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]²

Tim Bolton has done Imladris - The Tolkien license infographic 2026 Update (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Blogspot]

About 50 Polish fans made a trip to England and Wales (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [add. photos (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Vivien Stocker has “A Description of the Island of Númenor”: a reconstruction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [English translation of article with Tolkiendil (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); TolkienGuide]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

Everyone, including Amazon, is being extremely weird about the Lord of the Rings MMO (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively Overpowered]

Comic artist and editor Scott Dunbier mentioned in a Facebook post (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster))]

Inter alia

Stronghold 4 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is coming [Youtube]

Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Continues Concerning Trend Of Media Consolidation (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

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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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩