RR+: The Roving Ranger nominated for ‘Best Online Content’ with the Tolkien Society Awards

It is difficult for me to describe the joy I experienced the moment I heard about my nomination on April 2nd, 2026 (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

Things have not been easy for me the last year or two for a number of reasons - particularly professionally, having to more or less give up my work as a freelance translator - and to be honoured like this is humbling and reinvigorating at the same time, to say the least.

My sincere thanks to the panelists in this category (Hannah McDonald, Lyn Wilshire, James Tauber, and Matt Graf) and to all of you lovely people who nominated me. 🤩

The Nominees for Best Online Content

ArdaCraft (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (ArdaCraft team)

Athrabeth Podcast (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (Athrabeth team)

The Tolkienist’s Roving Ranger and more (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (Marcel R. Bülles)

Tea with Tolkien (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (Kaitlyn Facista)

An Long Expected Soundscape – The Lord of the Rings (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (Jordan Rannells)

The Guide to Tolkien’s Letters (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (TolkienGuide team)

Voting

Every member will be able to vote once in each category via the Members’ Area of this website (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (that is, the Tolkien Society website; my annotation./ Marcel)

You have until midnight on Friday 24th April to vote.

If you’re not a member but would like to take part, join the Society now (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

A few thoughts on the nomination and beyond…

Almost six years ago (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), caught like everyone else in the throes of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, and after having just separated from my partner of 14+ years, I desperately needed something good to look forward to. A motivation that would give me strength to continue my ventures in my favourite fandom and essentially return to it with all of my heart.

That is when I started my Patreon account (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) to have a place to work from - and the Roving Ranger (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), the all things Tolkienian newsletter, with Tinyletter (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). At the time it sounded like a good idea.

I started writing and managed to provide my supporters with 149 original posts and 78 Roving Rangers before deciding that this was not my place after all - you can read up on my reasoning with this post from Jan 3rd, 2023 (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre).

So I moved to Steady, this crowdfunding platform.

One of the reasons - or motivations - to make the change was my first nomination with the Tolkien Society Awards (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) (April 6, 2022).

At the time both the Roving Ranger and my blog over at TheTolkienist.com (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) were nominated - together with the Digital Tolkien Project (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and the Prancing Pony Podcast (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), the eventual winner of the ‘Best Online Content’ category.

I may not have won back then but let my try and explain to you how much being nominated meant to me - even thinking about it makes me cry again.

It gave me hope at a time when I was at a personal low. My divorce had been finalised in January, 2022; I had lived on my own in Jena for a year during the pandemic with most interactions only happening online; and the professional disruptions - not being able to participate in the book fairs in Frankfurt and Leipzig - had seriously limited my ability to make a living as a translator.

Now, four years later, my professional career my have taken a break but I have found a new partner whose support and encouragement is a source of strength for me and there is a number of incredibly kind people willing and able to lend me their hands with this project of mine.

It is thanks to you that I have been able and gratefully happy to do the work thas has led to this nomination.

May this be a good sign for all the work to come.