The One hundred and thirty-eighth Roving Ranger

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Life and Works

May 24, 1973. Tolkien writes Letter 350 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), relaying C.V.L. Lycett's comments about the T.C.B.S. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) & Tolkien's current status.
May 25. 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 337 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on inspirations.
May 27, 1958. Tolkien writes a letter to Nancy Smith (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on the index to The Lord of the Rings.
May 28, 1964. Tree and Leaf (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is first published in the UK.
May 30, 1945. Tolkien writes Letter 100 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), expressing his loathing for warplanes.
May 24, 2014. Special mention: The Beowulf Launch Party (Si apre in una nuova finestra), supported by the Tolkienist (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [See also Tolkien Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra).]

T.A. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 3019 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Arwen (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Elrond (Si apre in una nuova finestra) leave Lothlórien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on their way to Minas Tirith (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [May 27]

Events & Shows

Marie Bretagnolle will be giving a talk (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with the Mythopoeic Society Online MidSummer Seminar (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Aug 2-3]

InBound Brew in Minneapolis have a LotR-themed day (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [May 24]

The New York Tolkien Conference has announced its Artist Guest of Honor: Donato Giancola (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Italian Tolkien event, La Contea Gentile, has shared photos of its recent get together (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

As part of this year’s Odyssey of the Mind global competition, a Michigan school team (Si apre in una nuova finestra) went for Classics… Cooking with Books (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [PDF] and chose the Hobbit.

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

Miriam Ellis has Henneth Annûn: A Window on Eru? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Stephen C. Winter has “Maybe It Was the Ring That Called to The Wraith-lord, and For a Moment He Was Troubled.” A Contest of Powers Within the Morgul Vale (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

James Tauber’s 2023 Oxonmoot talk has been found: Linguistic Variation in Tolkien's Writing Styles (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]

Dimitra Fimi has Reflections on Tolkien's Unfinished Tales (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has Bilbo and the Butterflies: A Magnificent Escape as well as Unexpected Enchantment (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

https://www.miriamellis.com/post/bilbo-and-the-butterflies-a-magnificent-escape (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Robin Reid has some reading recommendations (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as The Webs of Women update (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Science’s ‘Gollum effect’: PhDs bear brunt of territorial behaviour (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Nature; see original publication with One Earth: Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers (Si apre in una nuova finestra).]

The Spanish Tolkien Society has shared a Guide to Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra), prepared for the first ‘organised’ visit by STE members in 2024. [PDF]

The Diary of a City Guard (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as another installment.

Tolkien Trewsday has shared its June topic roster (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on ‘celebrating fandom.’ [Bluesky]

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Laura Stanifer has a very good description of how she became the Wade Center archivist (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - if this is a career you are considering this still relevant post might be for you.

Tom Emmanuel has Fantastic Architecture: Studying Tolkien at the University of Glasgow (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

doubtfulsea has By Ear (3) (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Christopher Lockett has Tolkien’s Uncanny Magic. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Substack]

The Criterion has Home, Exile, and Displacement in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra)¹. [College of the Holy Cross]

Michael Drout’s The Tower and the Ruin has a cover. [Dec 2025; pre-order with Blackwell’s (Si apre in una nuova finestra) UK | Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra) US | Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Merchandise & Franchise

Artist David Wenzel has published the title page to the ‘new’ Hobbit comic (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Instagram]

This hardcover edition has 40 new paintings for the story and a back section with additional artwork and notes on my creation process.

Personally happy to see that LotRO now has an official account with Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

LotR make-up² is now available with Glamlite (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

'Making of The Lords of the Rings: The Rings of Power' roundtable panel (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]

Games Workshop has some free scenarios to download (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for MESBG.³

Inter alia

Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)⁴ [The Pudding; on language compression]

Amazing posts on maps of Oxford (Si apre in una nuova finestra)⁵.

Baggins of Downing Street (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Tribune Magazine, UK]

How Silicon Valley’s influence in Washington benefits the tech elite (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [TechCrunch; many of those companies are named after objects found with Tolkien’s stories.]

LibraryThing has just sent out its May State of the Thing (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including an interview with Laura Spinney (Si apre in una nuova finestra), author of Proto: How one ancient language went global. [Also includes all literature awards winner of last month, globally.]

Jurassic Park: Rebirth has a trailer (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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

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

Do use my invite link (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and start with three months fee-free.
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General info

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Threads (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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.