The One hundred and eighty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

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

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The rather clickbaity 100 best novels of all time (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

On June 6, the readers’ top 100 novels of all time (Si apre in una nuova finestra) came out.

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

James Tauber of the Digital Tolkien Project (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has done a beautiful comparison of the two polls (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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

Brandon Sanderson delivered 2026 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: 'On Fantasy' (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Pembroke College]

The German Inklings’ Society will hold its conference “Enmonsterisations in the Fantastic” (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Jun 26-28]

Tabletop fans should have a look for tournaments at Tabletopturniere.de (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra); yes, this is not a serious live show!]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

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

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Ring Goes South (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blogspot]

Dawn Walls-Thumma of the Silmarillion Writers Guild can be heard with the BBC’s Conversation: Fan fiction: a writer's playground (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

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

Tim Bolton has done Imladris - The Tolkien license infographic 2026 Update (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Blogspot]

About 50 Polish fans made a trip to England and Wales (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [add. photos (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Vivien Stocker has “A Description of the Island of Númenor”: a reconstruction (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [English translation of article with Tolkiendil (Si apre in una nuova finestra); TolkienGuide]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Si apre in una nuova finestra). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

Everyone, including Amazon, is being extremely weird about the Lord of the Rings MMO (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Massively Overpowered]

Comic artist and editor Scott Dunbier mentioned in a Facebook post (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra))]

Inter alia

Stronghold 4 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is coming [Youtube]

Fox’s $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Continues Concerning Trend Of Media Consolidation (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Cartoon Brew]

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

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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩