The One hundred and forty-ninth Roving Ranger

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-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

The Great Tales of Middle-earth Boxed Set: The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien & The Fall of Gondolin, “sixth and final in a series of collectible boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien”, will be published on Aug 14.

TolkienGuide (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has everything on The Lord of the Rings: 70th Anniversary Deluxe (signed limited edition) (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Visit East Yorkshire’s official video of the unveiling of Tolkien’s Statues in Roos is available with Youtube (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Do listen to Michael Flower’s podcast interview Tolkien in East Yorkshire (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for more on the background. [Acast] Please also note: Roos Church is open on Saturdays during August and September between 10am and 3pm . Refreshments available.¹

PLEASE NOTE

The Roving Ranger will see a few additions and improvements starting with #151, celebrating another milestone.

More information with #150.

This lovely Party Tree comes to you by kind permission of MGCoco (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Events & Shows

David Bratman has a short MythCon report (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [LiveJournal]

Christopher Tuthill has a recap from the New York Tolkien Conference (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

John D. Rateliff notes the upcoming stage play: C. S. Lewis at the Taproot (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

TheOneRing.net (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has Looking for Middle-earth: San Diego Comic-con 2025 Wrap up (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as Collecting The Precious – San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Middle-earth Tour (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has the list of papers and registration options online.²

Westmoot will be returning in 2026 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).³

Eleanor Parker will be talking about ‘On the gathering tide of darkness ride’: Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Sept 17, Fintry Trust, Fintry, Brook, Godalming, Surrey]⁴

The Lord of the Rings Musical is now in Singapore (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Aug 12 ff.]

Theater Review: CCTC/HJT’s ‘Hobbit’ An Innovative Take On The Tolkien Classic (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Cape Cod Chronicle]

The Rangers of the North (Si apre in una nuova finestra) are holding a moot to visit the "Magic of Middle-earth" exhibition at the Atkinson, Southport on Saturday 16th August 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including a talk by Tolkien Society CEO Shaun Gunner. [Facebook]

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

Tom Hillman has The Sad Tale Behind Tolkien's Famous 1938 Letter to a German Publisher (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Tales after Tolkien Society has About "Carnap Finds the One Ring" (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and an An Irregular Update (Si apre in una nuova finestra). including the CfP for Kalamazoo 2026.

The latest issue of Fafnir – Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research has a number of reviews on Tolkien research, including The Romantic Spirit in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra)⁵, Celebrating Tolkien’s Legacy (Si apre in una nuova finestra), and Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Cartographies (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Early Letters (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

"Things That Were, Things That Are, and Things That Yet May Be": The Matter of Time in the Faërie Realms of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is available with the Journal of Tolkien Research.

Miriam Ellis has The High Garden and Architecture of Tolkien's Rivendell.

https://www.miriamellis.com/post/the-high-garden-and-architecture-of-tolkien-s-rivendell (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Andrew Higgins has Mommie Dearest. aiþei - A Gothic/Tolkienian Crux (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Dimitra Fimi has Tolkien Tuesday: Tolkien, Landscape Archaeology, and the First Age of Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Jeff LaSala has From Dice to Darkwood (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Joel Merriner’s Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is up for pre-order.

The 2024 Mythopoeic Awards Winners have been announced (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Marc Wilhelm Küster has Fantastic Letters. Writing in a Fictional World (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [PDF; Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century/gʁafematik/ June 8-10, 2022. Proceedings, 2022, Part II [Fluxus Editions (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]⁶

The Dead Language Society is making The case for Middle English (Si apre in una nuova finestra), including Tolkien mentions. [Substack]

Stephen C. Winter has “The Lady’s Gift! The Star-glass! A Light to You in Dark Places, She Said it Was To Be.” (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

doubtfulsea has Simple Words (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

Free League Publishing with one of its latest releases, The One Ring: Moria™ – Through the Doors of Durin, has won big with the Ennies (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [FLP newsletter]

Humble Bundle is offering WB Games, including Shadows of Mordor (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Tales Of The Shire Isn't As Bad As You Think It Is (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [The Gamer]

Weta Workshop seem to have outdone themselves with this piece.

https://www.wetanz.com/fellowship-in-moria-masters-collection?utm_campaign=644947_Masters%20Collection%202025%20Pre-order%20Announcement&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Weta%20Workshop%20Limited&dm_i=6XI1,DTN7,3Q856C,1YCPC,1 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Inter alia

The “Hugo Rocket” given to Tolkien - here is the history to it (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [File 770]

Artist Michael Whelan has an interesting post on Setting Type: Exploring book cover layout from the illustrator's perspectiv (Si apre in una nuova finestra)e. [Substack]

Ansible 457 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has been published.

You need to read the alt text to this xkcd comic (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [hint: Tom Bombadil!]

Elon Musk, J. R. R. Tolkien et une guerre culturelle et politique sans merci (Si apre in una nuova finestra)⁷ [Le Monde, paywall]

Girlguiding unveils 72 new badges including 'fandoms' and 'laughter' (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[BBC]

Author for Sale’s 40 Favourite Books: 39 – ‘The Book of the New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Book of the New Sun [by Gene Wolfe (Si apre in una nuova finestra)], as the collective story is known, is the only book I have read as often as Lord of the Rings, or perhaps more often.

St John Henry Newman set to become newest Doctor of the Church (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Vatican News (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

For all you Black Sabbath and Ozzy fans out there - this exhibition’s run has been extended until January 2026. Use your time in Birmingham to visit some of the Tolkien places as well!

https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/exhibitions/working-class-hero?utm_campaign=83921136-Curiosity%202025&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=114735410&utm_content=114735410&utm_source=hs_email (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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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. This edition has taken more than 12 hours to put together. [Also, the minimum time of curating this newsletter ranges from 12-16 hours for the bi-weekly edition and 6-8 hours for the weekly one.]