The One hundred and thirty-ninth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

June 1, 2018. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela) and Tolkien: Treasures (Abre numa nova janela) are published, accompanying the exhibition "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth" by Bodleian Library (Abre numa nova janela). [See my review. (Abre numa nova janela)]
June 2, 1916. Tolkien receives orders to report in Folkestone, and prepare for embarking.
June 3, 1972. Tolkien is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Oxford (Abre numa nova janela).
June 4, 1949. Tolkien writes a letter to Pauline Baynes (Abre numa nova janela).
June 5, 1959. Tolkien delivers the Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford (Abre numa nova janela).
June 6, 1928. Tolkien is invited to a dinner (Abre numa nova janela) marking the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary (Abre numa nova janela). [See my Steady post (Abre numa nova janela) on this.]

Guided tours will run at Sarehole Mill in Birmingham (Abre numa nova janela) every Sunday in June.

You’ll find me with the largest Tolkien-centred event in the world, the Tolkien Days in Germany (Abre numa nova janela) [Jun 12-15; both as a speaker and program director for podcasts.]

If you’re in the US - Kobo is running an offer on the History of Middle-earth ebooks [all 12 books for less than $30; better hurry¹.]

Tolkien’s Bovadium Fragments have a very clever and unusual cover.²

Events & Shows

The Tales after Tolkien Society has So, About #Kzoo2025 and Looking at #Kzoo2026 (Abre numa nova janela).

Tom Emanuel will be giving a talk in Oxford: Tolkien the post-Christian? A Proposition (Abre numa nova janela). [Jun 6]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

Jason Fisher has First mention of The Bovadium Fragments (Abre numa nova janela). John Garth has Tolkien’s road goes on – but there’s traffic ahead at Bovadium (Abre numa nova janela). [Steady]

Anna Smol has Some glimpses into Westmoot 2025 (Abre numa nova janela).

Simon Tolkien has Finding Your Way Into Writing Fiction as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Grandson (Abre numa nova janela). [LitHub]

Tom Shippey’s video "TOLKIEN was a HOBBIT!" (Abre numa nova janela) will premiere June 3. [Youtube; the Uppsala Books channel has several videos lined up (Abre numa nova janela).]

Miriam Ellis has Gildor Inglorion: Elves in the Shire! (Abre numa nova janela) See also Tom Shippey’s talk on Tolkien-inspired art, naming Miriam, and her post: With Gratitude to Professor Tom Shippey - A Personal Story (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “Or If He Pleaseth, Through it Pass, and Then The Heaven Espy.” Reflections on a Visit to The Islands of Mull and Iona (Abre numa nova janela) as well as “I Am Too Late. All is Lost”. Frodo’s Struggle With Despair Outside Minas Morgul (Abre numa nova janela).

Surveillance, Punishment, and Rebellion: The Eye of Sauron and Foucauldian Panopticism in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela) has been added to the Journal of Tolkien Research.

An article on how to determine Tolkien first editions has recently been published; please only use the work provided by the Tolkien Collectors’ Guide (Abre numa nova janela) for this.

doubtfulsea has Why a Dragon? (Abre numa nova janela)

An exceptional write-up: Why so Weird about Tolkien? The Founder Fantasies of Silicon Valley (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack; see the original post Why Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits (Abre numa nova janela)(NY Times)]

Are Scotsmen weird? I’d say yes ☺️ Jamie O’Connell walked up Ben Nevis in Gondorian armour (Abre numa nova janela)³. (Abre numa nova janela) [TikTok] P.S. And I love them for it!

Merchandise & Franchise

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ and ‘Citadel’ Hit Syndication for the First Time (Abre numa nova janela) [Variety]

There are only 2,000 copies of this limited-edition vinyl Lord of the Rings soundtrack (Abre numa nova janela) [Polygon]

Amazon has wanted to be a big player in games for 10 years, now it has to make The Lord of the Rings work (Abre numa nova janela) [Mein MMO]

Something I would truly love to have: The Pauline Baynes Tolkien Tea Towel.

LEGO is officially showing the Balrog Book Nook (Abre numa nova janela) (one out of four new releases on LotR.)

Last week a wildfire in California was called Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela). [How do wildfires get their names? (Abre numa nova janela) CNN]

The 2025 Flipbook Fest by Andymation is on The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela)⁴.

Cory Godbey has Fate of the Fellowship pt. I, that is, on his Tolkien-related illustrations (Abre numa nova janela). [Patreon; if you cannot access this then take out a free subscription.]

Inter alia

The Wheel of Time fans devastated after Prime Video decision (Abre numa nova janela) [Independent; see also Deadline (Abre numa nova janela), Forbes (Abre numa nova janela); Wertzone (Abre numa nova janela); Winteriscoming (Abre numa nova janela); see also Amazon has killed the wrong ludicrously expensive fantasy show (Abre numa nova janela)(The Telegraph)]

John Scalzi has a rather entertaining and informative post on how a successful US-based author is doing things right now (Abre numa nova janela). [Whatever @ Scalzi]

'The Wheel of Time's' Cancelation Is a Painful Blow for Female-Focused Fantasy TV (Abre numa nova janela) [Tellyvisions]

Tolkien scholar Hamish Williams (Abre numa nova janela) also writes novels and as part of the ReCreative Arts conference (Abre numa nova janela) in Groningen he will have a book launch and workshop (Abre numa nova janela) for Under the Green Cloud. [LinkedIn]

Artist Whelan has HOBBIT IN A PINCH (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

SATIRE One Rocket to Rule them All.

As George Lucas’s ‘Starship’ Museum Nears Landing, He Takes the Controls (Abre numa nova janela) [New York Times]

An interview with Rob Maslen (Abre numa nova janela). [Patreon]

A call for moderation (of panels) (Abre numa nova janela) [Frank Catalano, Substack]

The 11 most important fandoms of 2015 (Abre numa nova janela) [Daily Dot]

Yes, Ryan George’s recent If Red Carpet Interviews Were Honest (Abre numa nova janela) has a Middle-earth connection!

The Nats’ clubhouse book club is on a journey to Middle-earth this season (Abre numa nova janela) [Washington Post]

Despite all the fun with this hobby Games Workshop can be difficult (Abre numa nova janela)⁵.

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

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

Do use my invite link (Abre numa nova janela) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

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 (Abre numa nova janela), Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela), or Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Threads (Abre numa nova janela) : Mastodon (Abre numa nova janela).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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.

1. h/t Philipp Nelson (Abre numa nova janela) [Bluesky] ↩

2. h/t Tolkien Guide (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

3. h/t Brian Weaver (Abre numa nova janela). [Bluesky] ↩

4. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #306 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

5. h/t Ansible 455 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩