The One hundred and thirty-eighth Roving Ranger

0 cincos

00 comentários

Life and Works

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

T.A. (Abre numa nova janela) 3019 (Abre numa nova janela). Arwen (Abre numa nova janela) and Elrond (Abre numa nova janela) leave Lothlórien (Abre numa nova janela) on their way to Minas Tirith (Abre numa nova janela). [May 27]

Events & Shows

Marie Bretagnolle will be giving a talk (Abre numa nova janela) with the Mythopoeic Society Online MidSummer Seminar (Abre numa nova janela) [Aug 2-3]

InBound Brew in Minneapolis have a LotR-themed day (Abre numa nova janela). [May 24]

The New York Tolkien Conference has announced its Artist Guest of Honor: Donato Giancola (Abre numa nova janela).

The Italian Tolkien event, La Contea Gentile, has shared photos of its recent get together (Abre numa nova janela).

As part of this year’s Odyssey of the Mind global competition, a Michigan school team (Abre numa nova janela) went for Classics… Cooking with Books (Abre numa nova janela) [PDF] and chose the Hobbit.

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

Miriam Ellis has Henneth Annûn: A Window on Eru? (Abre numa nova janela)

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 (Abre numa nova janela).

James Tauber’s 2023 Oxonmoot talk has been found: Linguistic Variation in Tolkien's Writing Styles (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube]

Dimitra Fimi has Reflections on Tolkien's Unfinished Tales (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has Bilbo and the Butterflies: A Magnificent Escape as well as Unexpected Enchantment (Abre numa nova janela).

https://www.miriamellis.com/post/bilbo-and-the-butterflies-a-magnificent-escape (Abre numa nova janela)

Robin Reid has some reading recommendations (Abre numa nova janela) as well as The Webs of Women update (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

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

The Spanish Tolkien Society has shared a Guide to Oxford (Abre numa nova janela), prepared for the first ‘organised’ visit by STE members in 2024. [PDF]

The Diary of a City Guard (Abre numa nova janela) as another installment.

Tolkien Trewsday has shared its June topic roster (Abre numa nova janela) on ‘celebrating fandom.’ [Bluesky]

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (Abre numa nova janela).

Laura Stanifer has a very good description of how she became the Wade Center archivist (Abre numa nova janela) - 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 (Abre numa nova janela).

doubtfulsea has By Ear (3) (Abre numa nova janela).

Christopher Lockett has Tolkien’s Uncanny Magic. (Abre numa nova janela) [Substack]

The Criterion has Home, Exile, and Displacement in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (Abre numa nova janela)¹. [College of the Holy Cross]

Michael Drout’s The Tower and the Ruin has a cover. [Dec 2025; pre-order with Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) UK | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) US | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]

Merchandise & Franchise

Artist David Wenzel has published the title page to the ‘new’ Hobbit comic (Abre numa nova janela). [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 (Abre numa nova janela).

LotR make-up² is now available with Glamlite (Abre numa nova janela).

'Making of The Lords of the Rings: The Rings of Power' roundtable panel (Abre numa nova janela). [Youtube]

Games Workshop has some free scenarios to download (Abre numa nova janela) for MESBG.³

Inter alia

Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? (Abre numa nova janela)⁴ [The Pudding; on language compression]

Amazing posts on maps of Oxford (Abre numa nova janela)⁵.

Baggins of Downing Street (Abre numa nova janela). [Tribune Magazine, UK]

How Silicon Valley’s influence in Washington benefits the tech elite (Abre numa nova janela) [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 (Abre numa nova janela), including an interview with Laura Spinney (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela).

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.]

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 (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.