The One hundred and fifty-second Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Sept 1, 1917. Tolkien is working on The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) while in Brooklands Officers' Hospital (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Kingston upon Hull (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Sept 2, 1973. After visiting friends in Bournemouth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) becomes ill and dies, at the age of eighty-one. He is buried next to his wife, Edith (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Sept 3, 1953. Tolkien writes Letter 140b (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on ‘recording excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).’
Sept 4, 1954. Tolkien writes letter 200a (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on ‘visit from Ackerman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Zimmerman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), adaptation of Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).’
Sept 5, 2005. A version of Smith of Wootton Major (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is released, edited by Verlyn Flieger (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
Sept 6, 1973. A requiem Mass for Tolkien is held in the Church of St Anthony of Padua in Headington (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Father Robert Murray (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) assists.

• Third Age, 2. After the victory over Sauron (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and his stay in Gondor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Isildur (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) sets out for Arnor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Sept 5]

Letters from J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Bretherton (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) have recently been donated to the Bodleian Library.

The Gaelic Literature Awards 2025: Shortlists has A’ Hobat (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – J.R.R. Tolkien, translated by Moray Watson (Evertype) nominated.

The first five issues of Parma Eldalamberon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) have been made available online.¹

Did Tolkien know? 🤪 14th century ‘Oxford’s homicide rate was three to four times higher than that of London or York.’² See for yourself in Medieval Murder Maps (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). (The High Street was really bad!)

‘If you read Tolkien and then Old English literature, Old English literature seems like primitive Tolkien. If you read Old English literature and then Tolkien, Tolkien seems like just watered-down Old English literature. The order in which you read is important.’³

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Events & Shows

Two free lectures coming up in Helsinki, Finland (Öffnet in neuem Fenster): Oct 3 (Christian and pagan influences) & Oct 10 (Finnish language and the Kalevala.)

The Children’s Theater of Madison will be showing The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Feb ‘26]

Hobbiton XXIX is happening Sept 12-14 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Gorizia, northern Italy]

The Hobbit is on The Greenhouse Theater Center (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Chicago, US [Feb ‘26 ff.]

A quick report (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the first Tolkien Festival in Malta, including the founding of a society.

The Richland County Inklings have Tolkien & Beowulf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Mansfield, Ohio, US[Sep 20; Facebook event (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The presentations given with the Mythopoeic Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s Online Midsummer Seminar #4 are available online (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Your best option to visit Tolkienian spaces in Oxford are the Open Doors, happening September 13-14 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [programme as PDF (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

I would have loved to be at Oxonmoot this year (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Roving Ranger (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube] - Roving Ranger (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Spotify]

Scholarship & Fandom

onthetrail with the Tolkien Guide has collected Tolkien journals, blogs, societies, and podcasts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [I am happy to say the Roving Ranger is named in it!]

TolkienGuide also has Paul Corfield Godfrey and Simon Crosby Buttle talk Operatic Lord of the Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)[Youtube]

David Bratman has Tolkien Studies 21: an announcement (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Robin Reid has a Call for Papers: SWPCA Tolkien in Popular Culture Area (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Miriam Ellis has Tom, Goldberry, and a Different Kind of River Dance (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as The Hobbit, the Hill and the Wardrobe (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

ElderDays has a Variorum “Silmarillion”: One Day, Conceivably (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Eleanor Parker has The Real Middle Earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [via History Today, UK]⁴

Another archive (hopefully!) saved: Faerie: Tolkien Fanfiction is Moving to the AO3 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The ACLA 2026 conference in Montréal - Aesthetics and Politics of Magic in Literature and Media (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)- has a CfP [Oct 2, 2025 deadline; Fabula.org] … referencing Tolkien.

In Deep Geek has What's so Special about Orthanc? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]⁵

Historian Bret Deveraux has quite a few things to say on Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and it is always worth reading.

doubtfulsea has Return to Horrors? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [mentioning The Hobbit]

Renga in Blue has been continuing it’s Hobbit game related posts with… Ring Quest (1983) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Ring Quest: Whispering Inside the Tree (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Ring Quest: A Rage of Loss and Suspicion Was in His Heart (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Ring Quest: Last Battle of the Oathbreakers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Hot Take: The Abstraction of Science Fiction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog offers this line:

Film and television are the primary access points for viewing and engaging with The Lord Of The Rings (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Funnily enough, Ansible 458 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) notes (with the 40 million copies statement in the quote before in mind):

Tough luck on Dickenses and Tolkiens whose big sales are lost in the mists of prehistory. (in reaction to the Bookseller, Aug 28. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The actor who played Gandalf in the quasi-legendary Russian 1985 TV version (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of The Hobbit, Ivan Krasko, has passed away.⁶ He was named a People's Artist of Russia in 1992 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Inklings Jahrbuch 41 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is freely available online; quite a few articles are in English.

Josef Madlener’s “Der Berggeist”: Not the “Origin of Gandalf” (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Journal of Tolkien Research]; funnily enough there is this post with my Steady:

Fellow Tolkienian newsletter, Tolkien Gleanings, has a new URL and RSS feed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

A triple for Howard Shore: ‘Lord of the Rings’ voted nation’s favourite film score in Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [UK, that is]

Simon Tolkien: Spanish Civil War Novels, Rings of Power & J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legac (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)y [Youtube]

NPR did a survey in its “Books you love” series: What books shaped you in high school? Here's what you said (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [LotR mentioned]

Inter alia

To give you a prime example of posts I am NOT usually sharing because they are essentially clickbait - and quite frankly wrong on a number of points - is this one from WinterIsComing: 10 reasons why The Hunt for Gollum is the riskiest LOTR project yet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). lesigh

One of the posts I would always share: On the Necessary Uselessness of the Humanities (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Christopher Lockett [Substack]

Updated sales figures for Brandon Sanderson and Sarah J. Maas (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wertzone]

Netflix Publishes Generative AI Use Guidelines: Here’s What Is/Isn’t Allowed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Cartoon Brew]

You Don’t Actually Own That Movie You Just “Bought.” A New Class Action Lawsuit Targets Amazon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter]⁷

A detached former Mill House in need of renovation located near the coast, with reputed links to Tolkien's Two Towers. [No, there is no link. Do read Michael J Flowers’ work (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)⁸ on this and Phil Mathison’s.]

This week’s oddity? “Jewellery shop raids in Thrissur (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)”, India, were run under the codename Arkenstone. [New Indian Express]

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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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 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 TolkienGuide (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. h/t Conversation (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

3. h/t Ansible 458 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Michael Dirda [see Reboantic Norns.] ↩

4. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #327 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

5. Transparency note I wrote the script to this; Robert did the editing. ↩

6. h/t Ansible 458 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

7. h/t File770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

8. h/t to Michael making some fun points in the Tolkien Society Facebook group. ↩