The One hundred and sixtieth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Oct 27, 1983. The Book of Lost Tales: Part One (Opens in a new window) is published in the UK.
Oct 28, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 88 (Opens in a new window), on gloom.
Oct 30, 1936. Rayner Unwin (Opens in a new window), aged 10, writes a "Report on the Hobbit (Opens in a new window)".
Oct 31, 1954. "The Hero Is a Hobbit (Opens in a new window)", a review by W.H. Auden (Opens in a new window) of The Fellowship of the Ring (Opens in a new window), is published.
Nov 1, 1979. Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) is first published in the UK.
Nov 2, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 193 (Opens in a new window), on advice on "accents" for a BBC radio program.
Nov 3, 2016. The Bodleian Library (Opens in a new window) presented the Bodley Medal (Opens in a new window) to Christopher Tolkien (Opens in a new window), the Library's highest honour.

• Third Age, 3019. Battle of Bywater (Opens in a new window); passing of Saruman (Opens in a new window) and death of Gríma Wormtongue (Opens in a new window); end of the War of the Ring (Opens in a new window) [Nov 3]

The Digital Tolkien Project has announced the HoMe Base (Opens in a new window) today.

It is their “(…) hub for ongoing work on The History of Middle-earth. (Our)

goal is to provide a foundation for education and scholarship with an initial focus on metadata, search, data models, bibliography, and citation systems, with much more planned in the future!”¹

(Opens in a new window)

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Events & Shows

The Sci-Fi & Action Exhibition 2025 (Opens in a new window) at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, UK, is offering, among others, ‘Lord of the Rings - legacy movie props, links to the historic collections, trails, and quizzes’ [Oct 25 ff.; see also BBC (Opens in a new window)]

The Wade Center has "an evening of music, poetry, and art inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Wendell Berry" (Opens in a new window) [Oct 28; free + livestream (Opens in a new window)]

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Opens in a new window) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

Bree Crossroads has another edition out (13 pt. 2) (Opens in a new window) and kindly enough mentions the Roving Ranger - thank you! [Substack]

Marie Bretagnolle has An insight into putting together the PhD appendices – pictures galore (Opens in a new window).

John Garth has Why I had to stop reading C.S. Lewis’s diary (Opens in a new window) [Steady, paywall]

A very young Tolkien fan can be seen in this Metro reel (Opens in a new window)with Facebook in the cinema - obviously someone missed out it is school time the next morning. What we don’t do for an EE marathon ☺️

As I mentioned before I had the pleasure of doing something with Tove Jansson’s illustrations on The Hobbit recently - now someone sent me a link to this lovely, short video combining the Moomins and LotR (Opens in a new window) (a reading by the exquisite Rob Inglis (Opens in a new window).)

Did you know that Spokane, Washington, United States, has a Hobbit House for Halloween (Opens in a new window) [Facebook] - and you can see it on Youtube (Opens in a new window)? One of its residents has also started writing about their amazing efforts with Stonewall News Northwest (Opens in a new window).

The Outsize Influence of Wales on Fantasy, Music, and Movies (Opens in a new window) [Literary Hub; I do not agree on Wales = the Shire, but there you go!]

Artist Michael Taffe is offering The Geometry Of Creation - How to Draw Tolkien’s Numenorean Tile (Part 1) (Opens in a new window) [Steady; paywall; see this sketch with Facebook (Opens in a new window) to get an idea what he is teaching]

Tolkien Guide has Doomed To Die - an A-Z of Death in Tolkien - an interview with artist and author Tom Racine (Opens in a new window). [Youtube]

Lynn Forest-Hill has October – in all directions (Opens in a new window).

Co-Geeking has Grammatically Female Dwarves in Tolkien (Opens in a new window).

Stephen C. Winter has “I am a Hobbit and No More Valiant Than I am a Man, Save Perhaps Now and Again By Necessity.” Pippin Declares Himself to The Guard at The Walls of The Pelennor (Opens in a new window).

doubtfulsea has It’s in Writing (2:  I’st a Prologue, or a Poesie for a Ring?) (Opens in a new window)

The Tolkien Fanfiction Survey 2025 (Opens in a new window) is available now.²

Adam Roberts has Howard Shore, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (2001–03) (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Perfectly lovely: Does Sean Bean Know His Lines? (He doesn't) (Opens in a new window) [Variety, Youtube]

MMO Burnout: Lord of the Rings Living Card Game is my gold standard for LOTR game adaptations (Opens in a new window) [Massively OP]

Reactions are coming in for the first Brandywine Festival, the Burgschneider-run LARP in Kentucky, and there seem to have been a number of issues, even though many participants truly enjoyed it (Opens in a new window). [reddit; this one is titled Beware Brandywine Festival KY - Thoughts From Paid Ticket Holder. Please read all reviews mentioned there to get your own view on this. A main criticism seems to have been: There were TWO full-time staff members to control THE ENTIRE GAME (Opens in a new window) for a total of ~1,200 players.] See also the reaction with TORn (Opens in a new window).

Good to see at least one other videogame gets an expansion: Return to Moria (Opens in a new window). [Youtube; trailer for Durin’s Folk]

Estate of Play: The authors making millions years after their death (Opens in a new window) [RTÉ]

Inter alia

It is rather sad to see the Vaults & Garden Café (Opens in a new window) in Oxford close - let’s hope they will be able to reopen in another space (no thanks to the University church.)

Worth reading: AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism (Opens in a new window)³ [New Socialist]

Netflix Strikes Deal To Develop ‘Catan’ Game Into Film And Television Projects (Opens in a new window) [Forbes; please note Pete Fenlon is involved, formerly of Iron Crown Enterprises (Opens in a new window)]

Meet 'The Singing Hobbit' (Opens in a new window), Waikato's new comedy star [Waikato Times; official website (Opens in a new window)]

Warner Bros. Discovery — valued at $50 billion — puts itself up for sale with Paramount circling (Opens in a new window) [Independent; press release (Opens in a new window)]

Warner Bros. Keeps Taking a Beating That the Joker Would Be Proud Of (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]

The 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction (Opens in a new window) has been announced.

The maps of Ursula K Le Guin reveal a fascinating insight into world-building in fantasy fiction (Opens in a new window) [The Conversation]

The Caithness Broch Project is planning on building… a broch (Opens in a new window)! [Thanks to Guèdelon!]

Is it a critical mineral or a Tolkien invention? Take the Guardian’s nerdiest quiz yet (Opens in a new window) [No, it is not 😅]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction now has a Substack (Opens in a new window) - for a reason.

What is the scariest book? 10 horror authors pick the most terrifying stories ever (Opens in a new window) [USA Today]

Lord of the Racists? UK University Course Claims Tolkien Demonised People of Colour in Fantasy Classic (Opens in a new window) [International Business Times]

Existential Comics doing it again.⁴

[Having said this, xkcd’s Emperor Palpatine (Opens in a new window) is rather exquisite, too!]

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Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

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 Jennie Starstuff at the DTP Discord (Opens in a new window). ↩

2. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #350 (Opens in a new window). ↩

3. h/t Jenny Dolfen (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky] ↩

4. h/t Troels Forchhammer ↩