The One hundred and forty-ninth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

August 8, 1904. Tolkien writes a letter to Francis Morgan (Opens in a new window).
August 9, 1973. The last known photograph (Opens in a new window) of Tolkien is taken, in front of his favourite tree, the Pinus Nigra (Opens in a new window) (named Laocoon (Opens in a new window)), at the Botanic Garden in Oxford (Opens in a new window).
August 12, 1916. Tolkien writes Letter 5 (Opens in a new window), with thoughts on the T.C.B.S. (Opens in a new window) & World War I (Opens in a new window).
August 14, 1954. C.S. Lewis (Opens in a new window) reviews The Fellowship of the Ring (Opens in a new window) for Time and Tide.
August 15, 1955. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) writes Letter 167 (Opens in a new window), describing his holiday in Italy (with Priscilla) to his son Christopher.

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 (Opens in a new window) has everything on The Lord of the Rings: 70th Anniversary Deluxe (signed limited edition) (Opens in a new window).

Visit East Yorkshire’s official video of the unveiling of Tolkien’s Statues in Roos is available with Youtube (Opens in a new window). Do listen to Michael Flower’s podcast interview Tolkien in East Yorkshire (Opens in a new window) 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

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 (Opens in a new window).

Events & Shows

David Bratman has a short MythCon report (Opens in a new window). [LiveJournal]

Christopher Tuthill has a recap from the New York Tolkien Conference (Opens in a new window).

John D. Rateliff notes the upcoming stage play: C. S. Lewis at the Taproot (Opens in a new window).

TheOneRing.net (Opens in a new window) has Looking for Middle-earth: San Diego Comic-con 2025 Wrap up (Opens in a new window) as well as Collecting The Precious – San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Middle-earth Tour (Opens in a new window).

Tolkien Society Seminar 2025 – Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments (Opens in a new window) has the list of papers and registration options online.²

Westmoot will be returning in 2026 (Opens in a new window).³

Eleanor Parker will be talking about ‘On the gathering tide of darkness ride’: Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox (Opens in a new window). [Sept 17, Fintry Trust, Fintry, Brook, Godalming, Surrey]⁴

The Lord of the Rings Musical is now in Singapore (Opens in a new window) [Aug 12 ff.]

Theater Review: CCTC/HJT’s ‘Hobbit’ An Innovative Take On The Tolkien Classic (Opens in a new window) [Cape Cod Chronicle]

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

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

Tom Hillman has The Sad Tale Behind Tolkien's Famous 1938 Letter to a German Publisher (Opens in a new window).

The Tales after Tolkien Society has About "Carnap Finds the One Ring" (Opens in a new window) and an An Irregular Update (Opens in a new window). 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 (Opens in a new window)⁵, Celebrating Tolkien’s Legacy (Opens in a new window), and Mapping Middle-earth: Environmental and Political Narratives in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Cartographies (Opens in a new window).

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Early Letters (Opens in a new window).

"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 (Opens in a new window) is available with the Journal of Tolkien Research.

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

Andrew Higgins has Mommie Dearest. aiþei - A Gothic/Tolkienian Crux (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Dimitra Fimi has Tolkien Tuesday: Tolkien, Landscape Archaeology, and the First Age of Middle-earth (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Jeff LaSala has From Dice to Darkwood (Opens in a new window).

Joel Merriner’s Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc (Opens in a new window) is up for pre-order.

The 2024 Mythopoeic Awards Winners have been announced (Opens in a new window).

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

The Dead Language Society is making The case for Middle English (Opens in a new window), 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.” (Opens in a new window)

doubtfulsea has Simple Words (Opens in a new window).

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 (Opens in a new window). [FLP newsletter]

Humble Bundle is offering WB Games, including Shadows of Mordor (Opens in a new window).

Tales Of The Shire Isn't As Bad As You Think It Is (Opens in a new window) [The Gamer]

Weta Workshop seem to have outdone themselves with this piece.

Inter alia

The “Hugo Rocket” given to Tolkien - here is the history to it (Opens in a new window). [File 770]

Artist Michael Whelan has an interesting post on Setting Type: Exploring book cover layout from the illustrator's perspectiv (Opens in a new window)e. [Substack]

Ansible 457 (Opens in a new window) has been published.

You need to read the alt text to this xkcd comic (Opens in a new window). [hint: Tom Bombadil!]

Elon Musk, J. R. R. Tolkien et une guerre culturelle et politique sans merci (Opens in a new window)⁷ [Le Monde, paywall]

Girlguiding unveils 72 new badges including 'fandoms' and 'laughter' (Opens in a new window)[BBC]

Author for Sale’s 40 Favourite Books: 39 – ‘The Book of the New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe (Opens in a new window).

The Book of the New Sun [by Gene Wolfe (Opens in a new window)], 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 (Opens in a new window) [Vatican News (Opens in a new window)]

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!

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

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

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), 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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window).

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. 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.]

1. h/t Michael Flowers [Tolkien Society FB Group (Opens in a new window)] ↩

2. h/t Clare Moore (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky] ↩

3. h/t Westmoot (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky; official website (Opens in a new window)] ↩

4. h/t Simon Michael Walker Reilly [Tolkien Society FB Group (Opens in a new window)] ↩

5. h/t Will Sherwood (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky] ↩

6. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #316 (Opens in a new window). ↩

7. h/t Vivien Stocker (Opens in a new window) [Bluesky] ↩