The One hundred and eighty-eighth Roving Ranger

Life & Works

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Soul’s Ward: A critical edition of his unpublished translation of the early Middle English homily Sawles Warde (Opens in a new window) [OUP]

Dimitra Fimi notes on Bluesky (Opens in a new window) [plus manuscript pages]

NEW TOLKIEN JUST OUT: delighted to see “JRR #Tolkien’s (Opens in a new window) Soul’s Ward: A critical edition of his unpublished translation of the early Middle English homily Sawles Warde” edited by Andoni Cossio and Nelson Goering (…) Chuffed to have played a minor role in this…

Telegraph (Opens in a new window) (paywall)

The way the internet is going reliable information will be more difficult to find every day - so a curated newsletter like the Roving Ranger is more needed than ever.
Share it, let people know! Thank you 😊

Events & Shows

Visit this year’s EuroCon and meet me (Opens in a new window) 😇

The Tolkien Society has announced its seminar date and topic: Tolkien’s Invented Languages (Opens in a new window) [Nov 21; CfP deadline is 31st July]

History came alive for third-graders at Heritage Elementary (Opens in a new window), Byron Center, Michigan, USA [School News Network; including Tolkien]

If you are in the Rochester (New York, USA) area check out this request on Craigslist to start a Tolkien reading group (Opens in a new window).

Reviews on the Stratford Festival’s Hobbit: The Road Goes On, But the Adventure Never Quite Arrives for Stratford’s “The Hobbit (Opens in a new window)” [Front Mezz Junkies] | Stratford Festival’s unimaginative ‘Hobbit’ strips the colour and heart from the beloved novel (Opens in a new window) [Toronto Star] | The Stratford Festival's The Hobbit is an Exciting Adventure (Opens in a new window) [Broadway World]

Composer & Sound Designer Debashis Sinha Talks About The Hobbit At The Stratford Festival (Opens in a new window) [Ludwig Van]

The Family Pinecone Book Club in the Art Center East has a number of reading performances of The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) in June [La Grande, Oregon, USA]

The Hobbit will be staged at the Alberta Theatre Projects (Opens in a new window) [Dec 1 - Jan 3, 2027; Calgary, Canada]

The Zephyr Theatre will do an outdoor edition of The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [July 23 - Aug; Stillwater, Minnesota, USA]

Bedrock Gardens are having their Annual Fairy and Hobbit Festival again (Opens in a new window) [Jul 17-19; Lee, New Hampshire, USA]

Registration is now open (Opens in a new window) for June 19-21, 2026.

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Opens in a new window).

Scholarship & Fandom

A documentary about the Tolkien Society Forodrim (Opens in a new window) is now live with Kickstarter.

Dimitra Fimi has The Slow LotR Re-read (7): "hobbit talk" and non-standard English (Opens in a new window) as well as The Slow LotR Re-read (8): Sam Gamgee, folklore, and the numinous (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

Robin Reid has Pope Leo, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Peter Thiel (Opens in a new window)¹,

Shawn E Marchese has Dispatch from Westmoot 2026 (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

French Tolkien scholar Vincent Ferré has participated² in Les mondes et les peuples de la fantasy (Opens in a new window), a Radio France four part documentary podcast on fantastic worlds.

The 2026 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists (Opens in a new window) have been announced.³

Tolkien Guide has an interview with Giuseppe Pezzini, editor of J.R.R. Tolkien and G.B. Smith (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]

A new book has been announced: Tolkien's Material Culture by Marie Loughlin (Opens in a new window) [Bloomsbury; it seems to be an expansion of this Tolkien Studies article (Opens in a new window)]

John Garth has Tolkien, the critics, and why I’m starting an Oxford DPhil on Lord of the Rings and war (Opens in a new window) [Steady]

A new special issue with the Journal of Tolkien Research has the topic Asexuality in Tolkien's Legendarium (Opens in a new window).

Tom Hillman has "Galadriel," he murmured (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

The Silmarillion — Clowes Intermediate Second State (Opens in a new window) (1977) [Blogspot]

Delving too deep: Morphological and molecular description of the cave-dwelling Dolichopoda balrogi (Opens in a new window) sp. nov. [Journal of Othoptera; new type of cave cricket]

Matej Cadil has Mushrooms in Middle-earth (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has Galadriel's Weavers and Glorious Glimpses in The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window) and Edith's Dance for J.R.R. Tolkien at Roos and the problem of war (Opens in a new window).

Anke Eissmann has…

Abigail Nussbaum has The Great Tolkien Reread: The Council of Elrond, Part 2 (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

doubtfulsea has Tennis, Anyone? (Opens in a new window)

Stephen C. Winter has “The Red Arrow Has Not Been Seen in The Mark in All My Years.” Rohan Receives The Call for Aid From Gondor. The Importance of Strong Ritual (Opens in a new window) and “So We Come To It in The End… The Great Battle of Our Time, in Which Many Things Shall Pass Away.” A Great Cloud Comes From Mordor That Simplifies The Mind of Théoden (Opens in a new window).

Distant reading of The Lord of the Rings: visualization and statistical analyses of its character network (Opens in a new window) [Springer Nature]

Audiobook Review: The World of Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [by Dimitra Fimi]

If you are more comfortable following me and my ventures via WhatsApp - here’s the Travelling Tolkienist Channel (Opens in a new window). 📝

Merchandise & Franchise

As one of the early Tolkienian-named companies (and now licensee of MEE) Rivendell Mountain Works (Opens in a new window) have recently shared their new Lupine day packs [read up on their early days as Middle-earth fans (Opens in a new window); and if any of you feel like Xmassing me - it’s either wine & coyote or brown & navy!]

Free League Publishing has shared: Available Now: New Middle-earth RPG Releases Explore Saruman, Isengard, and the Shire (Opens in a new window) [Mailchimp]

Stone Blade Entertainment have shared a first update on The Lord of the Rings: Ascension (Opens in a new window) [GameFound; some of the artwork from the game]

Brick Fanatics has LEGO Minas Tirith Siege Tower instructions revealed (Opens in a new window).

Brick Tap has leaked the next major LotR LEGO project: the Oliphaunt (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

Amazon Still Wants to Make a Lord of the Rings Game (Opens in a new window) Despite Canceling the MMO It Was Working On [IGN]

German heo group has announced additional Hobbit Squaroes items - like Radagast (Opens in a new window) [a brand of the Ultimate Group]

Dark Horse the latest publisher to unionize (Opens in a new window) [icV2; part of Embracer and offering Middle-earth related merch like Gollum (Opens in a new window)]

Exciting news of film exploring the magic of fandom and friendship (Opens in a new window) [TORn; on Wise Sam Gamgees]

The Board Games Insider has episode #421 The One About Small Publishers Getting Tolkien Licenses. (Opens in a new window)

German podcasters Annika Röttinger & Tobias M. Eckrich (chairman of the German TS) have started a project for #PrideMonth titled “Das Auenland ist bunt” (Opens in a new window) with a message of diversity and inclusion.

Inter alia

John Boorman’s son mentioned that for the Lord of the Rings film project sheep were supposed to replace… extras (Opens in a new window) [Instagram]

Numbers from the UK: Publishing reaches highest ever revenue in 2025 (Opens in a new window) [Publishers Association]

My favourite webradio is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a new look for its website and quite a few other perks if you support it: Radio Rivendell (Opens in a new window).

You may consider them a traditional feature of Oxford colleges but they really aren’t as you migth believe: Should colleges scrap the quad? (Opens in a new window) [Oxford Blue]

One way of following Oxford’s cultural history was Nightshift - and the last issue has hit the stands and the web (Opens in a new window).⁴

SFWA Announces 61st Annual Nebula Awards Winners (Opens in a new window).⁵

YouTube Is Taking Over Hollywood: How Three Films From Online Creators Are Dominating the Box Office Right Now (Opens in a new window) [Comic Basis]

‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ (Opens in a new window) Will Set An Unfortunate ‘Star Wars’ Record [Forbes]

RIP John Blanche (Opens in a new window) [Wertzone; he also did Tolkien illustrations (Opens in a new window), found with the Bestiary]

Benny Johnson (Opens in a new window)'s advice for Trump on Iran: Be like Smaug from The Hobbit. “You got to go full dragon in Lord of the Rings, and scorched-earth the entire town” (Opens in a new window) [Media Matters]

Ansible 467 (Opens in a new window) has arrived. My favourite quote?

Terry Pratchett (Opens in a new window)’s works are apparently teetering on the brink of oblivion, according to someone called Helen Lewis: ‘One of England’s funniest writers is in danger of being lost to history.’ (The Atlantic, May) The point of the clickbait headline is that Lewis feels there’s never been a successful screen adaptation and Terry’s reputation can’t possibly survive on the strength of mere old-fashioned books.

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

As this is 2026 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. Robin is so kind as to mention my talk at the 2019 Birmingham Tolkien Conference. ↩

2. h/t LinkedIn (Opens in a new window). ↩

3. h/t File770. ↩

4. h/t Oxford Clarion (Opens in a new window), Jun 2, 2026 edition. ↩

5. h/t File 770. ↩