The One hundred and fortieth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

June 7, 1957. Marquette University (Si apre in una nuova finestra) acquires many of Tolkien's manuscripts for £1,500 (worth £50,714.96 in 202 (Si apre in una nuova finestra)5).
June 8, 1961. Tolkien writes Letter 230 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on Aragorn and languages.
June 9, 1963. Tolkien's paper "English and Welsh (Si apre in una nuova finestra)" is published in Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a collection of lectures from the University of Wales.
June 10, 1915. Exams start at Oxford University (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Because of the war (Si apre in una nuova finestra), only Tolkien and 24 others remain in the entire University. Tolkien would join the Army the same month, but wanted to finish his exams first.
June 11, 1953. Pearl (Si apre in una nuova finestra), edited by E.V. Gordon (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and including a contribution by Tolkien, is published.

Events & Shows

The largest Tolkien-centred event in the world (afaik), the Tolkien Days in Germany, organised by the German Tolkien Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and its local branch at the Lower Rhine (Si apre in una nuova finestra), are celebrating their 15th anniversary and possibly more then 14,000 visitors (a new record.) [Jun 12-15; off. website (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | FB in English (Si apre in una nuova finestra)].
You can catch me there as a speaker, podcast coordinator, and the Tolkienist. 😅

These marathons are happening the world over at any given time but as this one’s well-announced I’ll share it as an example: Go to Australia (St. Kilda, near Melbourne) if you like. [LotR EEs shown (Si apre in una nuova finestra); Jun 28]

Tolkien exhibit at Ball State University. [until end of July (Si apre in una nuova finestra); Muncie, Indiana. The collection has 50+ books on Tolkien + merchandise & memorabilia from the films.]

A talk by Eliot Vale in Oxford: Imitative Translations of Beowulf: Tolkien, Lehmann, and McCully (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Jun 13]

Tulsa Youth Opera to Present ‘The Hobbit’ [Jun 7-8] (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

Andrew Higgins has Book Review - The Map of Wilderland by Amber Lehning (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has The Founding of the Fellowship at the Edge of a Forest.

2025 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Arda Philology 8 can now be ordered online (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Lord of the Rings Online devs weigh in on the fate of the MMO’s old 32-bit servers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Massively OP]

doubtfulsea has Babeling (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Thoughts on Tolkien has Beowulf and the Bard (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Watch the Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee with an exclusive deal for The Lord of the Rings fans (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [TORn; use promo code ONERING for the digital download; (Si apre in una nuova finestra)50% off.]

Stephen C. Winter has “Adventures, as I Used to Call Them.” Sam Gamgee Ponders the True Nature of Adventure Before the Hobbits Try to Enter the Nameless Land (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Australian Book Review]

Matt Leacock's new Lord of the Rings board game is like Pandemic but even better (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wargamer]

Bardic Brewing & Cider in Spokane has TOLKIEN on tap. [off. website (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | IG (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Inter alia

How the Right Abuses Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Current Affairs]

Guilermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a trailer¹. [Youtube]

Inside Hollywood’s Succession Wars (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Hollywood Reporter]

Planets and Plastic: A History of the SFWA Trophies and Awards (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

xkcd wins again.

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

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

Do use my invite link (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Bookshop.org (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Genialokal (Si apre in una nuova finestra), 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Facebook (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Bluesky (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Instagram (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Threads (Si apre in una nuova finestra) : Mastodon (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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.

1. h/t PhantaNews (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩