The One hundred and fifty-fifth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Happy Birthday to Bilbo (22 September, TA 2890) and Frodo (22 September, T.A. 2968.)

Also The Hobbit was published Sept 21, 1937 - eighty-eight years ago. Aragorn was crowned king at the age of eighty-eight.

Events & Shows

September Cinballera Salon - Lady of the Ring and Songs of Middle Earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Sept 22; Villa Montezuma, San Diego, USA | IG (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

ALEP 6 is happening this week (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Medieval and Early Modern Research Network has Will Sherwood for their September meeting (Si apre in una nuova finestra)on Tolkien’s Romantic Medievalism. [Sept 29]

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).

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Scholarship & Fandom

Miriam Ellis has Fangorn's Lore: The Old Lists of the Ents (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Stephen C. Winter has “Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow.” Sam’s Grief For Frodo in Shelob’s Lair (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Middle Earth in Madison? UW exhibit honors the legacy of fantasy map maker Karen Fonstad (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Daily Cardinal; note the lovely signatures in one ‘Atlas’ of Flieger, Lee and Astin.]

I have written a review on the recently published romantic comedy My Oxford Year (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [thetolkienist.com; Tolkien mentions]

Musical chapters from the Lord of the Rings, composed by Paul Corfield Godfrey, are out now (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

doubtfulsea has Going Around in Cycles (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Joel Merriner’s book Illustrating The Lord of the Rings in the Soviet Bloc is available at a 30% discount¹ (at the time of writing) with Bloomsbury. (Si apre in una nuova finestra) Published last week, Joel has made some images of it available (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Bluesky]

Stratofanatic has Tolkien's Honorary Membership in the Icelandic Literary Society (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

[The] Silmarillion; book-collecting minutiae has 1979 First Paperback: Six Price Variants (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

The Muster at Marquette, the short documentary on the Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection, is available now (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Youtube]

Merchandise & Franchise

Rare Tolkien book signed in Elvish to auction for £15,000 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Oxford Mail; see more at TolkienGuide (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Lord of the Rings producer collapses under shock $4m debt (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Herald Sun, Australia; paywall]

One of the companies that produced footwear for the Jackson films is on sale (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Otago Daily Times]

NZ’s global brand stuck in rut of dairy, lamb and Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Newsroom]

Nine 'Squaroes' for Mortal Men - 'Squaroes' proudly presents the new 'The Lord of the Rings' inspired collection (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [ICv2]

Inter alia

Boromir's Bloggish Bebotherments has returned with part 7: Scouring the net for all things Tolkienian in the age of AI slop… (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [On sources for this newsletter; Steady]

If you have never heard of the Iron Butt Association (Si apre in una nuova finestra), never mind - just know there is a Middle-earth quest driving through Canada (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [CBC, Canada]

A fifth of all of humanity speaks, writes, thinks and prays in the language born on these isles and perfected in the pages of Shakespeare and Dickens, Tolkien and Lewis, Orwell and Kipling—incredible people, unbelievable people like we have rarely seen before and probably won't see again.²

On Silencing Jimmy Kimmel And Stephen Colbert (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [File770]

Discovering Homo floresiensis: 'I hated the name hobbit' (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [BBC News]

The Rise of Parasitic AI (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [LessWrong]

xkcd wins again.

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If you are interested in my other Tolkien-related work please have a look:
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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 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 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Bluesky] ↩

2. Trump at State Banquet, UK (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Newsweek] ↩