The One hundred and sixty-third Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Tolkien’s Desk (Si apre in una nuova finestra) from his years at Merton College is up for auction. [Tolkien Guide; my expectation would 250k+ quid upwards]

An Unfinished Tales Special Edition is coming (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Tolkien Guide]

The Bovadium Fragments were mentioned in one of my favourite publications, the Oxford Clarion (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Nov 7]

Cllr Emma Garnett (Green, Parks) actually read out an excerpt in this week’s County Council meeting.

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My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | YT (Si apre in una nuova finestra) | RSS feed (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

Events & Shows

The Leadership in Tolkien’s Middle-earth hybrid conference will take place at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, on March 14, 2026 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Edmund Weiner of The Ring of Words (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will be talking about Lewis, the Lexicographer at Pusey House, Oxford. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

EYE OF MELIAN, Featuring DELAIN And AURI Members, Announces 'Forest Of Forgetting' Album (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - and Finnish tour.

A short trailer for the Lithopolis rendition of The Hobbit (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Youtube]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Scholarship & Fandom

The lovely people over at the Tolkien Guide have just published their new Guide to Tolkien Calendars (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Dimitra Fimi has Tolkien Tuesday: Two unexpected places in which Tolkien recalls the Great War (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

doubtfulsea has To Bree (Part 2) (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Lord of the wrongs! Tolkien hotel makes bedroom blunder (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Telegraph]

Queer Approaches to Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a publication date - Nov 28. [Substack]

The Kent State University Press has a 60th Anniversary offer (Si apre in una nuova finestra)- 40% off and free shipping. Check out their Tolkien, Lewis, and Inklings Studies (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - home to such excellent books as Verlyn Flieger’s Splintered Light (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Tom Hillman’s Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring (Si apre in una nuova finestra), or Diana Glyer’s The Company They Keep (Si apre in una nuova finestra).¹

Miriam Ellis has Tolkien's Goldilocks Easter Egg: "Very Ancient Indeed (Si apre in una nuova finestra)."

Stephen C. Winter has “What is Wrong With Strider?” Gandalf Gives Pippin a Rapid Briefing on Aragorn Just Before They Enter the Throne Room of Gondor (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Merchandise & Franchise

Please note Whenever the BBC writes an article with a title similar to “Has region/ place X inspired Tolkien to Y?” please take this with a grain of salt. The Beeb has made many unproven or misleading claims when it comes to ‘Tolkien’s sources’ in the last 20+ years which plague us to this very day…

Free League Publishing have announced Hands of the White Wizard and Trials of Saruman as well as Hobbit Tales (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for their LotR RPG.

The Smithsonian Associates’ series on the History of Fantasy has its last event Fantasy After Dungeons & Dragon (Si apre in una nuova finestra)s on Nov 19. Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) was #3 of five presentations.

Move Over Frodo Baggins, Luxury-Home Buyers Are Coming for Prime ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Mansion Global]

Inter alia

This will make quite a few people happy: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) met Pope Leo in Rome (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and gave him a gift. [YouTube]

LibraryThing is offering its Secret Santa (Si apre in una nuova finestra) for the 19th time, supporting independent bookstores the world over [not the Big A!], so that members on LT can send/ and or get surprise books for Christmas!

Vatican newspaper editor critiques Palantir Technologies’ meritocracy fellowship (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Catholic Culture]

Does this mean… Lucas likes Tolkien? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

The recently started congestion charge in Oxford cannot be circumvented simply by buying the Ghosterbuster’s hearse (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Oxford Clarion]

“I knew well that I risked death…” #RLSDay (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings]

If you want to know what the Ellison family - with an Oxfordian link now - is all about, read this: DEI is dead at Paramount, David Ellison’s Skydance promises FCC (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [LA Times]

New ‘Star Trek’ Movie In Works At Paramount From Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Deadline; see also The Verge (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

The trace of Russian business and poor-quality shelters: "GDN of Ukraine" overpaid half a million hryvnias for structures with thinner walls than required by SBS (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Antikor; deals with the owners of the UA ‘hobbit houses’)

Romantastic: Romantic Fantasy leads SFF to its best-ever year (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Bookseller, UK]

In case you had not noticed, I like xkcd.
And I dislike SUV’s with a burning passion…

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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 to Tom Hillman (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩