The One hundred and fifty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Oct 14, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 211 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on languages, Gondor (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Númenor (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Oct 15, 1931. Tolkien's poem "Progress in Bimble Town (Si apre in una nuova finestra)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
Oct 16, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 85 (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on chronological trouble with The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).
Oct 18, 1954. Tolkien writes a letter to the Recteur of the University of Liège (Si apre in una nuova finestra), on his reception of an honorary doctorate.
Oct 20, 1911. Tolkien signs a Oxford University visitor's page (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

• Third Age, 3018. Glorfindel (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Strider (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and the four hobbits (Si apre in una nuova finestra) reach the Ford of Bruinen (Si apre in una nuova finestra) where they are attacked by Black Riders (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Frodo (Si apre in una nuova finestra) reaches the other riverside but the Riders are cast back by the water, their horses drown and their robes are destroyed. [Oct 20]

Life without God: grandson of JRR Tolkien on how losing his own faith shaped his novels on Catholicism (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [The Catholic Herald]

Thanks to Andrew Ferguson of the Tolkien Guide (Si apre in una nuova finestra) team I can tell you that the bust of J.R.R. Tolkien that used to be with the English Faculty Library (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has a new home in the recently opened Humanities Library (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in Oxford.

(Si apre in una nuova finestra)

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Events & Shows

It is my pleasure and my honour to announce that I will be the Guest of Honour with the ninth Lustrum Feast (Si apre in una nuova finestra)of the Tolkien Society Unquendor, Netherlands. [English info (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

I hope to see as many of you as possible at Kasteel de Berckt (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Omentielva Minquea (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is happening at Marquette [July 30 - Aug 2, 2026]

Calgary production of Lewis and Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) imagines meeting between titans of fantasy genre. [LiveWire Calgary]

The SoCaliquendi Smial are having their first Middle-earth Yule (Si apre in una nuova finestra) party [Dec; Eventbrite]

Videos of all the talks at the Oxford-Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) are now online [Youtube]

The Writers Revealed exhibition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is now in Busan, South Korea [Tolkien items listed here (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

For those of us with a UK Persuasion Dick Whittington and his Cat (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is a fairly well-known story (particularly around Christmas). Please do not be too surprised to find a hobbit in Leicestershire as it is Jack Hobbs (Si apre in una nuova finestra)’ nickname… [Dec 12 ff; Imagine Theatre (Si apre in una nuova finestra), De Montfort Hall)

The Hobbit has been staged at Blaine High School Theatre (Si apre in una nuova finestra), Minnesota, USA. [Facebook]

An International Conference on War, Fellowship, and Survival in the Lives and Works of C.S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits (Si apre in una nuova finestra) will take place in Amiens, France, with a paper proposal deadline at Nov 15 [June 2026; I am quietly counting Tolkien as a kindred spirit]

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

Last week one of the stalwarts of Tolkien-inspired art and the wider community has passed away - Becky Dillon. Her work not only with the German-speaking community at the Tolkien Days in Geldern but her interest and unrelenting support of any smial, society, get together, publication, or really any Middle-earthian idea that was worth supporting will be deeply missed. [My farewell (Si apre in una nuova finestra); Tolkien Stammtisch Linker Niederrhein (Si apre in una nuova finestra); both Instagram; please note we do not know yet how and if the ITF (Si apre in una nuova finestra) can continue without her]

Marie Bretagnolle has Oxonmoot diary – 2025 (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Mythlore volume 44, Number 1 (Fall 2025, #147) is out now. (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

John Garth has ‘Mounted on the monster’: Tolkien and the motor-car (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Steady, paywall]

doubtfulsea has King Trotter? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

New Tolkien Society publication – Númenor, The Mighty and Frail (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Miriam Ellis has A Hobbit Walking Party in the Sweet Shire Air (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Stephen C. Winter has “The Gate was Shut. Sam Hurled Himself Against the Bolted Brazen Plates and Fell Senseless to the Ground. He Was Out in the Darkness. Frodo Was Alive but Taken By The Enemy.” Where Can We Find Wisdom in the Ending of The Two Towers? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

Nicholas Whyte has J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025), by Verlyn Flieger (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), edited by Will Sherwood (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Journal of Tolkien Research]

I have known for quite some time there is a serious overlap between Tolkien fans and crochet fans - but this fan film is something special. Please note: a canon-defying twist at the end. You were warned!

Dimitra Fimi has Creating Imaginary Languages: An Enduring Form of Artistr (Si apre in una nuova finestra)y [Substack]

Oronzo Cilli has Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox, a talk with Eleanor Parker (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Youtube]

Thoughts on Tolkien has A Spring Harvest (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Edmund Prestwich has Tolkien’s Lament for Boromir (Si apre in una nuova finestra), a reaction to the Clamavi De Profundis rendition (Si apre in una nuova finestra).¹ [Youtube]

Merchandise & Franchise

The Original Underground Hobbit Tunnel Shelter (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is one way of doing merch.

If You Didn't Transfer Your Lord of the Rings Online Character to a 64-Bit Server, Your Second Chance is Here (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [MMORPG]

October 22 will see people painting ‘hobbit houses’ in Sacramento (Si apre in una nuova finestra), California, United States.

Foster + Partners and Ellison Institute of Technology to restore iconic Oxford pub (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Foster & Partners press release; let’s hope for the best; see also the Oxford Mail on the planning situation (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

I visited Hobbiton having never seen The Lord of The Rings. I didn’t want to leave (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Stuff NZ]

‘Cosy and comforting’: why The Fellowship of the Ring is my feelgood movie (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Guardian]

Inter alia

The 50 Greatest Star Wars Characters Of All Time (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Empire; reaction from Inverse (Si apre in una nuova finestra).]

The Bodleian Map Room has Death by numbers (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [maps from the trenches]

“It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment (Si apre in una nuova finestra)² [Literary Hub]

Has Kemi Badenoch actually read Terry Pratchett? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [New Statesman]

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Guardian]

We’ve Seen This Movie Before (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [on Andor, fascism and modern day realities; Substack]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: first trailer for new Game of Thrones preque (Si apre in una nuova finestra)l³ [Grauniad]

Ursula K Le Guin’s maps of imaginary worlds are charted in a new exhibition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wallpaper]

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games (Si apre in una nuova finestra)⁴ [Guardian]

World Surpasses Its First Climate Tipping Point (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Goethe University, Frankfurt]

Tulare County Library launches ‘One Hundred Books Before College’ challenge for local teens (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Visalia Times Delta]

Peter Thiel’s mental diarrhea - a danger not only to democracy and freedom but worldwide fandoms - continues to deliver: Voyages to the End of the World (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [First Things | media bias fact check (Si apre in una nuova finestra); Militarist Monitor (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on the publisher of First Things)

According to xkcd you should think carefully about getting into one of them… 😅

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

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1. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #344 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩

2. h/t File 770 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩

3. h/t File 770 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩

4. h/t File 770 (Si apre in una nuova finestra). ↩