The One hundred and thirty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 26, 1923. Tolkien's review "Holy Maidenhood (Si apre in una nuova finestra)" is published in The Times Literary Supplement.
April 28, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Mrs Robertson (Si apre in una nuova finestra), explaining his delay in answering with “settling into rooms in College.”
April 30, 1944. Tolkien writes writes Letter 64 (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on “war as waste, missing Christopher & progress on The Lord of the Rings (Si apre in una nuova finestra).”
May 2, 1970. Tolkien is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Nottingham (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

• Third Age, 2941. Thirteen dwarves (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Gandalf (Si apre in una nuova finestra) arrive at Bag End (Si apre in una nuova finestra). Bilbo (Si apre in una nuova finestra) learns of the Lonely Mountain (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Smaug (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and agrees to accompany the dwarves (Si apre in una nuova finestra) and Gandalf (Si apre in una nuova finestra) on their adventure. [April 27]

Events & Shows

Artist Jemima Catlin has noted that several of her Hobbit edition illustrations (Si apre in una nuova finestra)are on display with the Magic in Middle-earth exhibition (Si apre in una nuova finestra) at the Shire Hall Museum. [Facebook; Shire Hall, Dorset]

Registration is open for the Austrian Tolkien Society’s Mereth Ethuil (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Report of 2024’s ME (Si apre in una nuova finestra)]

The AIST - Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani - will have a conference on April 27th in Dozza on adaptations (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Facebook]

Brno in the Czech Republic is home to a very special picknick this weekend (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Facebook]

Argentinian Tolkien group Eärlindë is hosting its Mereth on May 18th in Buenos Aires (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Instagram]

The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is happening right now.

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

Miriam Ellis has Our Francis: The Pope Who Loved Creation and Quoted Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra) as well as Bilbo's Memory: The Not-So-Secret-Fire-Works of Gandalf (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Stephen C. Winter has “A Waiting Silence Broods Above the Nameless Land.” All is Prepared for Frodo to Enter Mordor (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Redemption of the Dead (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Robin Reid has A ‘Tolkien’ of One’s Own: Women Making Their Own ‘Tolkiens’ (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Free League Publishing (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have announced the “Elven Expansion for The One Ring™ RPG and 5E (Si apre in una nuova finestra).”

Inter alia

Why There Hasn’t Been a Star Wars Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Time]

International law firm Bird & Bird (Si apre in una nuova finestra) has mentioned Tolkien’s ents (Si apre in una nuova finestra) with a post on the EUDR (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products.

The Informed Alarmist has Palantir: How Tech Bros Misread Tolkien (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Substack]; for more info on neo-fascists like Thiel see Dark Enlightenment (Si apre in una nuova finestra) [Wikipedia]

LibraryThing’s State of Things for April (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is out, celebrating - among other things - nine years of TinyCat. That is your free opportunity (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to have your “own library” online - like I do (Si apre in una nuova finestra).

Write your name in our Earth (Si apre in una nuova finestra), thanks to Landsat / NASA¹.

‘Star Wars’ Series From Carlton Cuse, Nick Cuse in the Works (Si apre in una nuova finestra)[Hollywood Reporter]; also a new video game is in the making (Si apre in una nuova finestra). [Wertzone]

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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.

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