The One hundred and forty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

July 19, 1915. Newly-commissioned Second Lieutenant (Abre numa nova janela) J.R.R. Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) enters army training camp.
July 20, 1954. Tolkien receives a D.Litt. (Abre numa nova janela) from University College Dublin.
July 21, 1946. Tolkien writes Letter 105 (Abre numa nova janela), promising to work on The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela).
July 22, 1925. Tolkien writes Letter 8 (Abre numa nova janela), announcing his election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth professorship (Abre numa nova janela).
July 24, 1971. Tolkien writes Letter 326 (Abre numa nova janela), with Tolkien lamenting that, because Rayner Unwin (Abre numa nova janela) took over his father (Abre numa nova janela)'s position at Allen & Unwin (Abre numa nova janela), they could not spend much time together anymore.
July 25, 1938. Tolkien sends an angry letter (Abre numa nova janela) to a German publisher, after being asked whether he was Aryan (Abre numa nova janela) or not.

• Third Age (Abre numa nova janela), 301 (Abre numa nova janela)9: The funeral procession of king Théoden (Abre numa nova janela) sets out from Minas Tirith (Abre numa nova janela). [July 19 or 22¹]

Parma Eldalamberon 12 “Qenyaqetsa: The Qenya Phonology and Lexicon" is available again on demand. [Great British Bookshop (Abre numa nova janela) | Barnes & Noble (Abre numa nova janela)]

New and improved public transport maps (Abre numa nova janela) for Oxford and beyond are now available for those of you planning on visiting these spaces.

Events & Shows

Teatru Salesjan in Malta will have a Tolkien Fest (Abre numa nova janela) [kids-oriented; Aug 22-24]

Sarehole Mill in Birmingham will have Heritage and Habitat (Abre numa nova janela) events every Friday [Jul 25 - Aug 29]

The New York Tolkien Conference is happening July 31 (Abre numa nova janela).

The German Tolkien Society’s “Thing” (Abre numa nova janela) (aka Moot) is happening this weekend, with me being in attendance. Guest society is Bri (Abre numa nova janela) (Copenhague, Denmark.)

The Lasse Lanta of the Austrian Tolkien Society can now be registered for (Abre numa nova janela). [Sept 12-14]

Giuseppe Pezzini is giving a talk Tolkien and the changes of Times at the Atkinson in Southport (Abre numa nova janela) [July 28]

The Roving Ranger coming live to you from the German Tolkien Society’s “Tolkien Thing (Abre numa nova janela)”, with greetings - and also from the Finnish Tolkien Society’s Summer Moot (Abre numa nova janela).

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Abre numa nova janela) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Abre numa nova janela).

Scholarship & Fandom

Verlyn Flieger’s latest publication is out:

Stephen C. Winter has “The Gleam Faded From His Eyes, and They Went Dim and Grey, Old and Tired.” Did Gollum Come Close to Repenting of The Evil He Planned to Do to Frodo and Sam? (Abre numa nova janela) as well as “Is This The Only Way, Sméagol?” Frodo Prepares to Enter Shelob’s Lair (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has Of Wild Woods, Wild Hobbits, and the Withywindle (Abre numa nova janela) and Did Hal See An Ent Beyond The North Moors of the Shire? (Abre numa nova janela)

Dr. Lauren Tucker has I’m Just a Hobbit. But Even Hobbits Can Save the Shire (Abre numa nova janela). [Medium; paywall]

Dimitra Fimi has A rare Tolkien volume in Tim Sullivan's The Bookseller. [Substack]

Tom Emmanuel’s notes that his recent talk for the Oxford Tolkien Seminar is now online (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Adam Roberts has Gondolin: Siege Perilous (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Horn and the Sword (Abre numa nova janela).

Several conference papers have been added to the current issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research:

The Light of Learning: Medieval Scholar-Kings and Loremasters in the Line of Eärendil (Abre numa nova janela)
Beowulf and Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods of Hrothgar and Gandalf (Abre numa nova janela)
No One Listens to Melian: When Women Speak and Men Ignore Them in Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela)
Tantalizing Fragments of a Larger Linguistic Tapestry: Exploring Nala Lambë, Mago/Magol, and the Dunlendish Languages in Tolkien's World-Building (Abre numa nova janela).

Merchandise & Franchise

Lord Of The Rings Online's July Letter From Orion Previews 2025's Updates, Which Has More Birds But Not Fish (Abre numa nova janela) [MMORPG]

Tales of the Shire Reveals New Character Ahead of Launch (Abre numa nova janela) [GameRant; spoiler: it’s Old Noakes!]

LotR: Shadows of Mordor will, in all probability (Abre numa nova janela), never be worked on again but this recent video of an eleven year old game on a top tier pc proves it was pretty decent in terms of graphics (Abre numa nova janela).

Funko Pop now has The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Deluxe Moment 09 (Abre numa nova janela). [Entertainment Earth; the hobbits hiding from the Nazgûl]

Sauron’s helmet for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is on auction (Abre numa nova janela)… among other things. [Hollywood Reporter]

There’s a Middle Earth-inspired cocktail bar hidden (Abre numa nova janela) in SF’s newest escape room² [San Francisco Standard]

Legendary artist Michael Whelan (Abre numa nova janela) will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award (Abre numa nova janela) by the World Fantasy Awards. His “The Eagles are coming!” was a highlight in the 1980 Tolkien Calendar (Abre numa nova janela). His Gollum (Abre numa nova janela) is frightening to this very day. Although I am not overly fond of this podcast episode when it comes to actual Tolkien research and knowledge, Michael Whelan teamed up with David Wenzel of Hobbit comic fame this year on Tolkien Reading Day (Abre numa nova janela).

Inter alia

When Novels Mattered (Abre numa nova janela) [New York Times]

Excellent write-up: Has ‘Star Trek’ Lost Its Way? (Abre numa nova janela) [Rolling Stone]

Psychedelic Tolkien is an… experience (Abre numa nova janela) [Charlie Potesky, Instagram]

The first ever appearance of George Lucas with (a) (San Diego) ComicCon (Abre numa nova janela) [Variety]

10 Desktop Publishing Tools That Didnt’t Make it (Abre numa nova janela). [Tedium]

HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Reveals First Costumed Photo; Casts Neville and Dudley (Abre numa nova janela) [Hollywood Reporter]

If you are interested… Best Places to live in the UK 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) [The Times]

Frankenmoa and the fantasy of undoing extinction (Abre numa nova janela) [The Press; after GRRM now PJ offering up… odd genetics.]

Something different: Chiang Yee’s Oxford (Abre numa nova janela)³ [Oxford Sausage]

An absolutely exceptional read! [Five Books]

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

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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 (Abre numa nova janela), Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela), or Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela), 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 (Abre numa nova janela) : Facebook (Abre numa nova janela) : Bluesky (Abre numa nova janela) : Instagram (Abre numa nova janela) : Threads (Abre numa nova janela) : Mastodon (Abre numa nova janela).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Abre numa nova janela)

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. See this note with TolkienGateway (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

2. h/t The Carrock - Northern California Smial (Abre numa nova janela) [Discord] ↩

3. h/t Clarion Weekly (Abre numa nova janela), July 18, 2025. ↩