The One hundred and forty-fourth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

When I started writing The Roving Ranger five years ago on a Friday (Abre numa nova janela) I would never have imagined I’d still be doing this in 2025. Thank you all for your support and your kind words - let’s hope for another 144!

FYI In the run-up to RR #150 I will be adding a few tweaks here and there, there might even be a survey on what you would like to read in this newsletter - which I always love to know -, and some specials on what I am doing as the Tolkienist. I might even ask you to help me on a project or two…

The first detail to change? The Roving Ranger now has a subtitle:

-:- Strange as news from Bree (Abre numa nova janela) -:- 😄

Life and Works

July 4, 1972. Letter 339 (Abre numa nova janela) is published in the Daily Telegraph - on forests.
July 7, 1944. Tolkien starts writing Letter 75 (Abre numa nova janela) - to Christopher, on many topics.
July 8, 1915. Tolkien writes the poem The Shores of Elfland (Abre numa nova janela).
July 11, 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 340 (Abre numa nova janela), to Christopher, on the headstone for his wife, and the success of his stories.

• Third Age (Abre numa nova janela), 3018 (Abre numa nova janela): Gandalf (Abre numa nova janela) is imprisoned by Saruman (Abre numa nova janela). [July 10]

Events & Shows

Anna Smol has Tolkien at IMC Leeds 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) and more; the Tales after Tolkien Society (Abre numa nova janela) also has programming.

Raconteur Radio presents Theatrical Adaptation of "The Hobbit" (Abre numa nova janela) [New Jersey, US]

Sarehole Mill, Birmingham, has guided tours on all Sundays in July (Abre numa nova janela).

The Westmarch Smial (Port Talbot/ Swansea, UK) has another meeting coming up on July 27 (Abre numa nova janela) [Facebook; Tolkien societies have smials all over the world, see the TS smials’ list (Abre numa nova janela)]

The Tolkien Regulars’ Table in Jena (Abre numa nova janela) [IG], Germany, will have scholar Hamish Williams as a guest (Abre numa nova janela) [July 9; Facebook; Tolkien and the Classical World (Abre numa nova janela) with Walking Tree Publishers]
- Transparency note: This is ‘my’ smial as I live in Jena 😅

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

David Bratman has more progress (Abre numa nova janela) (on the next issue of Tolkien Studies.)

I can only support the sentiment: Homebrew: Free Peoples United (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “Frodo Wouldn’t Have Got Far Without Sam, Would He Dad?” Frodo Thinks About the Place of Sam Gamgee in His Story and About Both of Them in The Great Tale (Abre numa nova janela).

Anthony Burdge and Jessica Burke have Journeys, Dwarves, a Hobbit & a Dragon In Burlington County? [report on a theatre production of The Hobbit]

Jeff LaSala’s excellent Silmarillion Primer with Signum University Press now has a project page (Abre numa nova janela).

doubtfulsea has Swords drawn (Abre numa nova janela).

“A Time of Fire and Cataclysm”: The Centrality of Cosmic War in Tolkien’s Round World Cosmologies (Abre numa nova janela) by Kristine Larsen is now available. [Journal of Tolkien Research]

How Fantasy Fuelled 60s Counterculture (Abre numa nova janela): Why The Lord of the Rings was a hit with hippies [Substack]

Robin Reid has Early Tolkien Scholarship: 1969, Source 1 (Abre numa nova janela).

A new book from HarperCollins is coming out this year: Doomed to Die: The Gift of Ilúvatar by Tom Racine. [Blackwell’s (Abre numa nova janela) | Bookshop.org (Abre numa nova janela) | Genialokal (Abre numa nova janela)]

John Garth is in London with Tolkien’s Elves: A journey through the realms of Middle-earth (Abre numa nova janela). [July 15; Eventbrite]

Andrew Higgins has a review: Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology (2024), by Robert T. Tally, Jr (Abre numa nova janela). [Journal of Tolkien Research]

Samuel Jay Keyser promoted his new book with Deborah Kalb (he is mentioned in Fingolfin’s Findings XLVI: Back to School: Tolkien and Me (Abre numa nova janela)):

At Oxford I was a student of Old and Middle English language and literature. I attended lectures by J.R.R. Tolkien. I marveled at his translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem, Exodus. I read Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer in the original.  

Anke Eissmann has shared another new illustration inspired by The Hobbit.

Merchandise & Franchise

If you are around North Dakota (I believe) you might look up Erickson’s Second Breakfast Stand (Abre numa nova janela). [IG; also FB (Abre numa nova janela)]

The Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover (Abre numa nova janela) is happening right now, “there’s even a sandwich from Tolkien’s Shire on the menu at Hobbiton’s cafe.”

The New York Times The Top Movies According to Times Readers (Abre numa nova janela) (of the 21st Century) has FotR at #14, RotK at #15, and TT at #43.

Legendary board game developer Reiner Knizia (Abre numa nova janela) has another board game coming up soon:

Inter alia

Why is the right so fascinated with fantasy literature? (Abre numa nova janela) [Financial Times]

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums (Abre numa nova janela) [404 Media]

Ansible 456 (Abre numa nova janela) has been published.

Peter Thiel joins tech billionaires backing new lender Erebor to rival Silicon Valley Bank (Abre numa nova janela) [Financial Times]

‘The film wouldn’t even be made today’: the story behind Back to the Future at 40 (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

Fool of a Took: Palantir’s Fascism on Campus (Abre numa nova janela) [Religion Dispatches]

Owen Barfield’s The Silver Trumpet has been re-released (Abre numa nova janela).

The BBC has In our Time - Dragons (Abre numa nova janela).¹

Melvyn Bragg and guests explore dragons, literally and symbolically potent creatures that have appeared in many different guises in countries and cultures around the world.

xkcd wins again.

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

Then do consider using Steady (Abre numa nova janela) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Abre numa nova janela), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Abre numa nova janela) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Abre numa nova janela) and start with three months fee-free.
[Transparency note: I get a small referral bonus with no extra costs to you.]

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. h/t TolkienGuide (Abre numa nova janela). ↩