The One hundred and thirty-eighth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

May 24, 1973. Tolkien writes Letter 350 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), relaying C.V.L. Lycett's comments about the T.C.B.S. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) & Tolkien's current status.
May 25. 1972. Tolkien writes Letter 337 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on inspirations.
May 27, 1958. Tolkien writes a letter to Nancy Smith (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the index to The Lord of the Rings.
May 28, 1964. Tree and Leaf (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published in the UK.
May 30, 1945. Tolkien writes Letter 100 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), expressing his loathing for warplanes.
May 24, 2014. Special mention: The Beowulf Launch Party (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), supported by the Tolkienist (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [See also Tolkien Society (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).]

• T.A. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 3019 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Arwen (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Elrond (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) leave Lothlórien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on their way to Minas Tirith (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [May 27]

Events & Shows

Marie Bretagnolle will be giving a talk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) with the Mythopoeic Society Online MidSummer Seminar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Aug 2-3]

InBound Brew in Minneapolis have a LotR-themed day (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [May 24]

The New York Tolkien Conference has announced its Artist Guest of Honor: Donato Giancola (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Italian Tolkien event, La Contea Gentile, has shared photos of its recent get together (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

As part of this year’s Odyssey of the Mind global competition, a Michigan school team (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) went for Classics… Cooking with Books (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [PDF] and chose the Hobbit.

For all events check out the International Tolkien Fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

Miriam Ellis has Henneth Annûn: A Window on Eru? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Stephen C. Winter has “Maybe It Was the Ring That Called to The Wraith-lord, and For a Moment He Was Troubled.” A Contest of Powers Within the Morgul Vale (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

James Tauber’s 2023 Oxonmoot talk has been found: Linguistic Variation in Tolkien's Writing Styles (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]

Dimitra Fimi has Reflections on Tolkien's Unfinished Tales (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Miriam Ellis has Bilbo and the Butterflies: A Magnificent Escape as well as Unexpected Enchantment (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Robin Reid has some reading recommendations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as well as The Webs of Women update (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Science’s ‘Gollum effect’: PhDs bear brunt of territorial behaviour (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Nature; see original publication with One Earth: Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).]

The Spanish Tolkien Society has shared a Guide to Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), prepared for the first ‘organised’ visit by STE members in 2024. [PDF]

The Diary of a City Guard (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) as another installment.

Tolkien Trewsday has shared its June topic roster (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on ‘celebrating fandom.’ [Bluesky]

Thoughts on Tolkien has Tolkien’s Liturgical Imagination (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Laura Stanifer has a very good description of how she became the Wade Center archivist (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - if this is a career you are considering this still relevant post might be for you.

Tom Emmanuel has Fantastic Architecture: Studying Tolkien at the University of Glasgow (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

doubtfulsea has By Ear (3) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Christopher Lockett has Tolkien’s Uncanny Magic. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Substack]

The Criterion has Home, Exile, and Displacement in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)¹. [College of the Holy Cross]

Michael Drout’s The Tower and the Ruin has a cover. [Dec 2025; pre-order with Blackwell’s (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) UK | Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) US | Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Merchandise & Franchise

Artist David Wenzel has published the title page to the ‘new’ Hobbit comic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Instagram]

This hardcover edition has 40 new paintings for the story and a back section with additional artwork and notes on my creation process.

Personally happy to see that LotRO now has an official account with Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

LotR make-up² is now available with Glamlite (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

'Making of The Lords of the Rings: The Rings of Power' roundtable panel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]

Games Workshop has some free scenarios to download (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for MESBG.³

Inter alia

Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)⁴ [The Pudding; on language compression]

Amazing posts on maps of Oxford (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)⁵.

Baggins of Downing Street (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Tribune Magazine, UK]

How Silicon Valley’s influence in Washington benefits the tech elite (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [TechCrunch; many of those companies are named after objects found with Tolkien’s stories.]

LibraryThing has just sent out its May State of the Thing (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), including an interview with Laura Spinney (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), author of Proto: How one ancient language went global. [Also includes all literature awards winner of last month, globally.]

Jurassic Park: Rebirth has a trailer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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

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

Do use my invite link (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Bookshop.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Genialokal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Bluesky (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Instagram (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Threads (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) : Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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 to Tolkien Gleanings #304 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. h/t MGCoCo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Bluesky] ↩

3. h/t to TableTopSentinel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

4. h/t Adam Roberts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Bluesky] ↩

5. h/t Bodleian Libraries (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Bluesky] ↩