The One hundred and sixty-third Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Tolkien’s Desk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) from his years at Merton College is up for auction. [Tolkien Guide; my expectation would 250k+ quid upwards]

An Unfinished Tales Special Edition is coming (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Tolkien Guide]

The Bovadium Fragments were mentioned in one of my favourite publications, the Oxford Clarion (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Nov 7]

Cllr Emma Garnett (Green, Parks) actually read out an excerpt in this week’s County Council meeting.

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My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | YT (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | RSS feed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Events & Shows

The Leadership in Tolkien’s Middle-earth hybrid conference will take place at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, on March 14, 2026 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Edmund Weiner of The Ring of Words (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) will be talking about Lewis, the Lexicographer at Pusey House, Oxford. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

EYE OF MELIAN, Featuring DELAIN And AURI Members, Announces 'Forest Of Forgetting' Album (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - and Finnish tour.

A short trailer for the Lithopolis rendition of The Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Scholarship & Fandom

The lovely people over at the Tolkien Guide have just published their new Guide to Tolkien Calendars (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Dimitra Fimi has Tolkien Tuesday: Two unexpected places in which Tolkien recalls the Great War (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

doubtfulsea has To Bree (Part 2) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Lord of the wrongs! Tolkien hotel makes bedroom blunder (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Telegraph]

Queer Approaches to Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has a publication date - Nov 28. [Substack]

The Kent State University Press has a 60th Anniversary offer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)- 40% off and free shipping. Check out their Tolkien, Lewis, and Inklings Studies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - home to such excellent books as Verlyn Flieger’s Splintered Light (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Tom Hillman’s Pity, Power, and Tolkien’s Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), or Diana Glyer’s The Company They Keep (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).¹

Miriam Ellis has Tolkien's Goldilocks Easter Egg: "Very Ancient Indeed (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)."

Stephen C. Winter has “What is Wrong With Strider?” Gandalf Gives Pippin a Rapid Briefing on Aragorn Just Before They Enter the Throne Room of Gondor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Merchandise & Franchise

Please note Whenever the BBC writes an article with a title similar to “Has region/ place X inspired Tolkien to Y?” please take this with a grain of salt. The Beeb has made many unproven or misleading claims when it comes to ‘Tolkien’s sources’ in the last 20+ years which plague us to this very day…

Free League Publishing have announced Hands of the White Wizard and Trials of Saruman as well as Hobbit Tales (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for their LotR RPG.

The Smithsonian Associates’ series on the History of Fantasy has its last event Fantasy After Dungeons & Dragon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)s on Nov 19. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) was #3 of five presentations.

Move Over Frodo Baggins, Luxury-Home Buyers Are Coming for Prime ‘Lord of the Rings’ Landscape (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Mansion Global]

Inter alia

This will make quite a few people happy: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) met Pope Leo in Rome (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and gave him a gift. [YouTube]

LibraryThing is offering its Secret Santa (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for the 19th time, supporting independent bookstores the world over [not the Big A!], so that members on LT can send/ and or get surprise books for Christmas!

Vatican newspaper editor critiques Palantir Technologies’ meritocracy fellowship (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Catholic Culture]

Does this mean… Lucas likes Tolkien? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

The recently started congestion charge in Oxford cannot be circumvented simply by buying the Ghosterbuster’s hearse (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Oxford Clarion]

“I knew well that I risked death…” #RLSDay (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings]

If you want to know what the Ellison family - with an Oxfordian link now - is all about, read this: DEI is dead at Paramount, David Ellison’s Skydance promises FCC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [LA Times]

New ‘Star Trek’ Movie In Works At Paramount From Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Deadline; see also The Verge (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The trace of Russian business and poor-quality shelters: "GDN of Ukraine" overpaid half a million hryvnias for structures with thinner walls than required by SBS (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Antikor; deals with the owners of the UA ‘hobbit houses’)

Romantastic: Romantic Fantasy leads SFF to its best-ever year (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Bookseller, UK]

In case you had not noticed, I like xkcd.
And I dislike SUV’s with a burning passion…

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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 minimum time of curating this newsletter ranges from 8-12 hours every week. Please consider supporting me so I can continue offering the Roving Ranger - thank you.

1. h/t to Tom Hillman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩