The One hundred and fifty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Oct 14, 1958. Tolkien writes Letter 211 (Abre numa nova janela), on languages, Gondor (Abre numa nova janela), Númenor (Abre numa nova janela).
Oct 15, 1931. Tolkien's poem "Progress in Bimble Town (Abre numa nova janela)" is published in The Oxford Magazine.
Oct 16, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 85 (Abre numa nova janela), on chronological trouble with The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela).
Oct 18, 1954. Tolkien writes a letter to the Recteur of the University of Liège (Abre numa nova janela), on his reception of an honorary doctorate.
Oct 20, 1911. Tolkien signs a Oxford University visitor's page (Abre numa nova janela).

• Third Age, 3018. Glorfindel (Abre numa nova janela), Strider (Abre numa nova janela) and the four hobbits (Abre numa nova janela) reach the Ford of Bruinen (Abre numa nova janela) where they are attacked by Black Riders (Abre numa nova janela). Frodo (Abre numa nova janela) reaches the other riverside but the Riders are cast back by the water, their horses drown and their robes are destroyed. [Oct 20]

Life without God: grandson of JRR Tolkien on how losing his own faith shaped his novels on Catholicism (Abre numa nova janela) [The Catholic Herald]

Thanks to Andrew Ferguson of the Tolkien Guide (Abre numa nova janela) team I can tell you that the bust of J.R.R. Tolkien that used to be with the English Faculty Library (Abre numa nova janela) has a new home in the recently opened Humanities Library (Abre numa nova janela) in Oxford.

(Abre numa nova janela)

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Events & Shows

It is my pleasure and my honour to announce that I will be the Guest of Honour with the ninth Lustrum Feast (Abre numa nova janela)of the Tolkien Society Unquendor, Netherlands. [English info (Abre numa nova janela)]

I hope to see as many of you as possible at Kasteel de Berckt (Abre numa nova janela).

Omentielva Minquea (Abre numa nova janela) is happening at Marquette [July 30 - Aug 2, 2026]

Calgary production of Lewis and Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) imagines meeting between titans of fantasy genre. [LiveWire Calgary]

The SoCaliquendi Smial are having their first Middle-earth Yule (Abre numa nova janela) party [Dec; Eventbrite]

Videos of all the talks at the Oxford-Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School 2025 (Abre numa nova janela) are now online [Youtube]

The Writers Revealed exhibition (Abre numa nova janela) is now in Busan, South Korea [Tolkien items listed here (Abre numa nova janela)]

For those of us with a UK Persuasion Dick Whittington and his Cat (Abre numa nova janela) is a fairly well-known story (particularly around Christmas). Please do not be too surprised to find a hobbit in Leicestershire as it is Jack Hobbs (Abre numa nova janela)’ nickname… [Dec 12 ff; Imagine Theatre (Abre numa nova janela), De Montfort Hall)

The Hobbit has been staged at Blaine High School Theatre (Abre numa nova janela), Minnesota, USA. [Facebook]

An International Conference on War, Fellowship, and Survival in the Lives and Works of C.S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits (Abre numa nova janela) will take place in Amiens, France, with a paper proposal deadline at Nov 15 [June 2026; I am quietly counting Tolkien as a kindred spirit]

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

Last week one of the stalwarts of Tolkien-inspired art and the wider community has passed away - Becky Dillon. Her work not only with the German-speaking community at the Tolkien Days in Geldern but her interest and unrelenting support of any smial, society, get together, publication, or really any Middle-earthian idea that was worth supporting will be deeply missed. [My farewell (Abre numa nova janela); Tolkien Stammtisch Linker Niederrhein (Abre numa nova janela); both Instagram; please note we do not know yet how and if the ITF (Abre numa nova janela) can continue without her]

Marie Bretagnolle has Oxonmoot diary – 2025 (Abre numa nova janela).

Mythlore volume 44, Number 1 (Fall 2025, #147) is out now. (Abre numa nova janela)

John Garth has ‘Mounted on the monster’: Tolkien and the motor-car (Abre numa nova janela) [Steady, paywall]

doubtfulsea has King Trotter? (Abre numa nova janela)

New Tolkien Society publication – Númenor, The Mighty and Frail (Abre numa nova janela).

Miriam Ellis has A Hobbit Walking Party in the Sweet Shire Air (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “The Gate was Shut. Sam Hurled Himself Against the Bolted Brazen Plates and Fell Senseless to the Ground. He Was Out in the Darkness. Frodo Was Alive but Taken By The Enemy.” Where Can We Find Wisdom in the Ending of The Two Towers? (Abre numa nova janela)

Nicholas Whyte has J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers (Abre numa nova janela).

A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025), by Verlyn Flieger (Abre numa nova janela) and Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), edited by Will Sherwood (Abre numa nova janela) [Journal of Tolkien Research]

I have known for quite some time there is a serious overlap between Tolkien fans and crochet fans - but this fan film is something special. Please note: a canon-defying twist at the end. You were warned!

Dimitra Fimi has Creating Imaginary Languages: An Enduring Form of Artistr (Abre numa nova janela)y [Substack]

Oronzo Cilli has Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application (Abre numa nova janela).

Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox, a talk with Eleanor Parker (Abre numa nova janela) [Youtube]

Thoughts on Tolkien has A Spring Harvest (Abre numa nova janela).

Edmund Prestwich has Tolkien’s Lament for Boromir (Abre numa nova janela), a reaction to the Clamavi De Profundis rendition (Abre numa nova janela).¹ [Youtube]

Merchandise & Franchise

The Original Underground Hobbit Tunnel Shelter (Abre numa nova janela) is one way of doing merch.

If You Didn't Transfer Your Lord of the Rings Online Character to a 64-Bit Server, Your Second Chance is Here (Abre numa nova janela) [MMORPG]

October 22 will see people painting ‘hobbit houses’ in Sacramento (Abre numa nova janela), California, United States.

Foster + Partners and Ellison Institute of Technology to restore iconic Oxford pub (Abre numa nova janela) [Foster & Partners press release; let’s hope for the best; see also the Oxford Mail on the planning situation (Abre numa nova janela)]

I visited Hobbiton having never seen The Lord of The Rings. I didn’t want to leave (Abre numa nova janela) [Stuff NZ]

‘Cosy and comforting’: why The Fellowship of the Ring is my feelgood movie (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

Inter alia

The 50 Greatest Star Wars Characters Of All Time (Abre numa nova janela) [Empire; reaction from Inverse (Abre numa nova janela).]

The Bodleian Map Room has Death by numbers (Abre numa nova janela) [maps from the trenches]

“It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment (Abre numa nova janela)² [Literary Hub]

Has Kemi Badenoch actually read Terry Pratchett? (Abre numa nova janela) [New Statesman]

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (Abre numa nova janela) [Guardian]

We’ve Seen This Movie Before (Abre numa nova janela) [on Andor, fascism and modern day realities; Substack]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: first trailer for new Game of Thrones preque (Abre numa nova janela)l³ [Grauniad]

Ursula K Le Guin’s maps of imaginary worlds are charted in a new exhibition (Abre numa nova janela) [Wallpaper]

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games (Abre numa nova janela)⁴ [Guardian]

World Surpasses Its First Climate Tipping Point (Abre numa nova janela) [Goethe University, Frankfurt]

Tulare County Library launches ‘One Hundred Books Before College’ challenge for local teens (Abre numa nova janela) [Visalia Times Delta]

Peter Thiel’s mental diarrhea - a danger not only to democracy and freedom but worldwide fandoms - continues to deliver: Voyages to the End of the World (Abre numa nova janela). [First Things | media bias fact check (Abre numa nova janela); Militarist Monitor (Abre numa nova janela) on the publisher of First Things)

According to xkcd you should think carefully about getting into one of them… 😅

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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)

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1. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #344 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

2. h/t File 770 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

3. h/t File 770 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩

4. h/t File 770 (Abre numa nova janela). ↩