The One hundred and thirty-fourth Roving Ranger

Life and Works

April 26, 1923. Tolkien's review "Holy Maidenhood (Abre numa nova janela)" is published in The Times Literary Supplement.
April 28, 1972. Tolkien writes a letter to Mrs Robertson (Abre numa nova janela), explaining his delay in answering with “settling into rooms in College.”
April 30, 1944. Tolkien writes writes Letter 64 (Abre numa nova janela) on “war as waste, missing Christopher & progress on The Lord of the Rings (Abre numa nova janela).”
May 2, 1970. Tolkien is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Nottingham (Abre numa nova janela).

• Third Age, 2941. Thirteen dwarves (Abre numa nova janela) and Gandalf (Abre numa nova janela) arrive at Bag End (Abre numa nova janela). Bilbo (Abre numa nova janela) learns of the Lonely Mountain (Abre numa nova janela) and Smaug (Abre numa nova janela) and agrees to accompany the dwarves (Abre numa nova janela) and Gandalf (Abre numa nova janela) on their adventure. [April 27]

Events & Shows

Artist Jemima Catlin has noted that several of her Hobbit edition illustrations (Abre numa nova janela)are on display with the Magic in Middle-earth exhibition (Abre numa nova janela) at the Shire Hall Museum. [Facebook; Shire Hall, Dorset]

Registration is open for the Austrian Tolkien Society’s Mereth Ethuil (Abre numa nova janela). [Report of 2024’s ME (Abre numa nova janela)]

The AIST - Associazione Italiana Studi Tolkieniani - will have a conference on April 27th in Dozza on adaptations (Abre numa nova janela). [Facebook]

Brno in the Czech Republic is home to a very special picknick this weekend (Abre numa nova janela). [Facebook]

Argentinian Tolkien group Eärlindë is hosting its Mereth on May 18th in Buenos Aires (Abre numa nova janela). [Instagram]

The Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang (Abre numa nova janela) is happening right now.

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

Miriam Ellis has Our Francis: The Pope Who Loved Creation and Quoted Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela) as well as Bilbo's Memory: The Not-So-Secret-Fire-Works of Gandalf (Abre numa nova janela).

Stephen C. Winter has “A Waiting Silence Broods Above the Nameless Land.” All is Prepared for Frodo to Enter Mordor (Abre numa nova janela).

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Redemption of the Dead (Abre numa nova janela).

Robin Reid has A ‘Tolkien’ of One’s Own: Women Making Their Own ‘Tolkiens’ (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Free League Publishing (Abre numa nova janela) have announced the “Elven Expansion for The One Ring™ RPG and 5E (Abre numa nova janela).”

Inter alia

Why There Hasn’t Been a Star Wars Movie in 6 Years—And What Comes Next (Abre numa nova janela)[Time]

International law firm Bird & Bird (Abre numa nova janela) has mentioned Tolkien’s ents (Abre numa nova janela) with a post on the EUDR (Abre numa nova janela) - EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products.

The Informed Alarmist has Palantir: How Tech Bros Misread Tolkien (Abre numa nova janela). [Substack]; for more info on neo-fascists like Thiel see Dark Enlightenment (Abre numa nova janela) [Wikipedia]

LibraryThing’s State of Things for April (Abre numa nova janela) is out, celebrating - among other things - nine years of TinyCat. That is your free opportunity (Abre numa nova janela) to have your “own library” online - like I do (Abre numa nova janela).

Write your name in our Earth (Abre numa nova janela), thanks to Landsat / NASA¹.

‘Star Wars’ Series From Carlton Cuse, Nick Cuse in the Works (Abre numa nova janela)[Hollywood Reporter]; also a new video game is in the making (Abre numa nova janela). [Wertzone]

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.
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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.

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