The One hundred and sixtieth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

Oct 27, 1983. The Book of Lost Tales: Part One (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is published in the UK.
Oct 28, 1944. Tolkien writes Letter 88 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on gloom.
Oct 30, 1936. Rayner Unwin (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), aged 10, writes a "Report on the Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)".
Oct 31, 1954. "The Hero Is a Hobbit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)", a review by W.H. Auden (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) of The Fellowship of the Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), is published.
Nov 1, 1979. Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is first published in the UK.
Nov 2, 1956. Tolkien writes Letter 193 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), on advice on "accents" for a BBC radio program.
Nov 3, 2016. The Bodleian Library (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) presented the Bodley Medal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to Christopher Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), the Library's highest honour.

• Third Age, 3019. Battle of Bywater (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); passing of Saruman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and death of Gríma Wormtongue (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); end of the War of the Ring (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Nov 3]

The Digital Tolkien Project has announced the HoMe Base (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) today.

It is their “(…) hub for ongoing work on The History of Middle-earth. (Our)

goal is to provide a foundation for education and scholarship with an initial focus on metadata, search, data models, bibliography, and citation systems, with much more planned in the future!”¹

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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Events & Shows

The Sci-Fi & Action Exhibition 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) at Moyse’s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, UK, is offering, among others, ‘Lord of the Rings - legacy movie props, links to the historic collections, trails, and quizzes’ [Oct 25 ff.; see also BBC (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

The Wade Center has "an evening of music, poetry, and art inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Wendell Berry" (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Oct 28; free + livestream (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

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

Bree Crossroads has another edition out (13 pt. 2) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and kindly enough mentions the Roving Ranger - thank you! [Substack]

Marie Bretagnolle has An insight into putting together the PhD appendices – pictures galore (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

John Garth has Why I had to stop reading C.S. Lewis’s diary (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady, paywall]

A very young Tolkien fan can be seen in this Metro reel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)with Facebook in the cinema - obviously someone missed out it is school time the next morning. What we don’t do for an EE marathon ☺️

As I mentioned before I had the pleasure of doing something with Tove Jansson’s illustrations on The Hobbit recently - now someone sent me a link to this lovely, short video combining the Moomins and LotR (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (a reading by the exquisite Rob Inglis (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).)

Did you know that Spokane, Washington, United States, has a Hobbit House for Halloween (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Facebook] - and you can see it on Youtube (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)? One of its residents has also started writing about their amazing efforts with Stonewall News Northwest (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

The Outsize Influence of Wales on Fantasy, Music, and Movies (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Literary Hub; I do not agree on Wales = the Shire, but there you go!]

Artist Michael Taffe is offering The Geometry Of Creation - How to Draw Tolkien’s Numenorean Tile (Part 1) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady; paywall; see this sketch with Facebook (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) to get an idea what he is teaching]

Tolkien Guide has Doomed To Die - an A-Z of Death in Tolkien - an interview with artist and author Tom Racine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube]

Lynn Forest-Hill has October – in all directions (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Co-Geeking has Grammatically Female Dwarves in Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Stephen C. Winter has “I am a Hobbit and No More Valiant Than I am a Man, Save Perhaps Now and Again By Necessity.” Pippin Declares Himself to The Guard at The Walls of The Pelennor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

doubtfulsea has It’s in Writing (2:  I’st a Prologue, or a Poesie for a Ring?) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

The Tolkien Fanfiction Survey 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is available now.²

Adam Roberts has Howard Shore, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (2001–03) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Substack]

Merchandise & Franchise

Perfectly lovely: Does Sean Bean Know His Lines? (He doesn't) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Variety, Youtube]

MMO Burnout: Lord of the Rings Living Card Game is my gold standard for LOTR game adaptations (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Massively OP]

Reactions are coming in for the first Brandywine Festival, the Burgschneider-run LARP in Kentucky, and there seem to have been a number of issues, even though many participants truly enjoyed it (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [reddit; this one is titled Beware Brandywine Festival KY - Thoughts From Paid Ticket Holder. Please read all reviews mentioned there to get your own view on this. A main criticism seems to have been: There were TWO full-time staff members to control THE ENTIRE GAME (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) for a total of ~1,200 players.] See also the reaction with TORn (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Good to see at least one other videogame gets an expansion: Return to Moria (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [Youtube; trailer for Durin’s Folk]

Estate of Play: The authors making millions years after their death (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [RTÉ]

Inter alia

It is rather sad to see the Vaults & Garden Café (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in Oxford close - let’s hope they will be able to reopen in another space (no thanks to the University church.)

Worth reading: AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)³ [New Socialist]

Netflix Strikes Deal To Develop ‘Catan’ Game Into Film And Television Projects (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Forbes; please note Pete Fenlon is involved, formerly of Iron Crown Enterprises (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Meet 'The Singing Hobbit' (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Waikato's new comedy star [Waikato Times; official website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Warner Bros. Discovery — valued at $50 billion — puts itself up for sale with Paramount circling (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Independent; press release (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

Warner Bros. Keeps Taking a Beating That the Joker Would Be Proud Of (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Hollywood Reporter]

The 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) has been announced.

The maps of Ursula K Le Guin reveal a fascinating insight into world-building in fantasy fiction (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [The Conversation]

The Caithness Broch Project is planning on building… a broch (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)! [Thanks to Guèdelon!]

Is it a critical mineral or a Tolkien invention? Take the Guardian’s nerdiest quiz yet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [No, it is not 😅]

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction now has a Substack (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) - for a reason.

What is the scariest book? 10 horror authors pick the most terrifying stories ever (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [USA Today]

Lord of the Racists? UK University Course Claims Tolkien Demonised People of Colour in Fantasy Classic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [International Business Times]

Existential Comics doing it again.⁴

[Having said this, xkcd’s Emperor Palpatine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is rather exquisite, too!]

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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 Jennie Starstuff at the DTP Discord (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #350 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

3. h/t Jenny Dolfen (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Bluesky] ↩

4. h/t Troels Forchhammer ↩