The One hundred and fifty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

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

• Third Age, 3018. Glorfindel (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Strider (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and the four hobbits (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) reach the Ford of Bruinen (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) where they are attacked by Black Riders (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). Frodo (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [The Catholic Herald]

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

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

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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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)of the Tolkien Society Unquendor, Netherlands. [English info (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

I hope to see as many of you as possible at Kasteel de Berckt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Omentielva Minquea (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is happening at Marquette [July 30 - Aug 2, 2026]

Calgary production of Lewis and Tolkien (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) imagines meeting between titans of fantasy genre. [LiveWire Calgary]

The SoCaliquendi Smial are having their first Middle-earth Yule (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) party [Dec; Eventbrite]

Videos of all the talks at the Oxford-Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) are now online [Youtube]

The Writers Revealed exhibition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) is now in Busan, South Korea [Tolkien items listed here (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)]

For those of us with a UK Persuasion Dick Whittington and his Cat (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’ nickname… [Dec 12 ff; Imagine Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), De Montfort Hall)

The Hobbit has been staged at Blaine High School Theatre (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Minnesota, USA. [Facebook]

An International Conference on War, Fellowship, and Survival in the Lives and Works of C.S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [FB] and the Tolkien Guide Calendar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Tolkien Stammtisch Linker Niederrhein (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); both Instagram; please note we do not know yet how and if the ITF (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) can continue without her]

Marie Bretagnolle has Oxonmoot diary – 2025 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Mythlore volume 44, Number 1 (Fall 2025, #147) is out now. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

John Garth has ‘Mounted on the monster’: Tolkien and the motor-car (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Steady, paywall]

doubtfulsea has King Trotter? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

New Tolkien Society publication – Númenor, The Mighty and Frail (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Miriam Ellis has A Hobbit Walking Party in the Sweet Shire Air (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

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? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Nicholas Whyte has J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025), by Verlyn Flieger (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Proceedings of the Tolkien 2019 Conference (2025), edited by Will Sherwood (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)y [Substack]

Oronzo Cilli has Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox, a talk with Eleanor Parker (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Youtube]

Thoughts on Tolkien has A Spring Harvest (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

Edmund Prestwich has Tolkien’s Lament for Boromir (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), a reaction to the Clamavi De Profundis rendition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).¹ [Youtube]

Merchandise & Franchise

The Original Underground Hobbit Tunnel Shelter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) 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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [MMORPG]

October 22 will see people painting ‘hobbit houses’ in Sacramento (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), California, United States.

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

I visited Hobbiton having never seen The Lord of The Rings. I didn’t want to leave (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Stuff NZ]

‘Cosy and comforting’: why The Fellowship of the Ring is my feelgood movie (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

Inter alia

The 50 Greatest Star Wars Characters Of All Time (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Empire; reaction from Inverse (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).]

The Bodleian Map Room has Death by numbers (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [maps from the trenches]

“It’s Okay But It’s Also Really Not.” When Dystopian Fiction is No Longer a Thought Experiment (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)² [Literary Hub]

Has Kemi Badenoch actually read Terry Pratchett? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [New Statesman]

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Guardian]

We’ve Seen This Movie Before (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [on Andor, fascism and modern day realities; Substack]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: first trailer for new Game of Thrones preque (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)l³ [Grauniad]

Ursula K Le Guin’s maps of imaginary worlds are charted in a new exhibition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Wallpaper]

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)⁴ [Guardian]

World Surpasses Its First Climate Tipping Point (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [Goethe University, Frankfurt]

Tulare County Library launches ‘One Hundred Books Before College’ challenge for local teens (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) [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 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). [First Things | media bias fact check (Öffnet in neuem Fenster); Militarist Monitor (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the publisher of First Things)

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

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

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1. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #344 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

2. h/t File 770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

3. h/t File 770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩

4. h/t File 770 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). ↩