The One hundred and fifty-eighth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

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

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

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

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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 (Opens in a new window)of the Tolkien Society Unquendor, Netherlands. [English info (Opens in a new window)]

I hope to see as many of you as possible at Kasteel de Berckt (Opens in a new window).

Omentielva Minquea (Opens in a new window) is happening at Marquette [July 30 - Aug 2, 2026]

Calgary production of Lewis and Tolkien (Opens in a new window) imagines meeting between titans of fantasy genre. [LiveWire Calgary]

The SoCaliquendi Smial are having their first Middle-earth Yule (Opens in a new window) party [Dec; Eventbrite]

Videos of all the talks at the Oxford-Bloomsbury Fantasy Summer School 2025 (Opens in a new window) are now online [Youtube]

The Writers Revealed exhibition (Opens in a new window) is now in Busan, South Korea [Tolkien items listed here (Opens in a new window)]

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

The Hobbit has been staged at Blaine High School Theatre (Opens in a new window), Minnesota, USA. [Facebook]

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

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 (Opens in a new window); Tolkien Stammtisch Linker Niederrhein (Opens in a new window); both Instagram; please note we do not know yet how and if the ITF (Opens in a new window) can continue without her]

Marie Bretagnolle has Oxonmoot diary – 2025 (Opens in a new window).

Mythlore volume 44, Number 1 (Fall 2025, #147) is out now. (Opens in a new window)

John Garth has ‘Mounted on the monster’: Tolkien and the motor-car (Opens in a new window) [Steady, paywall]

doubtfulsea has King Trotter? (Opens in a new window)

New Tolkien Society publication – Númenor, The Mighty and Frail (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has A Hobbit Walking Party in the Sweet Shire Air (Opens in a new window).

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? (Opens in a new window)

Nicholas Whyte has J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers (Opens in a new window).

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

Oronzo Cilli has Printing Tolkien: Investigating the 1925 Oxford Professorship Application (Opens in a new window).

Tolkien and the Autumnal Equinox, a talk with Eleanor Parker (Opens in a new window) [Youtube]

Thoughts on Tolkien has A Spring Harvest (Opens in a new window).

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

Merchandise & Franchise

The Original Underground Hobbit Tunnel Shelter (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window) [MMORPG]

October 22 will see people painting ‘hobbit houses’ in Sacramento (Opens in a new window), California, United States.

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

I visited Hobbiton having never seen The Lord of The Rings. I didn’t want to leave (Opens in a new window) [Stuff NZ]

‘Cosy and comforting’: why The Fellowship of the Ring is my feelgood movie (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]

Inter alia

The 50 Greatest Star Wars Characters Of All Time (Opens in a new window) [Empire; reaction from Inverse (Opens in a new window).]

The Bodleian Map Room has Death by numbers (Opens in a new window) [maps from the trenches]

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

Has Kemi Badenoch actually read Terry Pratchett? (Opens in a new window) [New Statesman]

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (Opens in a new window) [Guardian]

We’ve Seen This Movie Before (Opens in a new window) [on Andor, fascism and modern day realities; Substack]

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: first trailer for new Game of Thrones preque (Opens in a new window)l³ [Grauniad]

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

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games (Opens in a new window)⁴ [Guardian]

World Surpasses Its First Climate Tipping Point (Opens in a new window) [Goethe University, Frankfurt]

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

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

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1. h/t Tolkien Gleanings #344 (Opens in a new window). ↩

2. h/t File 770 (Opens in a new window). ↩

3. h/t File 770 (Opens in a new window). ↩

4. h/t File 770 (Opens in a new window). ↩