The One hundred and seventy-third Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

The Oxford Handbook (Opens in a new window) of J.R.R. Tolkien has been announced by editor Dimitra Fimi (with Luke Shelton, see below for link)

- 44 chapters
- 46 Tolkien scholars from all over the world
- over 280K words overall

Events & Shows

The German Tolkien Society’s Seminar has just published its Call for Papers: Environment, the World around us, and the Connatural World in Tolkien’s Works (Opens in a new window) [deadline May 31st; October 16-18]

The Tolkien Society’s Springmoot and AGM (Opens in a new window) will take place in Manchester [Apr 2426]

The Tolkien Society has announced its Westmoot 2026 Keynote Speakers & Special Guests (Opens in a new window) [May 22-24]

The Young People’s Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is staging The Hobbit (Opens in a new window) [Feb 7 - Mar 1]

Marie Bretagnolle has announced her thesis defence (Opens in a new window) on “Illustrer Tolkien : la Terre du Milieu du texte à l'image” [Feb 10]

For all events check out the Tolkien Guide (Opens in a new window).

My podcast: A Talk with the Tolkienist [Spotify (Opens in a new window) | YT (Opens in a new window) | RSS feed (Opens in a new window)]

Scholarship & Fandom

Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull have The Bovadium Fragments (Opens in a new window) and Lord of the Rings Comparison 5 (Opens in a new window) [Wordpress.com (Opens in a new window)]

Miriam Ellis has A Hobbit Wedding: Peregrin and Diamond at Long Cleeve.

A new review is available with the Journal of Tolkien Research: Tolkien and the Mystery of Literary Creation (2025), by Giuseppe Pezzini (Opens in a new window).

A new marketing term seems to have arisen for the authors at the Wade: the ‘Fantastic Five (Opens in a new window)’ [Daily Herald]

Matej Cadil has Meet the Artist: A Few Words About Me (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

Radio Rivendell (Opens in a new window), the only such radio station in the world (afaik!) to run consecutively for 25 years, is promising great things for the anniversary. [Patreon]

doubtfulsea has Do You Speak Villain? (Part 1)

John Garth has My 2025 with Tolkien – from Faërie to Minnesota (Opens in a new window) [Steady]

Dimitra Fimi has Tracing a source for the Mirror of Galadriel (in Tolkien's own early work) (Opens in a new window) - and the announcement of the Oxford Handbook of J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) with an outstanding line-up of scholars [Substack]

The Tales after Tolkien Society has A Long-Delayed Irregular Post (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

David Bratman has your favorite Tolkien (Opens in a new window) [Blogspot]

Timothy Snyder has Tolkien’s Dragons and Ours (Opens in a new window) [Substack]

A new kind of classroom: Inside Illinois State’s innovative learning labs for future teachers (Opens in a new window) [Illinois State University]

There’s a place on campus where a tactile map of Middle-earth invites students to trace the peaks and rivers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world with their fingertips.

The Routledge Handbook of Progressive Rock, Metal, and the Literary Imagination (Opens in a new window) has a chapter titled Time Travel Through Tolkien (Opens in a new window)¹:

The primary focus of this chapter is Bo Hansson's 1972 instrumental concept album, Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings, which replaces the trilogy's complex narratives with simple, folkish atmospheres, swirls of the Swedish, a synthesized equivalent to Celtic mist. Contrasting Hansson's atmospheres with Donald Swann's The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle (1967), based on poems from Middle-earth, this chapter aims to illuminate the ways that we might hear progressive narrative in a purely instrumental setting.

Merchandise & Franchise

Imagining Middle-Earth for The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window) [American Cinematographer; a 2001 essay]

The voice of Galadriel in the 1981 BBC radio series, Marian Diamond (Opens in a new window), has passed away. [Wikipedia]

Amazon MGM Studios Shakeup: Laura Lancaster & Nick Pepper Leaving, Blair Fetter Joins TV Chief Peter Friedlander In New Genre-Based Structure (Opens in a new window) [Deadline; notice the genre ‘worldbuilding’]

Lord of the Rings comes to Summoners War (Opens in a new window) [TORn]

Review: LEGO 11373 Sauron’s Helmet (Opens in a new window) [Jay’s Brick Blog]

Lord of the Rings: Conquest, "The Game That Killed Pandemic", Is Playable Online Once More (Opens in a new window) [Time Extension]

Some new releases (Opens in a new window) are looking good with Games Workshop:

On the 2026 re-release of the LotR film trilogy:

‘Lord of the Rings’ cracks top 10 in wintry box office weekend topped by Chris Pratt on trial before an AI judg (Opens in a new window)e [Fortune]

I am not linking to the full article on this one - but if you read this a bit more closely and within the wider contexts of the last two and a half decades this screams ‘I am a prejudiced twat!’ so loudly one does wonder how these people still keep their jobs.

Ah, click bait (Opens in a new window). [This is about 90% of all posts related to LotR now.]

The Lord of the Rings films sent fantasy-nerdism into the mainstream. We might take that for granted post-Game of Thrones (Opens in a new window), but there was a time when the thought of jocks and gymbros — well, basically anyone except the most committed of fantasy anoraks — quoting lines of dialogue from mythical creatures would’ve seemed firmly beyond the realms of possibility. (You know them all: “What about second breakfast?!” / “It comes in pints!” / “Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew,” etc.)

Playmats and deck boxes will be available from Ultimate Guard in February.²

Inter alia

Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Tells a More Personal Story (Opens in a new window) [MDPI]

Ansible 463 has been published, noting:

Since this was the period of some of Terry's best books, it's not certain what the change implies: was he perhaps improving and writing more precisely?

Please appreciate the exact and tentative wording of the researchers on this subject.

‘We are here to live:’ Ukraine propaganda shifts from battling orcs to hope for future (Opens in a new window) [Jerusalem Post]

Why is China experiencing a boom in fantasy and science fiction literature (Opens in a new window)? [University of Freiburg]

Brandon Sanderson’s Literary Fantasy Universe ‘Cosmere’ Picked Up by Apple TV (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]

War and Peas are something different - with their ONE RING (Opens in a new window).

This one is, too.³

Thinking about starting a newsletter, podcast, Patreon, Substack etc.?

Then do consider using Steady (Opens in a new window) - it is an exceptionally easy to use option for all needs. Built originally for an independent journalists’ collective, Krautreporter (Opens in a new window), it is run by creative minds for creative minds. Think Patreon, just better. It is based in Germany, free of enshittification (Opens in a new window) and nazis.

Do use my invite link (Opens in a new window) 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 (Opens in a new window), Bookshop.org (Opens in a new window), or Genialokal (Opens in a new window), 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 (Opens in a new window) : Facebook (Opens in a new window) : Bluesky (Opens in a new window) : Instagram (Opens in a new window) : Threads (Opens in a new window) : Mastodon (Opens in a new window) - and have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

As this is 2026 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 Tolkien Gleanings #377 (Opens in a new window). ↩

2. h/t jeeqsburger with reddit (Opens in a new window). ↩

3. h/t Jenny Curtis with the Thread™️. ↩