The One hundred and forty-sixth Roving Ranger

-:- Strange as news from Bree -:-

Life and Works

July 19, 1915. Newly-commissioned Second Lieutenant (Opens in a new window) J.R.R. Tolkien (Opens in a new window) enters army training camp.
July 20, 1954. Tolkien receives a D.Litt. (Opens in a new window) from University College Dublin.
July 21, 1946. Tolkien writes Letter 105 (Opens in a new window), promising to work on The Lord of the Rings (Opens in a new window).
July 22, 1925. Tolkien writes Letter 8 (Opens in a new window), announcing his election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth professorship (Opens in a new window).
July 24, 1971. Tolkien writes Letter 326 (Opens in a new window), with Tolkien lamenting that, because Rayner Unwin (Opens in a new window) took over his father (Opens in a new window)'s position at Allen & Unwin (Opens in a new window), they could not spend much time together anymore.
July 25, 1938. Tolkien sends an angry letter (Opens in a new window) to a German publisher, after being asked whether he was Aryan (Opens in a new window) or not.

• Third Age (Opens in a new window), 301 (Opens in a new window)9: The funeral procession of king Théoden (Opens in a new window) sets out from Minas Tirith (Opens in a new window). [July 19 or 22¹]

Parma Eldalamberon 12 “Qenyaqetsa: The Qenya Phonology and Lexicon" is available again on demand. [Great British Bookshop (Opens in a new window) | Barnes & Noble (Opens in a new window)]

New and improved public transport maps (Opens in a new window) for Oxford and beyond are now available for those of you planning on visiting these spaces.

Events & Shows

Teatru Salesjan in Malta will have a Tolkien Fest (Opens in a new window) [kids-oriented; Aug 22-24]

Sarehole Mill in Birmingham will have Heritage and Habitat (Opens in a new window) events every Friday [Jul 25 - Aug 29]

The New York Tolkien Conference is happening July 31 (Opens in a new window).

The German Tolkien Society’s “Thing” (Opens in a new window) (aka Moot) is happening this weekend, with me being in attendance. Guest society is Bri (Opens in a new window) (Copenhague, Denmark.)

The Lasse Lanta of the Austrian Tolkien Society can now be registered for (Opens in a new window). [Sept 12-14]

Giuseppe Pezzini is giving a talk Tolkien and the changes of Times at the Atkinson in Southport (Opens in a new window) [July 28]

The Roving Ranger coming live to you from the German Tolkien Society’s “Tolkien Thing (Opens in a new window)”, with greetings - and also from the Finnish Tolkien Society’s Summer Moot (Opens in a new window).

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

Verlyn Flieger’s latest publication is out:

Stephen C. Winter has “The Gleam Faded From His Eyes, and They Went Dim and Grey, Old and Tired.” Did Gollum Come Close to Repenting of The Evil He Planned to Do to Frodo and Sam? (Opens in a new window) as well as “Is This The Only Way, Sméagol?” Frodo Prepares to Enter Shelob’s Lair (Opens in a new window).

Miriam Ellis has Of Wild Woods, Wild Hobbits, and the Withywindle (Opens in a new window) and Did Hal See An Ent Beyond The North Moors of the Shire? (Opens in a new window)

Dr. Lauren Tucker has I’m Just a Hobbit. But Even Hobbits Can Save the Shire (Opens in a new window). [Medium; paywall]

Dimitra Fimi has A rare Tolkien volume in Tim Sullivan's The Bookseller. [Substack]

Tom Emmanuel’s notes that his recent talk for the Oxford Tolkien Seminar is now online (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Adam Roberts has Gondolin: Siege Perilous (Opens in a new window). [Substack]

Thoughts on Tolkien has The Horn and the Sword (Opens in a new window).

Several conference papers have been added to the current issue of the Journal of Tolkien Research:

The Light of Learning: Medieval Scholar-Kings and Loremasters in the Line of Eärendil (Opens in a new window)
Beowulf and Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods of Hrothgar and Gandalf (Opens in a new window)
No One Listens to Melian: When Women Speak and Men Ignore Them in Middle-earth (Opens in a new window)
Tantalizing Fragments of a Larger Linguistic Tapestry: Exploring Nala Lambë, Mago/Magol, and the Dunlendish Languages in Tolkien's World-Building (Opens in a new window).

Merchandise & Franchise

Lord Of The Rings Online's July Letter From Orion Previews 2025's Updates, Which Has More Birds But Not Fish (Opens in a new window) [MMORPG]

Tales of the Shire Reveals New Character Ahead of Launch (Opens in a new window) [GameRant; spoiler: it’s Old Noakes!]

LotR: Shadows of Mordor will, in all probability (Opens in a new window), never be worked on again but this recent video of an eleven year old game on a top tier pc proves it was pretty decent in terms of graphics (Opens in a new window).

Funko Pop now has The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Deluxe Moment 09 (Opens in a new window). [Entertainment Earth; the hobbits hiding from the Nazgûl]

Sauron’s helmet for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is on auction (Opens in a new window)… among other things. [Hollywood Reporter]

There’s a Middle Earth-inspired cocktail bar hidden (Opens in a new window) in SF’s newest escape room² [San Francisco Standard]

Legendary artist Michael Whelan (Opens in a new window) will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award (Opens in a new window) by the World Fantasy Awards. His “The Eagles are coming!” was a highlight in the 1980 Tolkien Calendar (Opens in a new window). His Gollum (Opens in a new window) is frightening to this very day. Although I am not overly fond of this podcast episode when it comes to actual Tolkien research and knowledge, Michael Whelan teamed up with David Wenzel of Hobbit comic fame this year on Tolkien Reading Day (Opens in a new window).

Inter alia

When Novels Mattered (Opens in a new window) [New York Times]

Excellent write-up: Has ‘Star Trek’ Lost Its Way? (Opens in a new window) [Rolling Stone]

Psychedelic Tolkien is an… experience (Opens in a new window) [Charlie Potesky, Instagram]

The first ever appearance of George Lucas with (a) (San Diego) ComicCon (Opens in a new window) [Variety]

10 Desktop Publishing Tools That Didnt’t Make it (Opens in a new window). [Tedium]

HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Reveals First Costumed Photo; Casts Neville and Dudley (Opens in a new window) [Hollywood Reporter]

If you are interested… Best Places to live in the UK 2025 (Opens in a new window) [The Times]

Frankenmoa and the fantasy of undoing extinction (Opens in a new window) [The Press; after GRRM now PJ offering up… odd genetics.]

Something different: Chiang Yee’s Oxford (Opens in a new window)³ [Oxford Sausage]

An absolutely exceptional read! [Five Books]

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).

Have a look at all Roving Rangers published so far. (Opens in a new window)

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.

1. See this note with TolkienGateway (Opens in a new window). ↩

2. h/t The Carrock - Northern California Smial (Opens in a new window) [Discord] ↩

3. h/t Clarion Weekly (Opens in a new window), July 18, 2025. ↩