Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Month: January 2015

  • Talks on Tolkien: Tom Shippey & the love of trees

    Was Tolkien a “tree-hugger”? That’s a loaded term, but Tolkien readers know that he was concerned about our natural environment and that, yes, he loved trees. The above picture shows Tolkien in the Botanic Garden in Oxford in 1973 with one of his favorite trees, a black pine (Pinus nigra). Sadly, that tree suffered damage…

  • New winter series: Talks on Tolkien

    In my corner of the world, cold winds are lashing up rainstorms and snowfalls for the start of the new year: good days to stay cozy at home, to read, think, and write. To accompany any reading or re-reading of Tolkien in this winter season, I thought that it would be fun to highlight every…

  • Tolkien in Vermont 2015

    Tolkien in Vermont is a conference that is now heading into its twelfth year. A call for papers has been posted recently by the organizer, Chris Vaccaro, who promises that details about the conference will appear soon on the Tolkien in Vermont website. The CFP is copied below, or you can find it here. I’ve…

  • Jackson’s Lost Opportunity: The Death of Sister-Sons

    I enjoy many things about Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films – the material realization of various Middle-earth cultures, the creation of the best movie dragon I’ve ever seen, Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, to name only a few – but of course Jackson is not making the films specifically for me, a medievalist with a love of Tolkien’s…

  • An imagined dystopian LotR film

    Today I have a post that combines my interests in both Tolkien and pedagogy. In one of my English courses, Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Myth-making, I ask students to read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and some of the medieval literature that influenced him. We also consider later adaptations of Tolkien’s fiction in various…

  • Happy New Year

    Where have the months gone? I was surprised to find that I last posted as long ago as October, but I suppose that teaching, grading, a research trip, and the supervision of several independent study and thesis students account for how I spent my time well enough. This semester, I’m fortunate to have a sabbatical…