Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Author: Anna Smol

Free online seminar: Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments

You can sign up for a free online seminar featuring analyses of bodies and environments across Tolkien’s works. October 18 via Zoom. Details in the link.

October 2, 2025
Rereading The Notion Club Papers: Sauron and the Barber

Rereading Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers: Sauron and the Barber. Some thoughts on how evil makes inroads with decent people.

September 26, 2025
Grendel’s Mother Talks Back

“Grendel’s Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women’s Mythopoeic Revisions” is a talk I gave for the Midsummer Online Seminar of the Mythopoeic Society in August. A link to the recorded talk is included.

September 5, 2025
Two conferences this week!

Two conferences dealing with Tolkien and with women and gender in mythopoeic works to take place this week — The NY Tolkien Conference, and the Online Midsummer Seminar of the Mythopoeic Society. Follow the link for more info.

July 28, 2025
Tolkien at IMC Leeds 2025

Tolkien studies sessions at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, 2025.

June 28, 2025
Studies in Tolkien: New Book Series

Doing research on Tolkien? A new book series, Studies in Tolkien, to be published by McFarland is now accepting proposals for scholarly monographs or shorter Critical Companions. Follow the link for proposal guidelines.

June 18, 2025
Some glimpses into Westmoot 2025

Some glimpses into Westmoot 2025 including a summary of my keynote and links to other talks that have been since uploaded.

May 28, 2025
Shortlisted for a Tolkien Society Best Article Award!

I’m thrilled to find that my article “Tolkien, The Battle of Maldon, and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth: Poetic Allusions and the Experience of Time” has been shortlisted for a Tolkien Society Award! Voting for TS members open until Friday 25 April.

April 23, 2025
Westmoot 2025

The Westmoot 2025 conference will be held in Kansas City from May 9-11, the first time the Tolkien Society will sponsor an event in North America.

January 3, 2025
How do you say “Bandersnatch” in Old English?

How do you say Bandersnatch in Old English? On Tolkien’s translation of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” into Old English. In Collected Poems of J.R. R. Tolkien edited by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond, with commentary by Arden Smith.

December 3, 2024