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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Tolkien at IMC Leeds 2025
Tolkien studies sessions at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, 2025.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
A Single Leaf
“He used to spend a long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening of dewdrops on its edges.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, “Leaf by Niggle”
Anna Smol: A Single Leaf 