Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Category: Medieval

  • New website: Tolkien and Alliterative Verse

    I’ve just launched a new website designed as a research resource for anyone interested in Tolkien’s alliterative poetry: Tolkien and Alliterative Verse at https://tolkienalliterative.ca. How much alliterative verse did Tolkien write? Check out our Descriptive Bibliography. What is alliterative verse? We’ve got Some Online Guides to Alliterative Metre to illustrate this medieval English style of…

  • Calls for Papers on Tolkien for 2023

    If you’re working on Tolkien, you might want to consider submitting a proposal for a talk at one of next year’s international medieval conferences. The deadlines are coming closer! Call for Papers, due August 31, for the IMC (International Medieval Congress) at the University of Leeds. Papers can be delivered in person or online. The…

  • Leeds is the place to be next week for Tolkien talks

    Although I wish I could be in Leeds this coming week to see friends and attend Tolkien sessions in person, I will be settling for the next best thing, zooming in from home. Two events occur annually in Leeds, and this year they are both in hybrid formats: the Tolkien Society Seminar on Sunday, July…

  • Tolkien talks in May 2022 & reminders for July

    Two events for this month will feature online presentations on Tolkien. The first is a free event to be held on Saturday May 7th, the Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium. A program and link have not yet been published, but I will post it here as soon as the information is available. [May 4 edit: the…

  • Tolkien Reading Day 2022: Love & Friendship

    Every year to mark the downfall of Sauron on March 25, the Tolkien Society announces a theme for reading, discussion, and celebration. Let’s hope that this year’s theme, Love and Friendship, will lead to positive appreciations of the variety of loving relationships that Tolkien represents in his fiction. I’ve written some articles on male relationships,…

  • Save the dates!

    I sometimes like to listen to the Sounds of the Bodleian Library while working. The soundscapes transport me back to happy days researching in the library, where I hope to spend time again one day. In the meantime, a howling snowstorm is keeping us indoors here in Nova Scotia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t…

  • Upcoming Tolkien conference sessions (Tolkien Society Seminar and IMC Leeds)

    These sessions are not for those who rush to join bandwagons based on meaningless politicized terms such as “woke” or who advance the anti-intellectualism prevalent in groups where any academic is suspect, and expertise (whether of academics or fans) is ridiculed.  These sessions, as always, are for open discussions and debates by faculty, students, independent…

  • Tolkien Conference Season, May-July 2021

    Conference season is upon us again, and just like last year’s sessions, the meetings I’m interested in are being held online.  While nothing can replace sitting on a university patio in the summer sun drinking mead with new and old conference friends, we’ll have to make do with virtual reality.  As I’ve said before, the…

  • Virtual IMC to include 2 Tolkien sessions

    The regular International Medieval Congress in Leeds is cancelled, but it’s being replaced by a pared-down virtual IMC, or vIMC. While many presentations have been withdrawn, there is still a healthy program of sessions from Monday to Friday, July 6 – 10 being offered online. Please note that registration is free but closes this Friday,…

  • “It depends on what you mean by use”: teaching and learning in the arts now

    I was going to write to celebrate Tolkien Reading Day (March 25) as I usually do, with a post on “Leaf by Niggle,” one of the texts recommended by the Tolkien Society for this year’s theme of Nature vs. Industry. However, as we were approaching Tolkien Reading Day, COVID-19 cases started to pop up in…