Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Category: Medievalisms

  • Beowulf as children’s lit: 2 recent publications

    Anna Smol’s “Beowulf and Boyology,” explores the conflation of medieval stories and childhood in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her review of a collection of essays titled “Beowulf as Children’s Literature,” highlights the volume as a valuable resource for studying medieval adaptations for young readers.

  • A link to my latest post on Tolkien & Alliterative Verse

    Please follow along at tolkienalliterative.ca if you’re interested in the alliterative poems Tolkien wrote. My research assistants and I are building a bibliography of Tolkien’s alliterative verse, some online guides to alliterative metre, and links to some of Tolkien’s notes on the topic. You’ll also find an occasional blog post on what’s new in this…

  • Upcoming deadlines: CfPs in Tolkien studies

    We’re still enjoying summer weather here in Nova Scotia, but let’s face it, fall is just around the corner, and with it, some deadlines for Tolkien scholars interested in presenting their research at conferences in the coming year.  If you don’t intend to propose anything, you still might want to browse the topics that people…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Fall term and summer reviews

    I am halfway into the fall term — always a busy time with meetings, grading, and class preparations. It’s hard to find time for research — or blogging. But one thing that I like to do whenever I have a half hour or so is to review videos of past conference presentations or listen to…

  • 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…