Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Category: Old English

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Two new articles on Tolkien’s ‘The Homecoming’

    Two new articles on Tolkien’s ‘The Homecoming’

    Links to two articles available for free download on J.R.R. Tolkien’s play, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth” and a video recording of a conference presentation on Tolkien as a playwright. These essays discuss manuscript revisions, ideas about drama, and allusions to medieval poetry.

  • My recent talk: Dreaming the Middle Ages: The Case of Grendel’s Mother

    My recent talk: Dreaming the Middle Ages: The Case of Grendel’s Mother

    My recent talk: “Dreaming the Middle Ages: The Case of Grendel’s Mother.” Keynote for the Atlantic Medieval and Early Modern Group, Oct. 4, 2024.

  • 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…

  • New book on Tolkien’s The Homecoming

    Over at my other website, Tolkien and Alliterative Verse, we’ve announced a new book forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2023: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Battle of Maldon together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, edited by Peter Grybauskas. For more information, check out this Woven Words blog post: https://tolkienalliterative.ca/2022/12/02/new-book-on-maldon-homecoming-and-more/

  • 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…