Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Category: Tolkien scholarship

  • Tolkien at IMC Leeds 2025

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 20th Annual Tolkien at UVM Conference

    Final program for the 20th Annual Tolkien at the University of Vermont Conference. April 13, 2024.

  • Inclusive Perspectives on Tolkien & Religion

    In an article published in 2014 in the journal Tolkien Studies, aptly titled “But What Did He Really Mean?” Verlyn Flieger points out the contradictory statements that Tolkien made about various issues, the most controversial being about whether or not The Lord of the Rings was an expressly Catholic work. Flieger states: Thus he could…

  • New Tolkien books coming soon

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a pile of Tolkien books in my to-read pile, but that’s not stopping me from looking forward to some new publications. Here are a few of them… The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.  Revised and Expanded Edition.  HarperCollins, 2023. The letters have been a staple of Tolkien…

  • 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…

  • Happy birthday, Professor Verlyn Flieger!

    Over on Twitter, Tom Hillman has started a thread of birthday wishes for preeminent Tolkien scholar, Professor Verlyn Flieger, and I would like to add my tribute here as well. I wanted to take a moment to wish Verlyn Flieger a happy birthday, and thank her not only for her decades of excellent work elevating…