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CFP: Romances in Middle-earth
This call for papers comes from Chris Vaccaro, one of the organizers of the annual Tolkien at UVM Conference in Burlington, Vermont. 14th Annual Tolkien at University of Vermont Conference Saturday April 8th, 8:30am-5:30 p.m. Theme: Romances in Middle-earth Organizers of the Tolkien at UVM Conference are now accepting abstracts for the 2017 conference until
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New! Tolkien Symposium in Kalamazoo
Something new is coming to Kalamazoo, the site of the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies, which usually includes a number of sessions related to Tolkien. Every year the Congress organizers have been whittling down the sessions sponsored by the Tolkien at Kalamazoo group (and others) so that what was once a conference with around
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Feed me!
My starving blog is crying for food! It seems incredible to me that the flow of posts has completely dried up since August. But piles of work this semester combined with increasing eldercare responsibilities have taken all the time that I could stay awake every day. Luckily, there’s a lull in the action — a
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Talks on Tolkien II: Dimitra Fimi on Tolkien & Childhood Studies
This week’s talk by Dimitra Fimi applies concepts from childhood studies to Tolkien’s fiction. She begins by pointing out that the concept of childhood is a social construction that varies in different cultures and times, and then goes on to examine Tolkien’s ideas about childhood in “Laws and Customs of the Eldar,” The Children of
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“something has gone crack”; Tolkien on Rob Gilson & the TCBS, 100 years ago today.
On August 12, 1916 Tolkien wrote a letter to Geoffrey Smith, with permission to pass it on to Christopher Wiseman, trying to come to terms with the death of their friend Rob Gilson. It took some time for the news of Rob’s death on the first day of the Somme offensive, July 1st, to reach
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Talks on Tolkien II: Patrick Curry on Enchantment & Hypermodernity
This week, I turn to the work of Patrick Curry, best known to Tolkien readers as the author of Defending Middle-earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity (revised edition Houghton Mifflin, 2004) and Deep Roots in a Time of Frost: Essays on Tolkien (Walking Tree 2014); his publications also include works such as Ecological Ethics: An Introduction
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Talks on Tolkien II: Irina Metzler on Tolkien & Disability Studies
Continuing in this summer series of Talks on Tolkien II, in which I’d like to highlight pre-recorded talks on new books or on different disciplinary approaches to studying Tolkien, I turn to Irina Metzler’s presentation at the 2016 Tolkien Seminar in Leeds. Dr. Metzler outlines some of the basic concepts in the growing academic field
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Talks on Tolkien II: Kristine Larsen on the Inklings & Science
In this summer series of Talks on Tolkien I’d like to highlight new/forthcoming books or different disciplinary approaches to the study of Tolkien — Interdisciplinary Tolkien, as I like to think of it. Who better to exemplify the interdisciplinary study of Tolkien than Kristine Larsen, known to many as “The Tolkien Astronomer.” Dr. Larsen is
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Talks on Tolkien II: summer series. Flieger on Kullervo
In the winter months of 2015, I posted a series, Talks on Tolkien, which consisted of presentations by Tolkien scholars that had been previously recorded and made available on the internet. As I was watching a live stream this morning from the New York Tolkien Conference Facebook page, I was reminded of how much I
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Tolkien events in Leeds
If you’re in the vicinity of Leeds, you can attend a number of Tolkien papers over the next few days. On Sunday July 3, the Tolkien Society Seminar will take place in the Hilton Leeds City. This one-day series of presentations focuses on the theme of Life, Death, and Immortality. You can read the full
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 