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Talks on Tolkien: Janet Brennan Croft talks about Tolkien’s views on war
This week’s “Talk on Tolkien” video comes from Oklahoma State University, where Janet Brennan Croft gave a presentation last November about Tolkien’s life and how his war experiences are reflected in his fiction. Croft is the author of War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien, which was published in 2004 and won the Mythopoeic Scholarship
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Talks on Tolkien: Reflecting on Ruins with Michael Drout
In this week’s “Talk on Tolkien” listen to Michael Drout as he constructs a lecture on “How to Read J.R.R. Tolkien” out of personal reminiscences, a discussion of the features of oral tradition, and images of stone and textual ruins. Professor Drout is best known to Tolkien scholars as one of the founding editors of
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Tolkien conference season 2015
It’s time to start organizing my travel to various conferences this spring and summer. I wish I could attend all of these meetings, but I’ll be fortunate enough to go to a couple of them at least. My list focuses on North American conferences because I know those best, but please let me know in
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Talks on Tolkien: Tom Shippey & the love of trees
Was Tolkien a “tree-hugger”? That’s a loaded term, but Tolkien readers know that he was concerned about our natural environment and that, yes, he loved trees. The above picture shows Tolkien in the Botanic Garden in Oxford in 1973 with one of his favorite trees, a black pine (Pinus nigra). Sadly, that tree suffered damage
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New winter series: Talks on Tolkien
In my corner of the world, cold winds are lashing up rainstorms and snowfalls for the start of the new year: good days to stay cozy at home, to read, think, and write. To accompany any reading or re-reading of Tolkien in this winter season, I thought that it would be fun to highlight every
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Tolkien in Vermont 2015
Tolkien in Vermont is a conference that is now heading into its twelfth year. A call for papers has been posted recently by the organizer, Chris Vaccaro, who promises that details about the conference will appear soon on the Tolkien in Vermont website. The CFP is copied below, or you can find it here. I’ve
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Jackson’s Lost Opportunity: The Death of Sister-Sons
I enjoy many things about Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films – the material realization of various Middle-earth cultures, the creation of the best movie dragon I’ve ever seen, Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, to name only a few – but of course Jackson is not making the films specifically for me, a medievalist with a love of Tolkien’s
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An imagined dystopian LotR film
Today I have a post that combines my interests in both Tolkien and pedagogy. In one of my English courses, Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Myth-making, I ask students to read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and some of the medieval literature that influenced him. We also consider later adaptations of Tolkien’s fiction in various
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Happy New Year
Where have the months gone? I was surprised to find that I last posted as long ago as October, but I suppose that teaching, grading, a research trip, and the supervision of several independent study and thesis students account for how I spent my time well enough. This semester, I’m fortunate to have a sabbatical
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Tolkien Studies at Popular Culture Association 2015 meeting
After a successful trial run last April at the Popular Culture / American Culture Association conference, a regular Tolkien Studies stream has been approved for the annual conference. The organizer of the Tolkien Studies area, Robin Reid, has issued a general call for papers for the 2015 conference to be held in New Orleans, April
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 