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Mythcon 44. Day Two: the land and its inhabitants in fantasy
The second day of the Mythopoeic Society conference began with a Mythcon tradition: a procession of attendees into the auditorium to listen to the first plenary talk. Our pre-conference updates suggested that we wear our academic regalia for this event — have you ever tried to cram an academic gown into a carry-on bag? I…
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Mythcon 44. Day One: hot sun, fanfic, and ice cream
Travelling to Mythcon in East Lansing, Michigan, I wondered what to expect at my first Mythopoeic Society conference. I later realized that the Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On conference that I attended in England was a combined Mythopoeic and Tolkien Society meeting, a fact that I barely recognized at the time in that…
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Atlantic Mediaeval Association CFP
Call for Papers: Sixth Annual Conference of the Atlantic Mediaeval Association 27-28 September 2013 Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada Plenary Paper by Fiona Tolhurst on Female Spirituality in the Late Middle Ages 16:00 Friday 27 Sept (Room TBA) The society and its conference are multi-disciplinary and we accordingly welcome proposals on all aspects of…
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Calls for papers on Tolkien
It’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s conferences! Here are two calls for papers for those who are engaged in the scholarly study of Tolkien’s works. Proposals are due this fall. Tolkien at Kalamazoo 2014 The Tolkien at Kalamazoo group is sponsoring four sessions for the 2014 International Congress on Medieval Studies.…
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CFP: Medieval Translation: Theory and Practice
Florilegium is the international journal of the Canadian Society of Medievalists / Société canadienne des médiévistes and accepts papers in English or French. The recent call for papers is for a special issue on medieval translation. CfP Florilegium – Translation issue [pdf]
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“Wild blow the winds of war”: Tolkien’s Fall of Arthur
[Can there be spoilers in an Arthurian tale? I don’t know if my review would count as a spoiler, but if you’re worried about such things, you might want to proceed with caution.] In a darkening world, tides are flowing fast and winds sweeping into the west while ghostly apparitions ride through the skies. Tolkien’s…
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Tolkien at Kalamazoo Facebook group
“Tolkien at Kalamazoo” is a fairly informal group that sponsors conference sessions every year at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. A newly formed Facebook group, Tolkien at Kalamazoo, is open to anyone interested in Tolkien studies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/119241118286629/ Please note, though, that the group does not represent the Congress…
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Fall of Arthur reviews
I’m gathering my own thoughts on the recently published Fall of Arthur poem by Tolkien; in the meantime, here are a few reviews. John Garth, “Tolkien’s Unfinished Epic: ‘The Fall of Arthur.’” The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/23/tolkien-s-unfinished-epic-the-fall-of-arthur.html Elizabeth Hand. “J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Fall of Arthur’ and the Path to Middle-Earth.” Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-jrr-tolkien-fall-of-arthur-middle-earth20130526,0,7954386.story Some brief comments…
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Well, I’m back.
Clearly, I underestimated how time-consuming it would be to set up a blog and a Twitter feed for my university department at the same time that I was trying to do the same for myself. But now that I’ve got the department project running smoothly, I can turn my attention back to this blog. I’ve…
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 