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Talks on Tolkien: Janet Brennan Croft talks about Tolkien’s views on war

15 Sunday Feb 2015

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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 Award in Inklings Studies in 2005. She is one of a number of critics, such as Tom Shippey and John Garth, who discuss ways in which Tolkien can be seen as a war writer.

Croft, who is a librarian at Rutgers University, is also the editor of the peer-reviewed journal Mythlore. You can find out more about her many books and articles by going to her Academia.edu page.

Croft’s talk covers aspects of Tolkien’s life including his experiences as a soldier in the First World War and as a parent with sons in the Second World War.

I thought it might be interesting to compare George R.R. Martin’s views on war and on Tolkien. The following is an excerpt from a Rolling Stone interview by Mikal Gilmore, published on April 23, 2014. You can read the full interview here.

In the interview, Martin talks about how his objection to the Vietnam War influenced his writing of characters. If Tolkien had been writing The Lord of the Rings throughout the Vietnam War, do you think his characters might have turned out differently? The peace movement was very visible in the 1960s, and Tolkien’s work was widely read by many who participated in the anti-war protests.  Were you one of them? Any observations to make about that time and how Tolkien’s work was received?  (Please keep in mind that all comments should be respectful towards different political views).

***

From: George R.R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview

We talked earlier about your unwillingness to fight in Vietnam. The Ice and Fire books are shot through with the horrors of war. As Ygritte says to Jon Snow, “We’re just soldiers in their armies, and there’s plenty more to carry on if we go down.”
It’s true in virtually all wars through history. Shakespeare refers to it, in those great scenes in Henry V, where King Hal is walking among the men, before the Battle of Agincourt, and he hears the men complaining. “Well, I hope his cause is just, because a lot of us are going to die to make him king of France.” One of the central questions in the book is Varys’ riddle: The rich man, the priest and the king give an order to a common sellsword. Each one says kill the other two. So who has the power? Is it the priest, who supposedly speaks for God? The king, who has the power of state? The rich man, who has the gold? Of course, doesn’t the swordsman have the power? He’s the one with the sword – he could kill all three if he wanted. Or he could listen to anyone. But he’s just the average grunt. If he doesn’t do what they say, then they each call other swordsmen who will do what they say. But why does anybody do what they say? This is the fundamental mystery of power and leadership and war through all history. Going back to Vietnam, for me the cognitive dissonance came in when I realized that Ho Chi Minh actually wasn’t Sauron. Do you remember the poster during that time? WHAT IF THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME? That’s one of the fundamental questions here. Why did anybody go to Vietnam? Were the people who went more patriotic? Were they braver? Were they stupider? Why does anybody go? What’s all this based on? It’s all based on an illusion: You go because you’re afraid of what will happen if you don’t go, even if you don’t believe in it. But where do these systems of obedience come from? Why do we recognize power instead of individual autonomy? These questions are fascinating to me. It’s all this strange illusion, isn’t it?

You’re a congenial man, yet these books are incredibly violent. Does that ever feel at odds with these views about power and war?
The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that. World War I is much more typical of the wars of history than World War II – the kind of war you look back afterward and say, “What the hell were we fighting for? Why did all these millions of people have to die? Was it really worth it to get rid of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that we wiped out an entire generation, and tore up half the continent? Was the War of 1812 worth fighting? The Spanish-American War? What the hell were these people fighting for?”

There’s only a few wars that are really worth what they cost. I was born three years after the end of World War II. You want to be the hero. You want to stand up, whether you’re Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin, or the American saving the world from the Nazis. It’s sad to say, but I do think there are things worth fighting for. Men are still capable of great heroism. But I don’t necessarily think there are heroes. That’s something that’s very much in my books: I believe in great characters. We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices. Look at a figure like Woodrow Wilson, one of the most fascinating presidents in American history. He was despicable on racial issues. He was a Southern segregationist of the worst stripe, praising D.W. Griffith and The Birth of a Nation. He effectively was a Ku Klux Klan supporter. But in terms of foreign affairs, and the League of Nations, he had one of the great dreams of our time. The war to end all wars – we make fun of it now, but God, it was an idealistic dream. If he’d been able to achieve it, we’d be building statues of him a hundred feet high, and saying, “This was the greatest man in human history: This was the man who ended war.” He was a racist who tried to end war. Now, does one cancel out the other? Well, they don’t cancel out the other. You can’t make him a hero or a villain. He was both. And we’re all both.

***
Next week, I hope to have more about Tolkien’s early writings, with a focus on his experiences in the Great War.

Talks on Tolkien: Reflecting on Ruins with Michael Drout

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by in Medieval, Medievalisms, Old English, Talks on Tolkien, Tolkien

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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 the journal Tolkien Studies, and the editor of the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment and of Tolkien’s Beowulf and the Critics. You can find out more about his publications and projects on his website MichaelDrout.com, on his blog Wormtalk and Slugspeak, or by following him on twitter: @MikeDrout.

The following lecture was delivered in October 2013 at Carnegie Mellon University. Michael Drout was an undergraduate there, and in his talk he pays tribute to his former medieval literature professor, Peggy Knapp, while recalling some of his experiences as a student. But don’t be fooled into thinking that these are simply personal digressions from the subject of Tolkien; Drout masterfully interlaces the different strands of his talk to build to his concluding reflections on textual ruins and nostalgia in Tolkien’s work.

After listening to this talk, you might end up reflecting on the pastness of the past and the ways in which it is overlaid by the present. This “joyous and heartbreaking” feeling of longing is not only found in Tolkien’s work but also in many Old English poems. I thought it would be interesting to extend Professor Drout’s meditation on ruins by looking at a video adaptation of the Old English poem known as “The Ruin” which layers past and present in unexpected ways:

(You might note that the director, translator, and speaker in this film is Stuart Lee, a professor at Oxford University who is a medievalist and a Tolkien scholar.)

If you are interested in delving further into Professor Drout’s discussion of the features of oral tradition, such as “communicative economy” and “traditional referents,” I would recommend John Miles Foley’s book How to Read an Oral Poem as a great starting point.

As always, any comments are welcome. Does Michael Drout’s view of how to read Tolkien strike a chord with you? Do you see the same qualities in the text as he does? Other thoughts?

Talks on Tolkien: Tom Shippey & the love of trees

31 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Medievalisms, Talks on Tolkien, Tolkien

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Tolkien in the Botanic Garden, Oxford

Tolkien in the Botanic Garden, Oxford

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 last summer and had to be cut down a few months ago for safety reasons. You can watch a video by Jill Walker, “Tolkien’s Tree,” to see how spectacular the tree was at its best and how it was taken down. Plans are being made to commemorate the tree and its significance for Tolkien and for the many visitors who came to see it; you can follow the Tolkien Society for updates on this matter.

In this week’s “Talk on Tolkien,” I’ve turned to Tom Shippey, who offers some thoughts on Tolkien’s views of this “tree-tangled Middle-earth.” This video records Shippey’s presentation, “Trees, Chainsaws, and the Visions of Paradise in J.R.R. Tolkien,” at Arizona State University in 2002. Shippey starts off with some reflections on Tolkien as a “tree-hugger,” and then goes on to show us some ambiguities in that love of trees and to suggest its mythic significance.

Shippey is well known as a Tolkien scholar and medievalist through his many publications, particularly The Road to Middle-earth and J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. As usual, his talk is lively, opinionated, informed, and interesting. As with last week’s talk by Verlyn Flieger, Shippey offers an approach to thinking about Tolkien’s fiction in general.

“Trees, Chainsaws, and the Visions of Paradise in J.R.R. Tolkien” by Tom Shippey from ASU English on Vimeo. 11/2/2002

In this talk, Shippey refers to two Middle English texts. Tolkien’s translation of the poem Pearl is included in the posthumous publication Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. If you’re interested in the Middle English text of the poem, you can read an edition of Pearl by Sarah Stanbury on the TEAMS: Middle English Texts Series website. You can also find out more about The Book of John Mandeville and read the Middle English text on that site in an edition by Tamara Kohanski and C. David Benson.

Shippey also talks about various poems in The Lord of the Rings, including the Elves’ hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel. As mentioned in the video, Tolkien translated most of this poem for Donald Swann, who set some of Tolkien’s poems to music in The Road Goes Ever On (you can still buy the book and CD). One of my favourite musical versions of the hymn to Elbereth is by the Tolkien Ensemble. You can listen to one of their renditions of the Elven Hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel. (And if you like it, buy their CDs!). I especially love the Tolkien Ensemble’s version of Galadriel’s Song of Eldamar — in my view, the perfect evocation of not only the love of this “tree-tangled Middle-earth” but also, as Tom Shippey points out, the longing for an earthly paradise.

As always, comments are welcome.

On a trip to Oxford Botanic Garden

On a visit to Oxford, around 10 years ago

New winter series: Talks on Tolkien

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Medievalisms, Talks on Tolkien, Tolkien

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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 weekend a podcast or video featuring a different Tolkien scholar: a “Talks on Tolkien” series. Some of the videos and podcasts will be recent; others buried a little further in the files of the web, but all, I hope, thought-provoking and informative.

Because I’m posting the first selection late in this weekend, I’ll keep it short, a twenty-minute video by a foremost Tolkien scholar, Verlyn Flieger, who is one of my favorite critics. In this talk, “Imaginary Creatures — Real Experience,” Professor Flieger, I believe, gets to the core of The Lord of the Rings and argues that it is not the simplistic good vs. evil story many people think it is.

Recently, an opposing opinion has been expressed by the writer Michael Moorcock in an interview on Dr. Karl Siegfried’s Norse Mythology Blog. In Part Two of that interview, Moorcock says that “it’s the simplification, rejection of the world’s complexity, that discomforts me with Tolkien.” Take a look at Moorcock’s argument; listen to Flieger’s in the video. Let me know what you think!

(In case you can’t see the video on your device, try this link: http://youtu.be/q87vHzNFadU)

Coming up in the next few weeks: talks by Tom Shippey, Michael Drout, Dimitra Fimi, John Garth, Janet Brennan Croft,  John D. Rateliff, and more. Check back every Friday or Saturday for the next installment of “Talks on Tolkien.”  And please note: my intention is to curate a series of already-available resources online; I’m not planning on producing any new talks on Tolkien, though I do hope I can suggest some interesting contexts for my selections.

You can find out more about Verlyn Flieger’s work on her website, mythus.com.

Comments / discussions are welcome!

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Leeds is the place to be next week for Tolkien talks

01 Friday Jul 2022

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Although I wish I could be in Leeds this coming week to see friends and attend Tolkien sessions in person, I will be settling for the next best thing, zooming in from home. Two events occur annually in Leeds, and this year they are both in hybrid formats: the Tolkien Society Seminar on Sunday, July 3, and then a series of papers at the International Medieval Congress from July 4 – 7.

Tolkien Society

Tolkien Society Seminar: Tolkien and the Gothic

The Tolkien Society Seminar is free — more information is here. If you miss registering for the event, you will eventually be able to see the papers on the Society’s YouTube channel. This year’s theme is Tolkien and the Gothic. A keynote will be given by Nick Groom speaking about “Eldritch Tolkien: The Impossible Complexities of a Gothic Middle-earth.” The other presenters are as follows (times are listed on the Tolkien Society Seminar 2022 page).

  • Victoria Holtz, Encountering the Undead: They will Not Leave You Unscathed
  • Mahdî Brecq, Tolkien’s Gothic: a poetic resurgence?
  • Steven Brehe, Speculations: The Influence of Bram Stoker’s Dracula upon Tolkien
  • Sofia Skeva, (Re-)Writing The (Monstrous) Body in 20th Century Fantasy Literature: The Construction of the Stranger in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
  • Andrew Higgins, ‘Mommie Dearist’ An Exploration of an Intriguing Tolkienian Gothic Crux
  • Duane Watson, “The forest is queer” – The Fantastic and the Gothic in The Lord of the Rings
  • Journee Cotton, The Gothic and Environmental Bioethics: The ‘Creepy’ Bodies of Middle-earth
  • Giovanni Carmine Costabile, “Where now Bucephalus and the proud Eormanric?” – The interplay of Gothic and Classical references as a tacit background behind “The Wanderer”, Tolkien’s Anglo-Saxon source
  • Michael Dunn, Tolkien’s Triptych: Ecological Uncanny, Double Dualism Personified, and the Language of the Literary Gothic
  • Kristine Larsen, Beware Melkors Bearing Gifts: The “Tale of Adanel” as Gothic Fiction

International Medieval Congress

Registration for the IMC closed some time ago, but if you’re interested in seeing what Tolkien scholars are talking about, I’ve included the schedule of papers below. Of course, if you’ve registered, you can take in these sessions online or in person. The full IMC schedule, from July 4 – 7, can be found on the Congress webpage. The following Tolkien sessions were organized by Andrew Higgins and the Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow.

MONDAY JULY 4

J.R.R. Tolkien: Medieval Roots & Modern Branches

  • Andrzej Wicher, An Attempt to Re-Examine the Dialectic of the East and the West in Tolkien’s Selected Works
  • Victoria-Holtz Wodzak, Of Dust Motes, Trees, and Golden Flowers: Tolkien and Duns Scotus’ Haeccitas.
  • Andrew Higgins,, Glossopoeia through Letter Writing: The Role of Early Reader and Author Responses in the Development of the Elvish Languages

Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard West

  • Andoni Cossio, The Revivalist Critic and the Alliterative Poet: An Unexpected Collaboration
  • James Tauber, Computing the Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings
  • Kristine Larsen, ‘Pearls’ of Pearl: Medieval Appropriations in Tolkien’s Mythology

Tolkien as a Gateway to Interdisciplinary Teaching: A Roundtable Discussion
This roundtable discussion will feature talks by teachers on how they have used the works of Tolkien to introduce and engage students with new fields of study and disciplines. Participants include Andrew Higgins, Deidre Dawson, Dimitra Fimi.

WEDNESDAY JULY 6

Borders between Life and Death in Tolkien’s Legendarium

  • Cami Agan, Memories of Borders: On the Borders of Memory – Beleriand as Elegiac Landscape
  • Amy Amendt-Raduege, Beyond the Circles of the World
  • Gaëlle Abaléa, Undead or Undying: Limits of Immortality in Tolkien’s Work

Family, Orientation, Transgression, and Crossing Borders of Middle-earth

  • Deidre Dawson, Tolkien’s Orphaned Heroes
  • Yvette Kisor, Chrononormativity and Queer Time: Crossing Temporal Borders in Tolkien’s Middle-earth
  • Alke Haarsma-Wisselink, ‘Finding out what lies beyond the borders of the Shire’: Applying Tolkien’s Fantastic Texts in and to Madness – The Transgressive Experience of Psychotic Thinking
  • Olivia-Kate Burgham, ‘Lay your head in my lap’: Homoerotic Tension and Possibility on Mordor’s Border in The Lord of the Rings

THURSDAY, JULY 7

Crossing Borders in Middle-earth

  • Aslı Bülbül, Light: The Key to Cross the Spatiotemporal Borders in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Secondary World
  • Sara Brown, Interrogating the Liminal Space: Vampires and Werewolves in Middle-Earth
  • Aurelie Bremont, Time Travel, Astronomy, and Magic Mirrors: How the Borders between Reality and the Otherworld in Middle- Earth Are Influenced by Celtic Mythology and Science (Fiction)

Tolkien talks in May 2022 & reminders for July

02 Monday May 2022

Posted by in Conferences, Medieval, Medievalisms, Research, Tolkien

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Two events for this month will feature online presentations on Tolkien. The first is a free event to be held on Saturday May 7th, the Tolkien at Kalamazoo Symposium. A program and link have not yet been published, but I will post it here as soon as the information is available. [May 4 edit: the pdf program is posted here. If you’re interested in attending, contact Yvette Kisor at ykisor@ramapo.edu]

Next week, the International Congress on Medieval Studies will take place online once again this year. There is a registration fee for this one, which gives you access to papers and various kinds of sessions and book sales as well as recordings of most sessions for two weeks after the conference. You can find more information here. The Congress takes place May 9-14.

And please scroll down for reminders about July’s conference events. You’ll have to register this week for the Leeds medieval conference if you intend to take part!

Below are the sessions on Tolkien taking place at the International Congress on Medieval Studies from the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. An asterisk by the session number indicates that the session will be recorded.

121* Tuesday, May 10, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Medieval Understandings of the Nature of Evil as Depicted by J. R. R. Tolkien

Sponsor: D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Viterbo Univ. Organizer & Presider: Michael A. Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.

  • Cosmic Catastrophe of History: Augustinian Theology of History and Patristic Angelology in Tolkien’s “Long Defeat” — Edmund Michael Lazzari, Marquette Univ.
  • Dante’s Paradiso and the Fall of Melkor: Tolkien’s Preoccupations with Culpability and Purgation — Michael David Elam, Regent Univ.
  • A Clamorous Unison: Musical Evil in the Middle Ages and the Ainulindalë –Joshua T. Parks, Princeton Theological Seminary

226* Thursday, May 12, 9:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien and the Medieval Animal

Sponsor: Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, Univ. of Glasgow
Organizer & Presider: Kristine A. Swank, Univ. of Glasgow

  • Mammoth, Mûmak, and “ The old fireside rhyme of Oliphaunt”: Tolkien’s Contributions to the Medieval Bestiary Tradition — Marc U. Zender, Tulane Univ.
  • From Classical to Medieval: A Reflection on Bats in Tolkien’s Works — Fiammetta Comelli, Univ. degli Studi di Milano
  • Of Foxes and Dancing Bears — John Rosegrant, New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center
  • Tolkien’s Dragons: Sources, Symbols, and Significance — Camilo G. Peralta, Fort Hays State Univ.

275* Thursday, May 12, 7:00 p.m. EDT
J. R. R. Tolkien and Medieval Poets: A Session in Memory of Richard C. West

Sponsors: Tolkien at Kalamazoo; Pearl-Poet Society. Organizer: Christopher Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont. Presider: Jane Beal, Univ. of La Verne

  • Tolkien and Dante on the Musical Nature of “Sub-creation” — Paul L. Fortunato, Univ. of Houston–Downtown
  • The Lost Roads of Old English Poetry: Dramas of Time Travel in Tolkien’s Works — Anna Smol, Mount St. Vincent Univ.
  • Strange Sounds, Strange Scenes: Alliterative Metre and Personification in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “ The Lay of the Children of Húrin” — Gavin Foster, Dalhousie Univ.
  • Tolkien, Beowulf, and Gawain: The Myth of Alliteration — John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville

360 Friday, May 13, 7:00 p.m. EDT
Medieval Tolkien and the Nature of Middle-earth (A Roundtable)

Sponsor: Tolkien at Kalamazoo. Organizer: Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College. Presider: Deidre Dawson, Michigan State Univ.

A roundtable discussion with Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College; Sutirtho Roy, Univ. of Calcutta; Christopher Vaccaro, Univ. of Vermont; Yvette Kisor; John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar

421* Saturday, May 14, 5:00 p.m. EDT
New Readings of the Lord of the Rings
Presider: Luke J. Chambers, Indiana Univ.–Bloomington

  • The Fisherman’s Ring of Power: Masculinity, Castration, and the Great Quest in The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings — Consuelo M. Concepcion, Independent Scholar
  • The Dragon is Not an Allegory: Reading Tolkien’s Monsters in Medieval Contexts — Ruthann E. Mowry, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign; Cait Coker, Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
  • Samwise: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Practical Boethian — Brian McFadden, Texas Tech Univ.
  • Tolkien, Augustinian Theodicy, and Lovecraftian Evil — Perry Neil Harrison, Fort Hays State Univ.

A couple of Tolkien papers will appear in more general sessions:

394* Saturday, May 14, 3:00 p.m. EDT
C. S. Lewis and the Middle Ages I: Dante and the Lewis Circle (In Honor of Marsha Daigle Williamson)

  • Heavenly Models of Desire in Dante, Lewis, and Tolkien — Curtis Gruenler, Hope College [paper withdrawn – May 4 edit]

418* Saturday, May 14, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Medievalism in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literary and Cinematic Adaptations of Beowulf

  • The Existential Dragon: Adapting Beowulf in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and John Gardner’s Grendel — Andrew Phillip de Carion, Univ. of Houston

Of course, if you have an interest in medieval or medievalism studies, there are hundreds of other sessions to choose from.

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

And looking ahead…..

The Tolkien Society will be holding its Seminar on July 3 with the theme of Tolkien and the Gothic. This is a hybrid event. Registration is now open for free online or in-person attendance (limited to 60 people in person).

The International Medieval Congress at Leeds University will host 7 Tolkien sessions in the program. The conference takes place July 4-7, 2022. This is a hybrid event, enabling online or in-person attendance. Deadline for registration is Friday May 6. As with the other large medieval conference from the University of Western Michigan, there is a fee for registration.

I’ll post the July programs closer to the time of these events.

Tolkien Conference Season, May-July 2021

26 Monday Apr 2021

Posted by in Conferences, Fan studies, Medieval, Medievalisms, Research, Tolkien

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Conference season is upon us again, and just like last year’s sessions, the meetings I’m interested in are being held online.  While nothing can replace sitting on a university patio in the summer sun drinking mead with new and old conference friends, we’ll have to make do with virtual reality.  As I’ve said before, the one advantage is that we can listen to many more papers and “attend” many more conferences than we typically would have done, especially for those who do not have travel funding to go far afield to specialist meetings.

I think that in a fit of overcompensating for last year’s pandemic lockdown and research slowdown, I have offered to give three conference papers and one roundtable discussion this spring and summer.  In order to make sure I remember where I want to be and when, I’ve compiled a list of conference sessions on Tolkien that I’m either involved in or just interested in attending from May to July. 

Kalamazoo campus swan pond

Tolkien Symposium, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Coming up are the sessions which are usually held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which begin with the one-day Tolkien Symposium, sponsored by the Tolkien at Kalamazoo group. These sessions will be held on May 8 from 10:30 a.m. EDT to 5:00 p.m. EDT, with 9 papers, rounding up the day with a musical performance.  To see the full schedule, go to Tolkienists.org. The Symposium is free; email Dr. Christopher Vaccaro for the link [Christopher.Vaccaro@uvm.edu].

My paper is scheduled on May 8. Did you know that Tolkien published a play? And that it is his only piece of historical fiction? My talk is on “Tolkien the Playwright” and deals with his verse drama, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son.”

International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan

There are a number of sessions on Tolkien and medievalism at this conference, to be held May 10 – 15. Registration is required and so is the payment of a fee, scaled to your income. Each session includes two or more papers; below are the session topics and dates and times.  For details about the presenters and their paper titles, go to the Tolkienists.org site  or search the program and register at the ICMS site.

Monday, May 10, 1:00 p.m. EDT
Tolkien and Manuscript Studies

Monday, May 10, 5:00 p.m. EDT
Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption (A Panel Discussion)

Tuesday, May 11, 9:00 a.m EDT
Christopher Tolkien, Medievalist (a roundtable)

Tuesday, May 11, 3 p.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Chaucer

Thursday, May 13, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien and Se Wyrm

Thursday, May 13, 3 p.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Medicinal Medieval World: Illness and Healing in Middle-earth

Friday, May 14, 1 p.m. EDT
Medieval World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies

Saturday, May 15, 11:00 a.m. EDT
Tolkien’s Paratexts, Appendices, Annals, and Marginalia (a roundtable)

Popular Culture Association

From June 2 – 4, we have the PCA (Popular Culture Association) conference.  Conference registration for non-presenters will open on May 1st here.  The Tolkien Studies Area is organized by Robin Reid.

Tolkien Studies I:  Environmental Ethics and Leadership Theory in Tolkien’s Legendarium
Wednesday, June 2, 11:00 a.m. – 12:20  EDT

  • Amber Lehning. Elf-Songs and Orc-Talk: Environmental Ethics in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, from Beowulf to Peter Jackson
  • Michael Joseph Urick. Theories of Leadership in Middle-earth
  • James Eric Siburt.  Rendering Visible an Understanding of Power in Leadership in Tolkien’s Creation Mythology: Ainulindalë and Akallabêth

Tolkien Studies II:  Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Tolkien’s Legendarium
Wednesday, June 2, 12:30-1:50 p.m. EDT

  • Meaghan Scott.  The Nimrodel and Silverlode: Lothlórien as a Secondary World
  • Rebecca Power, Tolkien’s Penchant for Alliteration: Using XML to Analyze The Lay of Leithian
  • Anna Smol,  Tolkien’s New Old English Genre: “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth”
  • Kristine Larsen, “I am no man”: Game of Thrones’ Lyanne Mormont as Borrowed Tolkienian Canonicity

On June 2, I’ll be talking about what critic Chris Jones calls “New Old English” poetry and how Tolkien’s “Homecoming” and other poems can be viewed as part of an alliterative verse history of the twentieth century.

Tolkien Studies III:  A Roundtable on Tolkien Reception Studies
Wednesday, June 2, 2:00 – 3:20 p.m. EDT
Presenters: Maria Alberto, Cordeliah G. Logsdon, Dawn Walls-Thumma, Cait Coker, Robin Anne Reid

Tolkien Studies IV:  Race and Racisms in Tolkien’s Secondary and Our Primary Worlds
Thursday, June 3, 3:30-4:50 p.m. EDT

  • Robert Tally.  More Dangerous and Less Wise: Racial Hierarchies and Cultural Difference in Tolkien’s World
  • Alastair Whyte.  Scales of malice: The banal evil of Middle-earth’s tyrant-history
  • Craig N. Franson. Where Shadows Lie”: Middle-earth and Neo-fascist Metapolitics
  • Robin Anne Reid.  Race in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings And in Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor

Tolkien Studies V:  Tolkien’s Fandoms
Thursday, June 3, 5:00-6:20 p.m. EDT

  • M. Lee Alexander. “Heroes of the North”: Tolkien and Finnish Fandom
  • Dawn Walls-Thumma. The Pillar and the Vastness: A Longitudinal View of the Tolkien Fanfiction Fandom
  • Cordeliah G. Logsdon. “What care I for the hands of a king?“: Tolkien, Fanfiction, and Narratives of the Self
  • Maria Alberto.  Mathom Economies? Fan Gift Culture and A Tolkien Fic Exchange Event 

Tolkien Studies VI:  A Roundtable on the Future of Tolkien Studies
Friday, June 4, 11:00-12:20 EDT
Presenters:  Craig N Franson, Rebecca Power, James Eric Siburt, Amber Lehning, Anna Smol, Kristine Larsen

On June 4, I’ll be taking part in this roundtable to discuss the study of Tolkien and 20th and 21st century poetry.

Tolkien Studies VII:  The Council of Tolkien Studies
Friday, June 4, 12:30-1:50 p.m. EDT
Presenter: Robin Reid.

Tolkien Society

Tolkien Society Summer Seminar

Looking ahead to July, we have the weekend Tolkien Seminar sponsored by the Tolkien Society, which always takes place just before the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds. This year, the Tolkien Society has expanded its Seminar series to include three seminars; one has already taken place last February, and the Summer Seminar is scheduled for July 3-4. The theme of the Summer Seminar is Tolkien and Diversity. The call for papers has just passed, so we still have to wait to see the schedule, but the place to keep up to date is on the Summer Seminar page. These talks will be free for all.

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds

The IMC at Leeds will be online this year again. Registration is required, with a deadline of May 10, and the full program is available here. The organizer of the Tolkien sessions, to be held July 8-9, is Dr. Andrew Higgins, and you can find details and updates about the Tolkien papers on his blog, Dr. Wotan’s Musings.

J.R.R. Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches
Thursday, July 8. 14:15-15:45 BST

  • Jan A. Kozak. Borders on the Otherworld: Warrior Maidens, Mounds, and Ancestral Swords in The Lord of the Rings and in the Old Norse Hervar Saga
  • Brian Egede-Pedersen. Flocking to the Serpent Banner – Decolonising The Lord of the Ring‘s Workshop’s Table-Top War Game
  • Joel Merriner. The Raven and the Map: Decoding Gyözö Vida’s A Gyürük Ura
  • Anna Smol. Tolkien’s Alliterative Styles in “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son”

My talk on July 8 will analyze Tolkien’s expert composition of alliterative verse in various styles, from colloquial and informal to highly stylized verse, following the Sievers scheme of alliterative patterns.

Tolkien and Diversity: A Round Table Discussion
Thursday, July 8. 19:00-20:30 BST
Participants: Deidre Dawson, Sultana Raza, Christopher Vaccaro    

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (I)
Friday, July 9. 14:15-15:45 BST

  • Andrzej Wicher. The Importance of Geographical Directions in the construction of Tolkien’s Middle-earth
  • Aurelie Bremont. King Elessar in Middle-earth: Strawberry Fields Forever?
  • Kristine Larsen. “Carry on My Wayward Sonne (and Moon)”: Common Cosmological Quirks in the Norse Fimbul-Winter and Tolkien’s Early Legendarium
  • Gaëlle Abalea. Political Climate in the “The Fall of Numenor”

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (II)
Friday, July 9. 16:30-18:00 BST

  • Helen Lawson. The Myth of the Mother – Retracing the Roots of Motherhood in Tolkien’s Decaying Middle-earth
  • Sara Brown. Situating Middle-earth: Reconsidering Tolkien’s Relationship with the Landscape
  • Andrew Higgins. Language Invention, Climate and Landscapes in Tolkien’s Gnomish Lexicon
  • Sultana Raza. How Alan Lee’s Landscapes Outline the Climate of Plot and Tolkien’s Mind-scapes

There will also be a Tolkien Sessions business meeting at some point during the conference week.

Kalamazoo spring 2014

Trying to work out time zones in your area? This has become an important question with these online sessions around the world. I have found this Time Zone Converter to be very handy when trying to figure out what time of day a virtual paper in another country will be given, and you can find lots of other guides and converters online.

Tolkien conference sessions don’t end with the IMC at Leeds in early July. There is more to come later this summer and fall — such as Mythcon and Oxonmoot. Stay tuned for more details later this summer, and feel free to point out in the comments other conferences this May – July season that you’re interested in.

Tolkien Studies, from ancient Greek to modern literature

09 Friday Apr 2021

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This week offers quite a range of talks by Tolkien scholars, and all online of course, so even if we can’t meet in person, we can attend sessions that would normally be out of reach.

The Tolkien at Vermont conference is back this year with a one-day event on the theme of Tolkien and the Classics. The keynote speaker is the Very Rev. John Houghton, who will be giving a talk on “Tolkien’s calques of classicisms: Who Knew Elvish Latin, what did the Rohirrim read, and why was Bilbo cheeky?”

Other papers at the conference trace Tolkien’s connections to Virgil, Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, and more. The conference takes place on Saturday, April 10, from 8:30 – 6:00 EST, free on Zoom. Check out the full schedule and how to request the Zoom link on the Tolkienists.org website.

Also on Saturday, April 10, the Tolkien Society AGM will feature Professor Verlyn Flieger as the annual guest speaker, talking about “Waiting for Earendel.” Members of the Society will get a Zoom link, but the general public will be able to watch on Facebook and YouTube. Go to the Tolkien Society announcement for more details.

From the classics to modern literature: earlier this week, Signum University sponsored an author chat with Dr. Holly Ordway, author of the recently published Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth beyond the Middle Ages. Dr. Ordway discusses the importance of acknowledging Tolkien’s interest in contemporary literature. You can find this Signum Symposium on YouTube.

Free Tolkien Society Seminar

11 Thursday Feb 2021

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Although we’re probably all weary with our various restrictions and lockdowns, one positive consequence of moving conferences online is that they are now open to a far greater audience. The Tolkien Society, which in the past has sponsored a seminar day in Leeds in July, is now offering Seminar 1 (how many will there be?) on Saturday, February 13. It will be free for everyone either through Zoom or live-streamed on the Tolkien Society YouTube channel. The theme of the Seminar is “21st-century receptions of Tolkien,” and the presentations will be given by both non-academics and researchers. Go to the Tolkien Society Seminar 2021 page for the schedule of talks and information about how to tune in. If you’re in North America, prepare to get up early on Saturday!

Tolkien Society meetings go online

06 Saturday Jun 2020

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Most of our spring and summer conferences on Tolkien and on medieval studies have been cancelled, so this is a bit of good news for those who are thirsty for some discussion of Tolkien. Two of the Tolkien Society’s meetings will be available online. While we’d all like to be there in person, the online meetings will give us, especially those of us who wouldn’t normally be able to go to Leeds or Oxford, a chance to listen in on the discussions and participate in some activities.

The Tolkien Society Seminar, usually held in Leeds the day before the International Medieval Congress, will have a daylong slate of papers presented on Zoom on Saturday, July 4. The theme of the Seminar is adapting Tolkien, and the papers will discuss art, music, language, and science. Included in the day’s presentations is a panel discussion paying tribute to Christopher Tolkien’s contributions to Tolkien studies. You can find more details and a schedule of presentations here: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/seminar-2020/.

Oxonmoot, usually held in Oxford in September, will also go online this year on September 18-20. Oxonmoot Online will not only feature a series of talks but will also attempt to reproduce many of the other activities that usually take place on this weekend. Details are still being worked out, so keep checking this link: https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonmoot-online/ for further news.

Registration and further details will be available at the above Tolkien Society links. Don’t miss this opportunity to attend, no matter where you are!