Anna Smol: A Single Leaf

Tag: Mythopoeic Society

  • Talks on Tolkien: Dimitra Fimi on Folklore and “Sellic Spell”

    My weekly “Talks on Tolkien” series continues with a video presentation by Dimitra Fimi. Dr. Fimi was part of the Beowulf Launch Party organized by the Tolkien Society and Middle-earth Network last spring, when Tolkien’s Beowulf and other related texts were first published. Dr. Fimi’s talk is a little different from my previous video selections in that…

  • 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…

  • Roman Association of Tolkien Studies

    The international appeal of Tolkien was recently highlighted for me when I was informed that Italian Tolkien scholar Roberto Arduini had translated CF Cooper’s Mythcon reports for the Associazione Romana Studi Tolkieniani / Roman Association of Tolkien Studies. The post, “Premio a Verlyn Flieger: diario della Mythcon 44” is obviously written in Italian, which I…

  • Mythcon 44. Days 3-4: Multidisciplinary papers, awards, traditional entertainments, and an extended airport edition

    One of the features of Mythcon is that presenters come from many different disciplines, and on Sunday (July 14) I decided to take in some of the talks from fields outside the areas I typically work in. I started off the day listening to Andrew Higgins undertake “A Linguistic Exploration through Tolkien’s Earliest Landscapes.” Andrew’s…

  • 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…

  • 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…