Over on Twitter, Tom Hillman has started a thread of birthday wishes for preeminent Tolkien scholar, Professor Verlyn Flieger, and I would like to add my tribute here as well. I wanted to take a moment to wish Verlyn Flieger a happy birthday, and thank her not only for her decades of excellent work elevating Tolkien Studies, but also the example of graciousness and kindness she set in doing it. Happy birthday, my friend. #Tolkien #LordOfTheRings pic.twitter.com/xIJlxh0L7Z — Tom (@alas_not_me) February 24, 2023 I admire Dr. Flieger immensely, not only for her significant and essential work ..read more

The recent TV series Rings of Power has drawn attention to Tolkien’s stories of Númenor and of the making of the rings, both set in the Second Age of Middle-earth. As is usual with adaptations, the show has drawn increased attention to what Tolkien wrote, although plenty of scholars and fans have been commenting about Second Age stories well before Amazon announced its version. Still, there’s been an upsurge in Second Age discussions, and here are just a few. The Fall of Númenor, and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth, edited by Brian Sibley. HarperCollins, 2022. A couple of revi ..read more

If you’ve been to this site before, you’ll see that it now looks slightly different. I had kept my old blog design for ten years, but it’s time for a technical and visual upgrade for the new year. Please be patient while I tweak the images and new fonts and layouts on my site pages. Hope you like the new look ..read more

Over at my other website, Tolkien and Alliterative Verse, we’ve announced a new book forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2023: J.R.R. Tolkien, The Battle of Maldon together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, edited by Peter Grybauskas. For more information, check out this Woven Words blog post: https://tolkienalliterative.ca/2022/12/02/new-book-on-maldon-homecoming-and-more ..read more

I’ve just launched a new website designed as a research resource for anyone interested in Tolkien’s alliterative poetry: Tolkien and Alliterative Verse at https;//tolkienalliterative.ca. How much alliterative verse did Tolkien write? Check out our Descriptive Bibliography. What is alliterative verse? We’ve got Some Online Guides to Alliterative Metre to illustrate this medieval English style of poetry. What did Tolkien say about alliterative metre? Take a look at a few excerpts in Tolkien’s Notes on Alliterative Metre. My research assistants and I are still working on the site, adding informa ..read more

Thanks to my friend Robin A. Reid for compiling some of this information on hybrid and online Tolkien conferences in 2023. The hybrid conferences will allow in-person or virtual attendance and presentations. There is still time to submit proposals if you’re interested in giving a presentation! The list below is ordered according to deadlines for papers. The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023: The Mighty and Frail Númenor July 2, 2023 (Hybrid), The Hilton, Leeds, UK. Free Proposals, max. 300 words, for 20-minute presentations are due Friday 13 January 2023. According to the organizers, “The seminar ..read more

If you’re working on Tolkien, you might want to consider submitting a proposal for a talk at one of next year’s international medieval conferences. The deadlines are coming closer! Call for Papers, due August 31, for the IMC (International Medieval Congress) at the University of Leeds. Papers can be delivered in person or online. The conference will run from July 3-6, 2023. You can find the descriptions of proposed sessions and contact information here. The proposed sessions are: Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches Tolkien’s Medieval Entanglements Tolkien’s Work and Academic Networks ..read more

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 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 ..read more

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. 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 infor ..read more

A couple of conferences are coming up in the next few weeks with lots of discussion about a wide range of topics in Tolkien studies. Check out what people will be talking about in the Tolkien@UVM conference and the PCA Tolkien Studies area — or register and listen to the full sessions! The 18th Annual Tolkien at University of Vermont conference April 2, 2022 [hybrid conference] You can register and download a full program here. Keynote: The theme of this conference is The Idea of History in Tolkien’s Middle-earth and features Dr. Kristine Larsen as the keynote speaker. She will be talking abou ..read more