Given the Tolkien Society’s theme this year of it was a particular delight to appear with Elise, one of my dearest friends and a longtime collaborator on applying the work of the Digital Tolkien Project to teaching Tolkien to both kids and adults (one of the topics we discuss ..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 is my favorite, though I certainly enjoy . What I really appreciate is how decent and nonviolent, even though they are good at it when absolutely necessary, the charaters are and also the enduring friendships. is basically a master class in non-toxic masculinity. I think I picked up on that even when I was small and that’s why it is a story that sticks.… Tolkien Studies area — or register and listen to the full s ..read more

is on a sabbatical. Please come back this September! Have a lovely summer, everyone. I’ll see you this autumn! Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic read your email, and in conference hosted by the at the University of Glasgow. case I plan to respond. Realistically, you may not hear from me until September — but rest assured that I am not ignoring you. If you need to reach me (and can live with a delayed response!), please send email to at the domain you’re visiting right now ..read more

sabbatical” from the on-going updating and maintenance of Tolkienists​.org has lasted rather longer than I expected, prolonged (despite my best efforts) by months (and months!) of long-COVID. Mercifully, I’ve been prescribed an ongoing low-dosage course of Naltrexone, which is helping with the brain fog, at least. It hadn’t really had much effect on the , but at least I’ve been able to work fairly productively over the past few weeks. So thank you for your patience. More, anon.… unanswered e‑mail messages that have stacked up over the past year and a half or two. And then, finally, I ..read more

… Old Man Willow’s behavior, however, suggests that, rather than being a symbol for mourning, he can become a source of mourning and, as such, he falls into a category of deadly plants like the once ill-famed upas tree.… This is a widespread variety of tree, , which can be found from Africa all the way across to the western Pacific.… Travelers’ tales reported that the plant gave off a kind of noxious fume which poisoned the landscape for 10 miles around, leaving the vicinity empty save for the bones of unwary animals and people ..read more

the most distant single In Old English, Earendel is a personal name, but it also can mean ever before seen. And, while the star’s technical designation is WHL0137-LS, they gave it a much catchier name: Earendel.  The Lord of the Rings” series and The Silmarillion,” might already find this name familiar.  , Eärendil is a half-elven character who travels the seas carrying a jewel, a ..read more

, the star-namers did have Tolkien in mind. Earendel was the name for the morning star (Venus) which Tolkien found in Old English poetry and which inspired him to create the character, originally of the same name, in . In his later work he took to spelling it Eärendil, and that’s how it appears in the published books. (The diaeresis over the a” is to remind you they’re two separate vowels, not a diphthong ..read more

, the star-namers did have Tolkien in mind. Earendel was the name for the morning star (Venus) which Tolkien found in Old English poetry and which inspired him to create the character, originally of the same name, in . In his later work he took to spelling it Eärendil, and that’s how it appears in the published books. (The diaeresis over the a” is to remind you they’re two separate vowels, not a diphthong ..read more

by Peter Jackson was released. I couldn’t go to the cinema to watch it, but I remember doing it at a friend’s house a couple of months after the première. I loved it! The story, the special effects, the orcs, the elves, everything. After that, I asked my parents to buy me the books. From then on, there was no coming back. Nowadays I have a bookshelf with more than 60 Tolkien related books – including a collection of in different languages — maps, posters, paintings, figures, T‑shirts, and more ..read more

But I’m dismayed at how few books from more than twenty years made it through. If what I’ve been reading all these years isn’t fantasy, what is? And if this truly were a fair representation of the fantasy genre as it stands today, then perhaps I’ve been left behind and it’s something else I’m really interested in. Classic Fantasy” perhaps? Dunsany and Adams and Hughart, McKillip and Briggs, and a host of others absent here ..read more