Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2024

Eglerio! This year The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow will again be sponsoring six Tolkien sessions at The International Medieval Congress at The University of Leeds from 1st to 4th July .  This continues the tradition started by our founder Professor Dimitra Fimi (whose vision and scholarship we are celebrating this summer!) and is my fourth year organising these sessions.  

We have a great line up of Tolkien scholars and students exploring many aspects of Tolkien and Middle-earth studies including several papers focused on the timely subject of this year's conference CRISIS 

Tolkien Medieval Roots and Modern Branches 

This year we have two sessions which address wider topics and new approaches to Tolkien's medievalism and works.  

Session 1 - Monday 1st July 2024: 11:115-12:45 GMT 

1) "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Tolkien's 1953 Lecture and Related Finding: Andoni Cossio, Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Vitoria-Gasteiz; University of Glasgow (Virtual) 

2) Gondor Calls for Aid: But Who Will Pay? Brian Egede-Pedersen, Independent Scholar

3) Eärendil's Mythopoeic Journeys - Anna Smol, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia

Session 2 - Monday 1st July 2024: 14:15-15:45 GMT 

1) Sub-Creation, Multi-Canon, or Unreliable Narrator: Mythopoeia in Action - Amira Ali Hassan Ali Abdullah, Independent Scholar

2)  'The king has got a crown again': Ruin as Hyperobject in Arda - Will Sherwood, University of Glasgow

3) Freezing the Frame on Crises in the Legendarium through the lens of Alan Lee - Sultana Raza, Independent Scholar

Tolkien's Medieval Sub-Creation in Crisis 

Monday 1st July: 16:30-18:00 GMT 

This session will examine different concepts of crisis in Tolkien studies. 

1) A Medievalist Myth-Making Crisis: Tolkien's Tychonic Cosmology - Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

2) Bree-folk were sympathetic, but…': Historical Precursors to Middle-Earth's Migration Crisis at the End of the Third Age - Christian Trenk, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

3) The Crisis of Arda Marred and How (Not) to Unmar It: The Ring, the Tongue, and the Tower as the New Wheel of Fortune, the New Tower of Babel, and the New World Tree - Cameron Bourquein, Independent Scholar

Racial Medievalism in Tolkien Studies: A Session Celebrating the Works of Professor Dimitra Fimi, Founder of Tolkien at Leeds

Tuesday 2nd July 2024: 11:15-12:45 GMT 

In this session we will celebrate the work and scholarship of our Tolkien at Leeds IMC founder and leading scholar and author of Tolkien and speculative literature Professor Dimitra Fimi whose ground-breaking 2008 book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits, won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies in 2010. Fimi’s evolving body of work has brought to light neglected aspects of Tolkien’s creativity and world-building, including the centrality of the Elves, the role of linguistic invention, and the relationships between race and material culture in Middle-earth 

1) Into the West: Wonders and Woes of Looking for 'Celtic' Inspirations in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien - Aurelie Bremont, Sorbonne Université, Paris

2) Teaching Song and Holiness: An Exploration of the Mystic and Syncretic Elements of Tolkien's Earliest Elvish Language Invention: Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar 

Tolkien at Leeds Business Meeting - 1pm-1:45pm GMT - 

To Join via Zoom: 

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Bodily Crises in Tolkien's Medievalism

There will be two sessions exploring crises/concerns of gender and bodily difference in Tolkien’s works including sexuality and disability.  Indicative areas to be examined include the role of bodies under physical duress, punishment, injury from battle or war, as well as bodies in transformation including prosthetics, spiritual transformation (good or evil) and how bodies and body transformation from Tolkien’s works are depicted in illustrations and in films and other media.

Session 1 - Weds 3rd July: 14:15-15:45 GMT 

1) Altered Bodies, Altered States in the 'Tale of Tinúviel' - Cami Agan, Oklahoma Christian University

2) Éowyn and/or Dernhelm: Tolkien's Paradoxical Gendering of Éowyn's Disguise Gavin Foster, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

3) The Torment of Maedhros and a Crisis of Mercy: Bodily Crises in Tolkien's Medievalism - Mercury Natis, Signum University, New Hampshire

Session 2 - Weds 3rd July: 16:30-18:00 GMT 

'Restless and uneasy...thin and stretched': The Ring, the Ringbearers, and Bodies in Psychological Crisis in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - Sara Brown, Signum University, New Hampshire

Bodily Transformations in Tolkien's Middle-Earth: The Metamorphosis of Elwing - Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College of New Jersey

'He was naked, lying as if in a swoon': Gazing Queerly at Frodo's Saintly Body in Crisis - Christopher Vaccaro, University of Vermont

Crisis in Researching Tolkien: The Annual Tolkien at Leeds Roundtable 

Weds 3rd July: 19:00-20:00 GMT 

We will end the 2024 Tolkien at Leeds Session with the annual roundtable - this year in response to the conferences overall theme a panel of Tolkien scholars will explore the current crises facing Tolkien teachers, academics, and researchers in Tolkien and Middle-earth studies.    

As always SODOM (The Society for the Drinking of Mead) Events and Fellowship throughout! 

On Saturday 6th July The Tolkien Society will be presenting Tolkien Society Hybrid Seminar 2024 – Tolkien’s Romantic Resonances at the Hilton Leeds City 

See you in Leeds this July! 

Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2023

Eglerio! This year The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow will be sponsoring six Tolkien sessions at The International Medieval Congress at The University of Leeds from 3-6 July 2023.  This continues the tradition started by our founder Dr.  Dimitra Fimi and is my third year organising these sessions.  

We have a great line up of Tolkien scholars and students exploring many aspects of Tolkien and Middle-earth studies including several papers focused on the subject of this year's conference Networks and Entanglements 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Questions of Adaptation and Authenticity: A Round Table Discussion 

Tuesday 4 July 2023: 19.00-20.00 GMT 

The sessions starts with our continuing Tolkien at Leeds roundtable series in which we will explore one of the most significant new adaptations of Tolkien's works, Amazon Prime's five season The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series. Participants will offer short presentations on some element of this series and how it is (or is not) in dialogue with Tolkien's texts and explore what this new adaptation develops or reveals in the expanding body of adaptive works based in some form on Tolkien's world-building. 

Participants will include Brian Egede-Pedersen (Independent Scholar, Nykøbing Falster), Mercury Natis (Independent Scholar, Worthing), and Kate Natishan (University of Virginia).

Tolkien's Work and Academic Networks at the University of Leeds

Wednesday 5 July 2023: 14.15-15.45 GMT 

J. R. R. Tolkien established his academic career at the University of Leeds, joining as a Reader in 1920, aged 28. By the time he left Leeds in 1925 he had established the University as a leader in Old Icelandic language and literature and developed a network of fellow academics and colleagues. Papers in this session will explore the work and networks developed while he was here at the University of Leeds. 

1) The Missing Letters that J.R.R. Tolkien Received from Derek J. Wilson and R.M. Wilson - New Research and Addendum to Further Notes on J.R.R. Tolkien's Photostats of The Equatorie of the Planets (MS Peterhouse 25) - Andoni Cossio, Facultad de Letras, Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Vitoria-Gasteiz 

2) 'An industrious little devil': Tolkien's Development of the Elvish Languages at Leeds, 1920-1925 - Dr. Andrew Higgins, Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow 

3) Leeds and the Medieval Foundation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 'Father Christmas' Letters - Dr. Kristine Larsen, Geological Sciences Department, Central Connecticut State University 

New Works, Networks, and Methods in Tolkien and Middle-earth Research

Wednesday 5 July 2023: 16.30-18.00 GMT 

Papers in this session will explore some of the new methods and critical networks of academic research that are being applied to both Tolkien and Middle-earth studies and what they are revealing about the continuing academic dialogue and discourse around Tolkien and his works. 

1) Tolkien Studies and the 'Theological Turn' - Mitchell Kooh, Department of English, University of Notre Dame, Indiana 

2) Queer Time and Space in Tolkien's Middle-earth -Yvette Kisor, School of Humanities & Global Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey 

3) Reading Tolkien's First Age through the Lens of Michel de Certeau - Cami Agan, Department of Language & Literature, Oklahoma Christian University 

4) Queer Phenomenology, Lesbian Ents, and the Future of Queer Tolkien Studies - Christopher Vaccaro, Department of English, University of Vermont 

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

Thursday 6 July 2023: 09.00-10.30 GMT 

This session will address wider topics and new approaches to Tolkien's medievalism ranging from source studies and theoretical readings to comparative studies (including Tolkien's legacy).

1) Riddles in the Mark: The Usage of 'Riddle' in Book III of The Lord of the Rings as Micro Level Interlacing - Christian Trenk, Theologische Fakultät, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt 

2) Dark are the Pathless Ways - Scott Hodgman, Department of Literature & Language, Signum University, New Hampshire 

3) 'This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party': Travel and the Quest Motif in Tolkien's Work - Eva Lippold, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Open University 

4) 'We swears on the precious': Oath-Making and Oath-Keeping in Tolkien - Literary Devices or Spiritual Statements? - Gaëlle Abaléa, Centre d’Etudes Médiévales Anglaises (CEMA), Sorbonne Université, Paris 

Tolkien's Medieval Entanglements

Thursday 6 July 2023: 11.15-12.45 GMT 

Throughout his life and academic work Tolkien explored and grappled with some of the most perplexing and interesting cruxes and entanglements of medieval literature and language. This sessions will explore some of these entanglements and how Tolkien sought potential solutions.

1) The Interlaced Entanglement of 'The King's Touch' - Amy Amendt-Raduege, Department of English, Western Washington University 

2) The Theme of Decay and Fall in Tolkien's Works and its Medieval Entanglements - Andrzej Wicher, Zakład Angielskiego Dramatu, Teatru i Filmu, Uniwersytet Łódzki 

3 Sam the Scop: The Entanglements of Poetry in Beowulf and The Lord of the Rings - Kirsten Ogilby, Institut for Engelsk, Germansk og Romansk, Københavns Universitet 

Tolkien at Leeds Business Meeting - 

Thursday 6 July 2023 - 1pm GMT - 2pm GMT (Esther Simpson 1.01) 

You can also join the meeting via Zoom at 1pm GMT 

Topic: Andrew Higgins' Zoom Meeting

Time: Jul 6, 2023 01:00 PM London

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Disentangling the Second Age of Tolkien's Middle-earth

Thursday 6 July 2023: 14.15-15.45 GMT 

In Tolkien's great masterwork The Lord of the Rings the Second Age of Middle-earth is a time remembered in poetry and the memories of such witnesses to history as Elrond and Galadriel. Papers in this session will explore this pivotal time in Tolkien's Middle-earth and can be in dialogue with the current Amazon Prime The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power an adaptation of this period of Tolkien's legendarium as well as the new volume The Fall of Numenor and Other Tales published by HarperCollins in November 2022. 

1) The Tale of Aldarion and Erendis: Not Just a Medieval Love Story - Dr. Sara Brown, Department of Language & Literature, Signum University, New Hampshire 

2 Out of the Great Sea: Of Elendil and Legends Old and New - S. R. Westvik, School of History, University College Dublin / Historisches Institut, Universität Potsdam 

3) Untangling the Second Age Tale of Years - James Tauber, Department of Literature & Language, Signum University, New Hampshire 

4) The Roads to Númenor: Navigating Tolkien's Mythopoeic Network - Clara Colin-Saïdani, Faculté Lettres et Langages, Nantes Université 

Before the conference on Sunday 2nd July The Tolkien Society is hosting a one day conference The Mighty and Frail Númenor which will be live and free at The Hilton, Leeds and hybrid - more information can be found here - https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2022/10/call-for-papers-tolkien-society-seminar-2023-the-mighty-and-frail-numenor/

As always SODOM fellowship and meading throughout! 

Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2022 - Full Schedule

 Eglerio!  Here is the full schedule of 2022 Tolkien at Leeds Sessions for this summer's conference.  

Thanks to our founder Dr. Dimitra Fimi the 2022 Tolkien at Leeds sessions are being sponsored by The Center for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow 

Before the IMC Conference Starts - The Tolkien Society will be hosting a one day seminar on Tolkien and the Gothic on Sunday 3rd July in Leeds - more information here 

Monday 4th July 11:15-12:45 GMT (Session 141) 

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

Moderator: Dr. Kristine Larsen,  Central Connecticut State University

'An Attempt to Re-Examine the Dialectic of the East and the West in Tolkien’s Selected Works' - Andrzej Wicher, Uniwersytet Łódzki

"Of Dust Motes, Trees, and Golden Flowers: Tolkien and Duns Scotus’ Haeccitas- Victoria-Holtz Wodzak, Viterbo University, Wisconsin

"Epistolary Glossopoesis: The Role of Early Reader and Author Responses in the Development of the Elvish Languages"  Dr. Andrew Higgins 

Monday 4th July 14:15-15:45 GMT (Session 241) 

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

Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins 

"The Revivalist Critic and the Alliterative Poet: An Unexpected Collaboration" Dr. Andoni Cossio, Universidad del País Vasco 

"Computing the Interlace Structure of The Lord of the Rings" James Tauber  Lancaster University

‘Pearls’ of Pearl: Medieval Appropriations in Tolkien’s Mythology - Dr. Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Monday 4 July 19:00-20:00 GMT (Session 441) 

Round Table Discussion: Tolkien As A Gateway to Interdisciplinary Teaching 

Moderator: Dr Andrew Higgins 

This round table 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. Short papers and discussions will explore how teachers have used the works of Tolkien as a gateway for students to explore and become passionate about other areas of study.

Scheduled participants: Deirdre Dawson, Dr. Jane Beal, Gaëlle Abaléa, Brian Egede-Pedersen, Dr. Dimitra Fimi 

Wednesday 6th July 9:00-10:30 GMT (Session 1033) 

Borders Between Life and Death in Tolkien's Legendarium 

Moderator: Dr. Sara Brown 

'Memories on Borders: On the Borders of Memory - Beleriand as Elegiac Landscape" Cami Agan Department of Language & Literature, Oklahoma Christian University  

"Beyond the Circle of the World" Amy Amendt-Raduege Department of English, Western Washington University

Undead or Undying: Limited of Immortality in Tolkien's Work'  Gaëlle Abaléa, Independent Scholar, Orléans

Wednesday 6th July 11:15-12:45 GMT (Session 1131) 

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

Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins 

'Tolkien’s Orphaned Heroes' - Deidre Dawson, Residential College in the Arts & Humanities, Michigan State University

'Chrononormativity and Queer Time: Crossing Temporal Borders in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth' Yvette Kisor, Humanities & Global Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey

‘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' Alke Haarsma-Wisselink, Independent Scholar, Zwolle

‘Lay your head in my lap’: Homoerotic Tension and Possibility on Mordor’s Border in The Lord of the Rings' Olivia-Kate Burgham, Independent Scholar, Ottawa

Thursday 7 July 2022 11:15-12:45 (GMT) Session 1641 

Crossing Borders in Middle-earth 

Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins 

"Light: The Key to Cross the Spatiotemporal Borders in J. R. R. Tolkien's Secondary World" Aslı Bülbül Candaş, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow 

"Interrogating the Liminal Space: Vampires and Werewolves in Middle-earth"  Dr. Sara Brown, Signum University 

"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)' Aurelie Bremont, Centre d’Etudes Médiévales Anglaises (CEMA), Sorbonne Université, Paris

Tolkien at Leeds IMC 2022 Business Meeting - TBD 

SODOM fellowship and meading throughout!  

LIVE Tolkien Sessions at Leeds 2022 - Feb 2022 Update

   

Tolkien sessions at Leeds IMC 2022 (4-7 July 2022) 

Eglerio! These sessions have now been announced and there will be a more detailed blog post coming! 

For now you can see the sessions and speakers here just put Tolkien in the Sessions search 

This year thanks to our founder Dr. Dimitra Fimi these sessions will be sponsored by Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at University of Glasgow

See you in Leeds! 

Eglerio! Tolkien Sessions at Leeds IMC 2021

Greetings all!  I hope all are doing well during these mad times.  In the darkest hours of lockdown and uncertainty I have kept in mind and heart that great Elvish war cry of Hurin during the Fifth Battle of Beleriand - Aurë Entuluva - Day Shall Come Again!   

As sadly has become the trend this year the Leeds International Medieval Congress will be held on line from 5-9 July 2021 and registration for the online conference will open in March 2021.

This is my first year of having the extreme honour to take over the mantle of organising the Tolkien Sessions for this conference from our visionary founder, scholar and writer Dr. Dimitra Fimi whose incredible work has established these Tolkien sessions at Leeds IMC has an integral part of Tolkien scholarship. 

I am so pleased that all the Tolkien Sessions that we submitted earlier this year have been accepted for the on-line conference and below please find the online schedule of Tolkien sessions and presenters.  

J.R.R. Tolkien: Medieval Roots and Modern Branches (Session 1721) 

Thursday 8 July 14:15-15:45 

Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins 

Borders on the Otherworld: Warrior Maidens, Mounds, and Ancestral Swords in The Lord of the Rings and in the Old Norse Hervar Saga -  Jan A. Kozak

Flocking to the Serpent Banner - Decolonising The Lord of the Ring's Workshop's Table-Top War Game - Brian Egede-Pedersen 

The Raven and the Map: Decoding Gyözö Vida's A Gyürük Ura (Joel Merriner) 

Tolkien's Alliterative Styles in The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (Anna Smol) 

Tolkien and Diversity: A Round Table Discussion - Thursday 8 July (19:00-20:30) (Session 1921) 

Moderator: Professor Yvette Kisor 

Participants: Deidre Dawson, Sultana Raza, Christopher Vaccaro    

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (I) - Friday 9 July (14:15-15:45) (Session 2212) 

Moderator: Dr. Sara Brown 

The Importance of Geographical Directions in the construction of Tolkien's Middle-earth (Andrzej Wicher) 

King Elessar in Middle-earth: Strawberry Fields Forever? (Aurelie Bremont) 

'Carry on My Wayward Sonne (and Moon)' Common Cosmological Quirks in the Norse Fimbul-Winter and Tolkien's Early Legendarium (Dr. Kristine Larsen) 

Political Climate in the 'The Fall of Numenor' (Gaëlle Abalea) 

Medieval Climates, Cosmologies and EcoSystems in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (II) Friday 9 July (16:30-18:00)  (Session 2312) 

The Myth of the Mother - Retracing the Roots of Motherhood in Tolkien's Decaying Middle-earth (Dr. Helen Lawson) 

Situating Middle-earth: Reconsidering Tolkien's Relationship with the Landscape (Dr. Sara Brown) 

Language Invention, Climate and Landscapes in Tolkien's Gnomish Lexicon (Dr. Andrew Higgins) 

How Alan Lee's Landscapes Outline the Climate of Plot and Tolkien's Mind-scapes (Sultana Raza)  

I will arrange the IMC Tolkien Sessions Business Meeting to discuss plans for the 2022 sessions during the week of this conference. 

So looking forward to seeing everyone including the Sacred Fellowship of the Society of Mead Drinkers (aka SODOM) this July in our virtual Leeds conference. 

Eglerio! Tolkien at Leeds IMC 2020 Sessions Announced

What a great opportunity for Dr. Wotan to resume his errant blogging with this announcement about the Tolkien at Leeds International Medieval Congress 2020 which I am co-organising this year with Dr. Dimitra Fimi.  Dr. Fimi has spent the last five years working valiantly and tirelessly to first establish and then organise these sessions at Leeds (you can read Dr. Fimi's roundup reports of the past conferences here: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 ). 

For the 2020 conference Dr. Fimi and I are organising the conference together so I can 'learn the ropes' to take over organising the conference in 2021 (big shoes to fill!).   For Tolkien at Leeds IMC 2020 Dr. Fimi and I are very pleased to announce that all 5 sessions on J.R.R. Tolkien that were proposed have been accepted: including three that will focus on the overall theme of this year's conference: borders.     

Here are the sessions titles and papers now with the scheduled dates and times.  

SESSION 104: 

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

Sponsor: School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow
Organiser: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar
Moderator/Chair: Deirdre Dawson, Independent Scholar
Session Day/Time: Monday 6 July (11:15-12:45)  

A Preliminary History of Deadly Splinters
Victoria Holtz-Wodzak,  Viterbo University Wisconsin

Tolkien Alliterative Style in The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son 
Anna Smol, Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia

Dewdrop, Apple and Pomegranate: Three Symbols of the Ring Bearing in Czerniawski's Wyprawa
Joel Merriner, University of Plymouth UK

Foraging for Sources: Sir Orfeo as the Origin of Medieval Romance Topoi Present in Mirkwood
Andoni Cossio, Universidad del Pais Vasco

Session 905: 

New Sources and Approaches to Tolkien's Medievalism - A Round Table Discussion

Sponsor: School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow
Organiser and Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar
Session Day/Time: Tuesday 7 July (19:00-20:00)   

Participants:

Leo Carruthers, Centre d'Etudes Medievales Anglaises (CEMA), Sorbonne Université

Dr. Dimitra Fimi, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow

Kristine Larsen, Geological Sciences Department, Central Connecticut State University

Thijs Porck, Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Universiteit Leiden

This roundtable discussion will focus on works by J.R.R. Tolkien published during the last few years, with a particular emphasis on the latest posthumous publication of Tolkien's Lost Chaucer, edited by John M Bowers (Oxford University Press).

SESSION 1536: 

Borders in Tolkien's Medievalism I     

Sponsor: School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow 
Organiser: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar 
Moderator/Chair: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University 
Session Day/Time: Thursday 9 July (9:00-10:30)  

The Liminality of Tolkien's Non-Human Species 
Dr. Andrzej Wicher, Uniwersytet Lodz 

Undead of Undying: Limits of Immortality in Tolkien's Work 
Gaëlle Abaléa, Sorbonne Université Paris 

Implementing the Liminal Space: Vampires and Werewolves  
Sara Brown, Independent Scholar 

Warrior Maidens, Mounds and Ancestral Swords in LOTR and in the Old Norse Hervarar Saga Jan A. Kozák, University of Bergen, Norway

SESSION 1636: 

Borders in Tolkien's Medievalism II 

Sponsor: School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow 
Organiser: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar 
Moderator/Chair: Sara Brown, Independent Scholar  
Session Day/Time:  Thursday 9 July (11:15-12:45)  

Tolkien's Taliska: Language Invention on Linguistic Borders
Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar

Linguistic Borders, Boundaries and Bridges in Tolkien's Writing
Deirdre Dawson, Independent Scholar

Borders of Mind and Nation in Tolkien's Works
Ellen Duncan, Independent Scholar

SESSION 1736: 

Borders in Tolkien's Medievalism III

Sponsor: School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow  
Organiser and Moderator/Chair: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar
Session Day/Time: Thursday 9 July (14:15-15:45)  

Boundaries and Marches: Marked and Unmarked Edges in Tolkien's Maps
Erik Mueller-Harder, Independent Scholar

The Walls of the World and The Voyage of the Evening Star: The Complex Borders of Medieval Geocentric Cosmology
Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

The Limits of Subcreation
Lars Konzack, Institute for Kommunikation, Copenhagen Universitet

Time-Travel, Astronomy and Magic Mirrors: The Borders between 'Reality' and 'Otherworlds' within Middle-earth
Aurelie Bremont, Sorbonne Université Paris

50th International Congress of Medieval Studies - Tolkien at Kalamazoo Round-Up

Mae Govannen!

Well its has been over a month since I returned from the fantastic International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo Michigan (May 14-17), which was my second year of attendance.   I returned from Kalamazoo and went right into the final stages of finishing the manuscript of a new edition of Tolkien's A Secret Vice which I have co-edited with Dr. Dimitra Fimi and will be published by HarperCollins in Feb 2016 as well as the start of the 2015 Glyndebourne Festival (a.k.a my day job!).

The Tolkien at Kalamazoo Beowulf Dramatic Reading Group

This year's conference was really brilliant - the seminars, the papers, the colleagues I got to talk to and the fun of being part of a dramatic reading of the prose version of Tolkien's 2014 Beowulf in a brilliant adaptation by Thom Foy.



It was also quite exciting to give my second paper at Kalamazoo (now as Dr. Andrew Higgins!) - which this year occurred on the last day of the conference.  Here is a brief outline of the Tolkien related seminars/roundtables that I attended and papers given.

The first session kicked off the exploration of Tolkien brilliantly with 'Tolkien as Translator and Translated'.

• Sandra Hartl, a Phd student from Otto-Friedrich-University, Bamberg, gave a very interesting paper on Tolkien's use of Classical Sources (the subject of her PhD), with a specific focus on parallels between the Classical and Medieval Orfeo story and Tolkien's Beren and Luthien.  Sandra focused on Tolkien's early and continued interests in the Greek and Roman works, which does not receive as much attention in Tolkien scholarship as his interest in Northern literature.  Sandra drew out some interesting parallels between Ovid and Virgil's treatment of the Orfeo story and the Medieval version, which Tolkien himself translated and supervised A.J. Bliss's B Lit thesis on in 1947 (Chronology, p. 313 - does that still exist I wonder!).  Sandra's research is very interesting and I look forward to seeing more of her treatment of the classical sources Tolkien dipped his ladle in for his 'soup of story'. 

• Maria Volkonskaya explored Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  This paper focused on how Tolkien's modern English translation of Sir Gawain echoed the quality of the types of words that the Gawain poet used in the original poem.  Maria started her paper by indicating that in the glossary of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (compiled by Tolkien and E.V. Gordon) - of the 2,650 words - 250 of them are of Scandinavian origin and another group  are derived from French.  The French words are used by the Gawain poet for stylistic reasons such as for descriptive passages like when the Green Knight enters.  In this description of the Green Knight the beautiful and the grotesque are shown and emphasised through the poets choice of language.  The poet uses French words to describe the Green Knight's garments; whereas the most grotesque elements of the Green Knight are described using English or, in a few cases, Scandanavian words. The Green Knight's language itself is brutish, native and local containing many words with Scandanavian influence.  However, when Gawain is at the Castle of Sir Bertilak there are more instances of words with French borrowings.  Maria explored one line in the original Sir Gawain (ll. 224-225) where English and French words clash -  'Wher is', he said, 'the governour of this gyng" (SGGK, ll. 224-225).  Which Tolkien translates as 'Now where is', he said, 'the governor of this gathering' (Gawain, p. 23) maintaining the sense of the French and English words for 'governor' and 'gyng/gathering'

The showpiece of the first day of the conference was definitely the round-table 'Christopher Tolkien as Medieval Scholar'.  The dream-team partipants of this round-table were Douglas A. Anderson, John D. Rateliff and Brad Eden, who each spoke on aspects of the body of academic scholarship that Christopher Tolkien has done in his own right.  

• Douglas Anderson (who originally suggested this idea as a round-table for the conference) focused his talk on Christopher Tolkien's work in 1950-1960 and then again in 1969 with fellow Inkling Neville Coghill on scholarly editions from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales of The Pardoner's Tale (1958), The Nun Priest's Tale (1959) and ten years after them The Man of Laws Tale (1969).  These editions came out of Coghill's publishing of a popular edition of The Canterbury Tales with Harrap, and Coghill asked Christopher to work with him on these two editions.  Doug spoke on Christopher's work on these volumes and showed us various editions of them, 

• John D Rateliff started his talk by making the observation that up to 1974 Christopher Tolkien was known as a Medieval scholar and had he not worked on The Silmarillion (1977) and the 12-year labour of  publishing his father's mythology in The History of Middle-earth series, that is how we would think of him today.  John very kindly posted a written version of his talk on Christopher Tolkien's The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise. What I got out of John's excellent talk is that you can see the editorial blueprint for how Christopher structured The History of Middle-earth in the editorial work he did on Heidrek, which was one of a series of books in Nelson's Icelandic Texts.   

• Brad Eden gave a really intriguing talk by comparing how Christopher worked on and edited his father's mythology by suggesting that a similar use of texts was employed in stories of the Saints especially the Life of the Anglo-Saxon Saint Guthlac. 

The final session of the first day of the conference was a session on  'Tolkien and Victorian Medievalism' with three excellent papers exploring different aspects of this topic.  

• Sharin Schroeder (National Taipei University of Technology) focused her paper on Tolkien's Oxford lectures on Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale and key elements he highlighted in these lectures that also suggest Tolkien's own thoughts on the folk-tale elements of Chaucer's tale, which she suggested have their origins in the work of 19th century folklorists.  She also drew some interesting parallels between Chaucer and Tolkien as story-makers.  Her paper sign posted the opportunity for more work on the Tolkien's own scholarship of Chaucer.  

• Amanda Giebfried (St Louis University) gave a paper on 'Maps and Landscape in William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Her paper focused on the trips William Morris made in the 1870's to Iceland and explored how Morris's description of landscape in his own fictional works, which would subsequently influence Tolkien, was inspired by the actual journeys through the landscape of Iceland and the descriptions he used in these journals (which are brilliant adventure novels in their own right!). 

• The final highly-anticipated paper of this session was by acclaimed Tolkien scholar Jane Chance (Rice University) who spoke on 'Tolkien's Victorian Fairy-Story Beowulf'.  Jane's paper suggested that Tolkien's work 'Sellic Spell' (included in the 2014 edition of Tolkien's Beowulf) was his re-writing of the Beowulf story as a fairy-tale.  In this work Tolkien turns the tragedy of Beowulf into a 'eucatastrophe' with a happy ending, the dragon never comes.  Jane drew out interesting parallels in 'Sellic Spell' to Andrew Lang and William Morris and also explored some of the more 'fairy-tale' elements of this work (including magic swords and rings) and suggested that in this version of the Beowulf story 'Bee-wulf' is much more like an Arthur figure.  I thought one of the most interesting points, of many,   Jane made is a need in Tolkien scholarship to take into consideration all the many projects (academic and creative) that Tolkien was working on during the writing on a key work (like 'Sellic Spell') and how they may have influenced each other.  Clearly Tolkien did not work on projects in isolation and an analysis of any work required looking at all the other projects he was working on during this time - an interesting point that I will add to my own methodology in researching Tolkien.   

On the next day of the conference The Tales After Tolkien Society held a round-table 'From Frodo to Fidelma:Medievalism in Popular Genres'.  

Kris Swank of Pima Community College and a Signum/Mythgard Institute Tolkien scholar and colleague gave a brilliant talk on 'Black in Sherwood: Race and Ethnicity in Robin Hood Media' in which she explored how the saracens of the Robin Hood legend are depicted in modern versions of the story.  Kris made the point that in modern adaptions the saracen 'other' is portrayed either as the strange foreigner or as the integrated muslim who is part of the band of merrymen but is still marked as 'other' through their dress and the following of strange customs.  She also explored how some of Robin's Merry Men have been portrayed in modern movie and televisions adaptations by people of colour.  

I thought the most interesting example Kris brought out here was the film Robin and The Seven Hoods with Frank Sinatra where Sammy Davis played Will Scarlet.  In this film the rather randy Maid Marion (played by Ava Gardener) seduced all of Robin's Merry Men except for Will Scarlet because he was being played by a black actor.  This was a brilliant presentation and I believe Kris is publishing related articles in an upcoming publication of The Tales After Tolkien Society. 

There were other interesting papers in this roundtable - next to Kris's the standout for me was John Marino of Maryville University called 'The Zombie Apocalypse in the Classroom' which related how John had used a simulated zombie attack to teach his students about survival and what is was like to live in the 14th century during the plague - very cool!   

The concluding day of the 2015 Congress had two very strong Tolkien sessions. 

On Sunday at 8:30am I was very pleased to see a full-room for the session 'Tolkien as Linguist and Medievalist'.  The panel for this session was made up of myself, Eileen Marie Moore, John D. Rateliff and Kris Swank.

My paper 'The First Red Book: An Exploration of Tolkien's Exeter College Essay Book' explored some of the earliest academic essays Tolkien wrote in his red covered Exeter College Essay book (the first Red Book).  My analysis of these essays, which were all written around 1913-1915, suggested links to the creative and intertwined myth-making and language invention Tolkien was developing at the time and suggests that these essays, just one source of Tolkien's own early academic work, gives us interesting insights into  understanding how Tolkien used elements of his own academic training in 'lit' and 'lang' in his own early mythopoeia and glossopoeia work. 

Eileen Marie-Moore gave an excellent paper on 'Inter-Elvish Miscommunication and the Fall of Gondolin' in which she explored one strand of the fate of the fall of Gondolin coming from the incursion of the speech of mortal interlopers into the 'nexus' of Elvish languages and dialects that were spoken in Gondolin.  Eileen gave some really intriguing examples of how this miscommunication was achieved through the blending of tongues, with a special focus on the Dark Elf Eol. 

John D. Rateliff's paper 'A Scholar of the Old School: Tolkien's Editing of Medieval Manuscripts' convincingly showed that contemporary criticism of Tolkien's process of editing Medieval manuscripts, as with the current 2014 edition of Beowulf, does not take into account how editors of Tolkien's own time thought about the actual process of editing manuscripts. Tolkien and his contemporary editors had a confidence in their knowledge of the texts and felt they had the philological knowledge to be able to change the scribes (not the original writers) emendations if they did not agree with them.  As is evidenced by Tolkien's edition of Exodus and Beowulf, Tolkien would emend certain passages and not tell the reader.  John highlighted the P. J. Lucas review of Tolkien's Exodus, which indicated that Tolkien's presentation leaves much to be desired.  John also made the point that Tolkien felt that the editor of a text should be invisible 'the trail of the passing editor' and that distractions should be removed from the text so that the work was a work of poesis or art.  The key point was that Tolkien had the confidence to do this and John's paper really helped me to understand the way Tolkien presents texts like Exodus, Sir Gawain and Beowulf to the modern reader.  

Kris Swank's 'Immram Roverandom' has to be one of my favs from the conference.  In this tour-de-force work of Tolkien scholarship Kris examined a recognisably Irish strain in Tolkien's 1925 children's story Roverandom, with a special focus on the immram, a class of Old Irish tales concerning a hero's sea journey to the Otherworld which were written in the Christian era but contains elements of Irish mythology. Kris's excellent paper identified key elements of the immram in Tolkien's Roverandom showing Tolkien's interest and use of Irish myth and legend.  Kris has an article coming out on this subject in the next volume of Tolkien Studies which I can not wait to read.  

The last Tolkien session of the conference brought us back to Tolkien's work on Beowulf.

• John R. Holmes's (Franciscan University of Steubenville) paper "That Does Not Attract Me": Lang/Lit. and the Structure of Tolkien's Beowulf Commentary' focused specfically on Tolkien's commentary on Beowulf, drawn from his Oxford lectures, which show the working of the tutorial mind who both knows and is trying to train students in framing  arguments.  Holmes gave several interesting examples of how in the commentary Tolkien follows a particular argument to its conclusion only to show that it is actually a dead-end, in other words showing students how to build an argument to ultimately show its weakness - a key focus of an Oxford student's preparation for their exams. 

• I was really looking forward to the next paper 'Can a Geat Be A Knight? Tolkien's Use of Chivalric Terminology in His Translation of Beowulf' by Professor Brian McFadden (Texas Tech University).  Tolkien's use of the term 'knight' in his prose translation of Beowulf has puzzled me since my first reading it last May.  Professor McFadden's made the point that the use of the word 'knight' in Beowulf was not unique to Tolkien and he been used in at least nine earlier translations - including John Earle's 'Deed's of Beowulf', which Tolkien first read as an undergraduate at Exeter College, Oxford (the one that starts of with 'What Ho! We have Heard'). McFadden suggested that like the word 'Elf' which he explored in On Fairy-stories, Tolkien was attempting to recover the word 'knight' to its original meaning which was connected with the Anglo-Saxon words of thane, retainer, earl, secg, leod, rinc.  McFadden pointed to Tolkien's notes on translation in the Clark-Hall prose translation of Beowulf when he explored the use of more contemporary words to signify older ideas...which yours truly needs to re-read! 

• Amy Amendt-Raduege focused her Beowulf exploration on 'The Weird Word Wyrd' examining the use of 'wyrd' ('fate')  in Beowulf.  Amy explored that the word 'wyrd' appears 12 times in Beowulf and is the subject of two of Tolkien's commentaries, with a record seven pages of commentary by Tolkien on 'wyrd'.  Amy recognised the actual meaning of wyrd is a crux in itself and examined several sources drawn from Old Norse and Jacob Grimm's link of wyrd to the Christian God.  Amy's talk made me go back and re-read Tolkien's very interesting notes on Wyrd in Beowulf!  

In addition to the Tolkien focused seminars and papers there were also some brilliant seminars focused on both 'lit' and 'lang'.  Of the most interesting for me was 'Words and Verses' sponsored by Society for Medieval Germanic Studies which included a paper by Dr. Nelson Goering of Oxford University (a brilliant Tolkien scholar as well) who gave a really interesting paper which looked at the metrical structure of the Word-Foot Theory of Old Germanic Meter.  Nelson is doing really brilliant work on Germanic metre and it is an area I am trying to read-up on and become more proficient in.

And the book rooms at Kalamazoo did not disappoint!  The list of books I purchased included two volumes that I am sure Tolkien read.  First The Principles of English Etymology by Rev. Walter W. Skeat in an Oxford Clarendon Press edition of 1887.  Secondly, Tolkien's former student G. Turville-Petre's Origins of Icelandic Literature (1953) which includes in the introduction 'J.R.R.Tolkien has also made many useful suggestions'

So another brilliant year of Tolkien exploration, discussion, debate and fun at Kalamazoo!  Based on the Tolkien at Kalamazoo Business meeting I think 2016 will be even more exciting (more to come on that!).  

Now it is on to the Leeds International Medieval Congress in July where I am very excited to be giving a paper on the panel 'Celtic Literature in Tolkien's Medievalism' organised  by Dr. Dimitra Fimi - in which I will be exploring the 'lit' and 'lang' of Welsh Princesses and Cats in Tolkien's Tale of Tinuviel - having fun digging back into the Lost Tales materials!

I also recently posted an extended version of the Francis Thompson paper I gave this March at The Enchanted Edwardians Conference in Bristol to Academia.edu here.

Namárië for now!