Anna Smol

A square image with a black background. Text reads, ”Athrabeth episode 92”, “Your new cave-orite episode!”, “Lesser-trod Paths with Dr. Kristine Larsen”. There are three photos, Dr. Kristine Larsen seated in front of four cardboard cut outs of Thrandiul, Gil-galad, Elrond, and Legolas, with the elves wearing brightly colored feather boas; Jude Vais smiling and wearing glasses; and Stef Midlock smiling wearing a purple scarf.

Join us this month for a Lesser-trod Paths episode with the amazing Dr. Kristine Larsen! We chat about the caves of Tolkien’s legendarium and explore his real-world inspirations like Cheddar Gorge. Thank you for joining us, Kristine! You rock! 

athrabeth.simplecast.com/episodes/epi...

When did the tiny fairy trope begin? In today’s piece (part 1 of 2) I’m considering this question, looking at the work of Minor White Latham and Katharine Briggs in the 20th century. In my next piece I’ll bring us up to date with current research. 🧚
dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/when-did-t...

I did a thing!

Thanks! Your book is mentioned.

I cite one of your articles!

I’m honoured to have a chapter in this volume on visualization, both on Tolkien’s visualizations as he composed his stories and on ways that viewers can imaginatively engage with his invented worlds through illustrations. I can’t wait to read the whole book!

Bill 12 misses the real cost crisis in Nova Scotia universities - Halifax Examiner The bill directs its strongest tools toward academic restructuring while bypassing scrutiny of how universities are funded, governed, and managed financially. If sustainability is the objective, then ...

Bill 12 misses the real cost crisis in Nova Scotia universities www.halifaxexaminer.ca/commentary/b...

The Cambridge Companion to World-Gothic Literature | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

I'm excited to share that you can now pre-order your copy of this forthcoming intervention in the Gothic. I have a piece on the Windigo in it! @universitypress.cambridge.org @msvuenglish.bsky.social @igagoths.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/se/universit...

The #Tolkien Family Album was published 34 years ago this week. Here are a few gems from this rare book:
dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/a-few-gems...
Included are some thoughts about the early years of the @tolkiensociety.org and an absent friend…

#Westmoot26 is delighted to announce our keynote speaker, Dr. Sara Brown! Dr. Brown is the Director of the Graduate Program and Chair of the Language and Literature Faculty at Signum University. #intothewest #westmoot #signumuniversity @signumuniversity.bsky.social @aranelparmadil.bsky.social

Conservatives destroy public goods, privatize them to their corporate donors, then cry when citizens demand that they take responsibility for their incompetence and inability to actually run businesses without subsidies.

Thank god they own enough media to distract you from their ineptitude.

CALL FOR PAPERS UNDERSTANDING MEDIEVAL RACE-MAKING 2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MEDIEVALISTS / RÉUNION ANNUELLE DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CANADIENNE DES MÉDIÉVISTES 2026 The EDID (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Decolonization) Committee of the CSM/SCM invites papers for a session on medieval race-making. THIS PANEL ASKS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: • HOW DID WE UNDERSTAND THE IDEA OF RACE BEFORE MODERN DISCOURSES ON IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM? • HOW DO MODERN DISCOURSES ON IMPERIALISM, COLONIALISM, AND RACE HELP US UNDERSTAND MEDIEVAL RACE? • ALTERNATIVELY, HOW DOES MODERN DISCOURSE ON RACE SHAPE HOW RACE-MAKING OR RACE IS ENGAGED WITHIN MEDIEVALISM? • HOW DID THE PREMODERN IMAGINE ALTERITY? HOW DID THEY DEFINE THEMSELVES? • HOW DID THE PREMODERN UNDERSTAND THE INDIGENOUS VS THE COLONIZER? Presentations may be in either English or French and should be 15-20 minutes in length. Please submit proposals by email by January 5, 2026. For inquiries or proposal submissions, please contact Arkaprabha Chakraborty at arkaprabha.chakraborty@mail.utoronto.ca.

**CFP** for Session at the 2026 annual conference of the Canadian Society of Medievalists, 26-29 May 2026 in beautiful Antigonish, NS!

Understanding Medieval Race-Making: see attached for details or visit our webpage www.canadianmedievalists.org/Calls-for-Pa...

Call for Papers YOU ARE ON NATIVE LAND: UNDERSTANDING MEDIEVAL STUDIES IN TURTLE ISLAND 2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MEDIEVALISTS / RÉUNION ANNUELLE DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CANADIENNE DES MÉDIÉVISTES 2026 The EDID Committee of the CSM/SCM invites papers on Indigeneity and the medieval. It has been over a decade since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released their report and 94 Calls to Action. Academia was called to decolonize, reconcile, and Indigenize their apporach to research, scholarship, and the classroom. This panel builds on conversations from the 2025 International Congress of Medieval Studies' "Slow Engagement" Roundtable, which asked medieval scholars to consider how they've 'slowed down' to be responsible and reciprocal in their learning, approaching, or engaging with Indigenous Studies. PAPERS MIGHT CONSIDER: • How can we respectfully and appropriately engage with Indigenous methodologies in our approaches to medieval studies? • How have indigenous communities responded to, engaged with, subverted, or appropriated medieval studies or medievalism? • What do personal and/or scholarly engagements with Indigenous communities, identities, and Knowledge Keepers look like for diffferent medievalists, and what has been learned from such engagements? • What has been the impact of colonialism on the discipline of medieval studies? Alternately, how have medieval studies been an essential tool in colonialism? Presentations may be in either English or French and should be 15-20 minutes in length. Please submit proposals by email by January 5, 2026. For inquiries or proposal submissions, please contact Brenna Duperron at brenna.duperron@unbc.ca.

**CFP** for Session at the 2026 annual conference of the Canadian Society of Medievalists, 26-29 May 2026 in beautiful Antigonish NS!

You are on Native Land: Understanding Medieval Studies in Turtle Island: see attached for details or visit our webpage www.canadianmedievalists.org/Calls-for-Pa...

Call for Papers / Appel à communications MEDIEVAL ENGAGEMENTS WITH DISABILITY 2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF MEDIEVALISTS / RÉUNION ANNUELLE DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CANADIENNE DES MÉDIÉVISTES 2026 The EDID (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Decolonization) Committee of the CSM/SCM invites papers for a session that will explore disability in the medieval past and/or the ways in which disability studies and medieval studies fruitfully intersect. Papers might consider: • Constructions of disability and difference, and the power structures they engage • Mobility impairments and aids, and/or responses to them • Sensory impairments and/or responses to them • The temporality of disability • How disability intersects with other axes of identity Presentations may be in either English or French and should be 15-20 minutes in length. Please submit proposals by email by January 5, 2026. For inquiries or proposal submissions, please contact Emma-Catherine Wilson at emma-catherine.wilson@hertford.ox.ac.uk.

**CFP** for Session at the 2026 annual conference of the Canadian Society of Medievalists, 26-29 May 2026 in beautiful Antigonish, NS!

Medieval Engagements with Disability: see attached for details or visit our webpage www.canadianmedievalists.org/Calls-for-Pa...

#Westmoot26 invites proposals for papers related to the life & works of JRR Tolkien! The theme of 2026 is Hope/Eucatastrophe. All proposals are welcomed and will be considered. Please submit your proposal at our webpage by March 1. #tolkien #westmoot #intothewest

Creative Medievalisms Now: Writing the Middle Ages Today and Tomorrow A two-day symposium on creative writing, the creative-critical seam, and the Middle Ages

'Creative Medievalisms Now: Writing the Middle Ages Today and Tomorrow', forthcoming symposium at Cambridge. A two-day symposium for writer-researchers working on medieval materials to reflect on craft, research processes, and work in progress.
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-m...

Call for Papers - Mythcon 54

We are pleased to announce the CFP for 2026's #Mythcon54 is now live! Mythcon is a hybrid conference, the in-person component being along Route 66 in Weatherford, OK (where our archives are!) The deadline for proposals is March 31, 2026. Hope to see you there! CFP: www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mc54...

Many university presses have holiday sales this time of year. Here's some of the books of Tolkien scholarship you can get for discounts right now:

Now through 12/31/25, Kent State University Press is having a 60th anniversary sale.

Enter the code KSUP60 at checkout and receive 40% off plus free shipping. They have books on Tolkien, C.S Lewis, and the Inklings. Obviously, my book is there, but there's also FIVE by Verlyn Flieger. #tolkien

This may be of interest:

"Empowering Voices: The Influence of Old Norse Mythology on Women’s Writing from 1950-2012"

The chosen authors to examine are Sylvia Plath, A.S. Byatt, and Kathleen Jamie.

ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid...

Laura Moncion – Boyle Prize Presentation / Colloque du prix Boyle - REGISTRATION / INSCRIPTION On 5 Nov. 2025 at 11h00 (EST), the Canadian Society of Medievalists will hold its second annual Boyle Prize Online Presentation, when Laura Moncion, the winner of the Society's Leonard E. Boyle Prize ...

The CSM Online: Tune in Wednesday 5 Nov. 2025, at 11am EST to hear 2025 Boyle Prize Winner Laura Moncion talk about her dissertation, "Being a Recluse is No Small Thing: Late Medieval Women’s Reclusion in Theory and Practice."

Register for the Zoom link: forms.gle/n6LJh7JYKvRD...

386 – Got to Get You into My Life

Join The Man of the West and The Shieldmaiden of Rohan as we find ourselves moving swiftly through our 10-part series on Aldarion and Erendis from Unfinished Tales.

pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/tr...

I am going to bea keynote speaker at the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot 2025 this December 18-21. The theme of the moot is “Creating Historical Depth within Fantastical Worlds.”

theprancingponypodcast.com/moot/

My working title is:
“From Words to Worlds: Elvish Roots of Tolkien’s Mythology.”

I agree! My professors liked to joke that maybe you shouldn’t put a library in a place called Ashburnham! (By the way, the poem is in Old English, not Middle English).

New Tolkien Society publication – <em>Númenor, The Mighty and Frail</em> The Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that Númenor, the Mighty and Frail: Proceedings of The Tolkien Society Seminar 2023, the twenty-fifth book in the Peter Roe series, is now available to pre-o...

New Tolkien Society publication!

Releasing on 25 November, "Númenor, the Mighty and Frail" includes 10 articles relating to Númenor, and its legacy. Edited by @willsherwood.bsky.social and published by @lunapress.bsky.social, it's now available to pre-order. www.tolkiensociety.org/2025/10/new-...

Richard Ovenden OBE talks Tolkien and The Bovadium Fragments YouTube video by TolkienGuide

Good interview with @RichardOvenden on the upcoming release of the NEW #Tolkien book The Bovadium Fragments youtube.com/watch?v=IGuQ... @harpercollins.bsky.social

The Bovadium Fragments: TolkienGuide review =THE BOVADIUM FRAGMENTS: a review= INTRODUCTION Earlier this year it was announced by HarperCollins that they were due to publish for the first time &qu...

@onthetrail.tolkienguide.com and myself interviewed @richove.bsky.social about the new #Tolkien book The Bovadium Fragments. You can read our review here www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newb...

Free online seminar: Arda's Entangled Bodies and Environments, featuring analyses across Tolkien's works. October 18, sponsored by the Tolkien Society and the Uni. of Glasgow's Centre for Fantasy & the Fantastic. Details in the link or go to the Tolkien Society Events page. wp.me/p2vwHX-2gZ

An exciting new event: the inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic at University of Glasgow in June 2026. Theme:Fantasy’s Present Pasts. CfP in the link. fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...

Children and teens who had a Covid reinfection had a doubling of #LongCovid risk (PASC) and a significant increase in many other adverse outcomes (Figure) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...