You Guessed It: More Calls for Papers

ℌello again, all! Additional calls for papers have come to the Society's attention, and, with the deadline nearing, a reminder about our own sessions at the coming International Congress on Medieval Studies seems in order. So:

Rachel Warmington with ISSM (and with which the Society is cosponsoring a session) reminds readers of a few sessions of interest at the Congress. They are

• Animals in Medievalism (#8869)- While many human tropes have been considered in medievalism studies, thus far we have not seen any examination of the role of animals. This session seeks responses that consider animals in many forms—as pets, as familiars, as symbols, as representations, as commercial objects, as main characters or versions of main characters, as costumes, as images, as subjects. What is the function of animals within medievalism? What roles do they play, and how do these roles reflect, or not reflect, their medieval antecedents? Are these medievalized animals affected by contemporary ideas about animal rights and/or ideologies of identity?
• Medievalisms in Dr. Who (#8870)- The International Society for the Study of Medievalism has now sponsored several years of successful sessions on Science Fiction Medievalisms. In focusing on the long-running television program Dr. Who, we seek to expand consideration of the use of the medieval in a variety of futuristic spaces. Since the show has been popular for many years, featuring different casts all travelling through time, the discussion of medievalism in the corpus is past due. We invite papers that explore any aspect of medievalism in the program, whether in narrative, genre, aesthetics, story telling, references, etc.
• Medievalisms in the Americas (#8864)- This session puts together discussions of North American medievalisms (including Canada) and South and Central American medievalisms. The topic of how fascination with the medieval was transferred to the Americas deserves scholarly attention. The similarities among those transfers could be tracked along with the emergence of what for example Altschul called “medieval Brazil,” although discussions might also consider other medievalist iterations, including the use of the nation’s pre-colonial past or contemporary culture. The reasons behind introducing medievalism in the Americas could also be scrutinized; what is the value of this kind of inquiry?
• The Death(s) of Robin Hood (1): The Death of Robin Hood (2026) (A Roundtable) ( #8230 ) [Cosponsored]- This roundtable will explore the representation of Robin Hood’s literal and metaphorical death(s) in the A24 film The Death of Robin Hood (2026). We are particularly interested in papers that focus on Robin’s character arc in this film and his death through the focused analysis of such themes as medievalism, ageism, ableism, religion, life-after-death, community, others and othering, death and dying, the environment and space, and representations of violence. We welcome perspectives that place this film in dialogue with other media works that depict Robin Hood’s death and explore any of the above themes.
• The Death(s) of Robin Hood (2): Literary Representations (#8229) [Cosponsored]- This session seeks papers that examine Robin Hood’s death in medieval and post-medieval poems, plays, novels, and other written texts. Robin is not the once-and-future king, but in many ways he is the once-and-future king of the (good?) outlaws as his character often dies and is reborn in successive works. Papers that examine narratival concerns, religious themes, historical contexts, cultural frameworks, ethical implications, and theoretical and philosophical constructs of Robin Hood’s death and dying are most welcome.
• "Will It Bardcore?": Explorations of Medievalist Music (A Roundtable) (#8459) [Cosponsored with the Society]- During discussion at the 2026 ICMS session "Off of the Printed Prose Page," Dr. Elizabeth Perry asked the question of various songs: “Will it bardcore?” Although offered partly in jest, the question prompts consideration of what bardcore is, really; what makes for “good” bardcore; what are representative examples of the genre; how the genre borrows from and interacts with Tolkien and other neo/medievalisms; and what purposes and functions are served by the genre? The proposed roundtable offers space for such considerations.

She also points out a CFP for MAMO 2027 (about which the Society has commented before), with a newly extended deadline of 20 September 2026. Titled "(Post)national medievalisms," the session description is "In her discussion of white supremacism in New Zealand context Louise D’Arcens argues against seeing this medievalism, and medievalism in general, in its national context. Following this line of thinking, what could then be argued is that medievalisms have already transcended their nationalistic limitations. On the other hand, there remain medievalist phenomena, such as the United Empire Loyalists origins of English Canadian medievalism postulated by M.J. Toswell, that are firmly situated within their national background. This session of papers is intended to put together these two perspectives: that medievalisms can be very much postnational, since they increasingly transcend the limits of one country and one culture, and that discussion of further national medievalisms is still very much relevant to medievalism studies." Abstracts of 250 words should go to annaczarnowus@op.pl.

Too, and again, the Society is sponsoring sessions at the Congress. In addition to the cosponsored bardcore session described above, we'd love your submissions for the following:

• A Porlockian Perspective: Interruptions in Post-Tolkien Medievalist Works (#8458, paper panel, hybrid session)- The International Porlock Society, long meeting at the ICMS, is dedicated to the study and practice of academic interruption. While the Porlock Society focused its attentions on the works of Sidney and Spenser (himself an early medievalist), it is the case that interruption abounds, both in medieval literatures (witness Arthurian legend) and in the medievalist and neomedievalist media that emerge from them. The proposed session investigates the instances, forms, and functions of interruption in works of post-Tolkien neo/medievalist literatures and other media.
• Continued Lessons from the Professor: Borrowings from Tolkien, 2020+ (#8457, paper panel, online session, cosponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo)- The stated goal of The Tales after Tolkien Society is the investigation of medievalism in popular culture; it has in its very name a commitment to conducting those investigations through the lens of Tolkien and his works. With the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent upheavals, it may well be that the focus which this lens offers has changed. Papers for the session should look at shifts in use of Tolkien’s works, sources, and methods in the years 2020 and following, speaking to the “after” portion of the Society’s name with particular emphasis.
• Medievalism Outside Academe (#8963, roundtable, hybrid session, cosponsored with Lone Medievalist)- Most faculty are contingent. The numbers of contingent faculty are dwarfed by those who, after spending years adjuncting, sought other careers yet still feel called to intellectual life. More yet did not pursue lives in academe but still have insights into the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist, as well as how they function. The proposed session looks to present perspectives on the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist from outside traditional academic structures, calling back to Richard Utz’s ICMS 2015 plenary lecture: medievalist work began as an amateur endeavor. Bringing in nonprofessional, underrepresented, outside perspectives remains worth doing.

Submissions to all Congress sessions are due 15 September 2026 and have to go in via Confex, https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Home/0. We hope to see you at the 'zoo!

Additional Calls for Papers

𝔖everal sources have pointed out some more calls for papers that may well be of interest to Society members. A trio of them comes from Society member Michael Torregrossa, who notes

Carl Sell and I are organizing three virtual sessions for NeMLA's 2027 convention next March (3/6-9-2027). Details below.

We welcome submissions on medievalisms (as well as materials from other periods). Proposals are due by 9/30/2026.

• Fostering Interpretive Communities in the Classroom and Research through Adaptation Studies (Roundtable) (Virtual)
• Fusion or Fracture in the Hundred Acre Woods: Community in Adaptations of Winnie-the-Pooh (Virtual)
• Using Comics to Build Community: Approaches to Teaching Comics (Roundtable) (Virtual)

Society member Margot Lamy also points out a pair of others. One of them is a general CFP for MAMO, details for which are available here. The other is for the British Fantasy Society's journal, which is seeking articles on gender in fantasy, writing:

Fantasy has long explored lifeworlds and paradigms outside of societal norms. Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s gender-fluid protagonist, declares, ‘I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another.’ World myths, legends, folk tales, and fairy tales are early promoters of gender-fluidity, populated by the likes of Inanna/Ishtar; Hermaphroditus, the offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite; androgynous Dionysus; Ardhanarishvara; Ometeotl; Guanyin; cross-dressing thunder and trickster gods; heartsick seafaring maidens disguised as sailors; and the mercurial ontologies of the Fae. In this issue we will explore how gender is portrayed and explored in Fantasy. Fantasy plays an important role in enlarging what is possible, and creating refugia for the marginalised and other modalities. In an increasingly intolerant, xenophobic, and close-minded world, where Far Right governments roll back hard-won freedoms and civil rights legislation, and undermine, mock or openly attack important principles of equality, diversity, and inclusivity, this function of Fantasy is never more vital, for as Orlando states, ‘He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life.’

The BFS Journal is seeking original, unpublished, human-authored articles of between 2000-8000 words (including bibliography). Possible approaches include:

• Non-binary identities and challenging binaries.
• Found families and marginalised identities in YA Fantasy
• The portrayal of matriarchies and patriarchies in Fantasy worlds.
• The rise of Romantasy and the female gaze.
• The performance of gender.
• Power and gender roles.
• Queer Fantasy and destabilisations of heteronormativity in Fantasy.
• The divine masculine and feminine in Fantasy.
• Masks, disguises, masquerades and carnivals.
• Friendships and relationships in Fantasy.
• Flirting, courting, and marriage in Fantasy.

Send the Abstract (200 words), including title, keywords, and a 100-word bio to the Editor (Dr Kevan Manwaring) by 31st August. The BFS Journal Winter issue will be published December 2026. Completed articles, if commissioned, will be due in by 30th September when they will undergo peer-review. Send to: bfsjournal@britishfantasysociety.org.

Submission details are available here.

This is all in addition to our standing call for contributions to the blog; we can always use more content here! It's also in addition to our own CFP for #Kzoo2027. We're happy to offer platforms for your work, both within and without academe.

Members of the Society interested in submitting are still encouraged to do so. Those wishing to discuss session-formation with other Society members remain encouraged to use the Society Discord to do so; those not already having access to the Society Discord may still request it by emailing the Society at talesaftertolkien@gmail.com. And those having CFPs they'd like to see distributed continue to be similarly encouraged. We'd still love to hear from you!

More Calls for Papers!

ℑn addition to the call for papers for #kzoo2027 (to which we encourage submissions, of course), the Society has been made aware of another pair of CFPs that might be of interest to members. The first of them comes via ISSM from Laura Moncion and Dr Alicia Smith, who write

Workshop Series: Call for Participants - Saints Outside Hagiography 2026-2027
We invite expressions of interest to participate in the Saints Outside Hagiography workshop series 2026–2027. Our group examines how saints and holy people are represented outside the classic form of the single-text hagiography.

Sessions so far have examined texts including: visual art, poetry, mortuary rolls, chronicles, liturgical texts, didactic literature, and objects. We offer an informal, work-in-progress format focused on discussion of primary sources and key methodological questions in the study of saints.

Meetings consist of 1-2 brief presentations, discussing a text or object precirculated along with a short description and the speaker’s guiding questions. If you have a source related to sanctity that you would like to discuss, please get in touch with Laura Moncion (laura.moncion@philosophie.uni-tuebingen.de) and Alicia Smith (alicia.smith@uib.no) by 25 September 2026 with a brief description of the source, career stage, and institutional affiliation if any.

Guidelines

• Chronological and geographical scope are open.
• Participants are free to contest whether a text is ‘outside hagiography’ – we aim to study saints and the construction of saint/sanctity beyond canonical textual forms, including troubling our understanding of those forms.
• If your source is not in English, we will need an English translation.

CFP PDF link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O_qFp6IrxwK30pO0ohyfny7rjYdPNiC8/view?usp=drive_link

The second comes from Rachel Warmington, also via ISSM, who writes of a 2027 MAMO session

(Post)national medievalisms

In her discussion of white supremacism in New Zealand context Louise D’Arcens argues against seeing this medievalism, and medievalism in general, in its national context. Following this line of thinking, what could then be argued is that medievalisms have already transcended their nationalistic limitations. On the other hand, there remain medievalist phenomena, such as the United Empire Loyalists origins of English Canadian medievalism postulated by M.J. Toswell, that are firmly situated within their national background. This session of papers is intended to put together these two perspectives: that medievalisms can be very much postnational, since they increasingly transcend the limits of one country and one culture, and that discussion of further national medievalisms is still very much relevant to medievalism studies.

Please send your 250-word abstract at: annaczarnowus@op.pl

The deadline is 30 August 2026.

Members of the Society interested in submitting are encouraged to do so. Those wishing to discuss session-formation with other Society members are encouraged to use the Society Discord to do so; those not already having access to the Society Discord may request it by emailing the Society at talesaftertolkien@gmail.com. And those having CFPs they'd like to see distributed are similarly encouraged. We'd love to hear from you!

#Kzoo2027 - Call For Papers!

The Tales After Tolkien Society is pleased to announce that we have FOUR offerings (three co-sponsored) for the 2027 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo! Two of the sessions have been given hybrid slots and the other two will be online. Please see below for the names and descriptions of each session:

The first session is a paper panel titled A Porlockian Perspective: Interruptions in Post-Tolkien Medievalist Works with the following description: The International Porlock Society, long meeting at the ICMS, is dedicated to the study and practice of academic interruption. While the Porlock Society focused its attentions on the works of Sidney and Spenser (himself an early medievalist), it is the case that interruption abounds, both in medieval literatures (witness Arthurian legend) and in the medievalist and neomedievalist media that emerge from them. The proposed session investigates the instances, forms, and functions of interruption in works of post-Tolkien neo/medievalist literatures and other media. This will be a hybrid session.

The second session, also a paper panel, is co-sponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo and is titled Continued Lessons from the Professor: Borrowings from Tolkien, 2020+ with the following description: The stated goal of The Tales after Tolkien Society is the investigation of medievalism in popular culture; it has in its very name a commitment to conducting those investigations through the lens of Tolkien and his works. With the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent upheavals, it may well be that the focus which this lens offers has changed. Papers for the session should look at shifts in use of Tolkien’s works, sources, and methods in the years 2020 and following, speaking to the “after” portion of the Society’s name with particular emphasis. This will be an online session.

The third session is a roundtable co-sponsored with the Lone Medievalist and is titled Medievalism Outside Academe (A Roundtable) with the following description: Most faculty are contingent. The numbers of contingent faculty are dwarfed by those who, after spending years adjuncting, sought other careers yet still feel called to intellectual life. More yet did not pursue lives in academe but still have insights into the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist, as well as how they function. The proposed session looks to present perspectives on the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist from outside traditional academic structures, calling back to Richard Utz’s ICMS 2015 plenary lecture: medievalist work began as an amateur endeavor. Bringing in nonprofessional, underrepresented, outside perspectives remains worth doing.  This will be a hybrid session.

The fourth and final session is also a roundtable and is co-sponsored with the International Society for the Study of Medievalism (ISSM). It is titled "Will It Bardcore?": Explorations of Medievalist Music (A Roundtable) with the following description: During discussion at the 2026 ICMS session 'Off of the Printed Prose Page', Dr. Elizabeth Perry asked the question of various songs: “Will it bardcore?” Although offered partly in jest, the question prompts consideration of what bardcore is, really; what makes for “good” bardcore; what are representative examples of the genre; how the genre borrows from and interacts with Tolkien and other neo/medievalisms; and what purposes and functions are served by the genre? The proposed roundtable offers space for such considerations. This will be an online session.

While session numbers have not yet been posted to the conference site, you can find all our sessions here to submit abstracts to: https://icms.confex.com/icms/2027/prelim.cgi/Index/SponsorList~Tales%20after%20Tolkien%20Society

As always, we ask you to please share this call for papers around  to anyone and everyone you believe may be interested. We would love to hear from you! Proposals from those typically excluded from formal academe are particularly welcome.

All abstract submissions are due no later than 15 September 2026 via Confex.

A Couple of Calls for Papers for You

𝔗wo calls for papers have come to the Society. The first of them is from Luis Guerra with ISSM, who writes

In 1996, Carl Sagan warned us of a time when people would lose their ability to question, “when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few . . . when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.” Maybe Mr Sagan was somewhat pessimistic when writing The Demon-Haunted World. But then again, in times of conspiracy theories, Ancient Aliens, Antivaxxers, and Holocaust Deniers, the Age of Information appears just as capable of spreading dangerous frauds and charlatans as it is of disseminating reliable scholarship.

Now we witness a Minister of War, an evangelical, tattooed with the medieval crusader motto “Deus vult”, calling for an American Crusade. In another country, we see the memory of the Knights Templar invoked again and again as a founding myth to justify a quasi-manifest destiny. And all over the world, the achievements of our predecessors are often discarded as impossible, explained as the works of aliens, supernatural forces, or ancient lost (often white) civilisations, disregarding the works of historians, archaeologists, and other researchers. The past is ripe for conspiracies, and the Middle Ages are a particularly fruitful part of it.

The Studies of Medievalisms, often in dialogue with disciplines like Literature, History, Cultural Studies, and others, may not always identify itself as a hard Science. Nevertheless, it is still an academic field with its own methodologies, structures, and rigour. Faced with this encroaching darkness, as Sagan would say, we invite scholars to submit papers examining the multiple challenges of researching medievalisms and how we should address the growing spread of disinformation. Of course, other themes related to medievalisms, neo-medievalisms and the reception of the medieval as a whole are all welcome.

Organised by the ISSM (International Society for the Study of Medievalisms), the annual conference is the oldest to be entirely dedicated to the subject of medievalisms, and this year, for the first time, it will be taking place in the South Americas, Brazil. For this to be possible, we will be working with the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) to promote dialogue with professors and researchers from different countries and institutions, “aiming to connect the public with scholars engaged in Medievalism Studies around the world.”

The conference is accepting papers and entire sessions via this link [https://medievalisms.org/conferences/]. Submissions are open until September 01, 2026.

This is a 100% online conference, which will take place between October 9 and 10. More information about the guests, keynotes, and schedules will start to be published soon.

For more information, please email us.

Proposal:
– Each participant may submit up to 2 papers.
– Proposals for entire sessions can include a maximum of up to 6 people divided into two tables of 3.
– English will be considered the default language. Sessions in Portuguese, French, and Spanish will only be considered if there are enough papers to fill them.
– The themes of the proposals must include medievalisms, neo-medievalisms, or medieval reception. Papers that work with representations and memories of the medieval period and the history of historiography about the period are also welcome.
– In addition to the abstract (maximum of 500 words), it is possible, but not mandatory, to send the full text upon registration. This can assist in the evaluation of the proposal.
– For proposals for a complete session, the abstract must (in up to 600 words) describe the theme as a whole, as well as clearly identify what each proponent will talk about.

Evaluation:
– The evaluation, acceptance, or elimination of submission is the conference’s Organization’s responsibility through a double-blind peer-reviewing process.

General Observations:
– The certificate of presentation will be issued only to presenters who were not absent during the entire panel in which they participated.
– The result will be published on September 15, 2026

The second comes from Rachael Warmington, also with ISSM, who writes

ISSM Sponsored Session at IARHS 2027 Biennial Conference 2027 CFP
IARHS Biennial Conference 2027
4-5 June 2027
Irvine Valley College, California

Spaces and Stories of Resistance
Special session sponsored by the International Society for the Study of Medievalism (HYBRID)

Medievalist Outlaws and the Question of Authenticity
When looking at medievalist texts, films, or TV shows about outlaws, including those about Robin Hood, there is always the question of how “authentic” these accounts are, whether they were intended to be authentic in the first place, and what specific details are “authentic” or “inauthentic” in them. In Medievalism: Key Critical Terms, Pam Clements (2014) writes about authenticity as a lasting point to examine in medievalism studies, which itself have been seen as “inauthentic,” in contrast with “authentic” medieval studies. Bearing in mind the central theme of the conference, it needs to be studied why the resistance and rebellion of various outlaws should, according to some, be presented in a manner that is “authentic.” Papers could examine the interplay of authenticity and inauthenticity; the ways that claims to authenticity affect the scholarly approach to the work; or the role of the inauthentic in making stories authentic.

Please send your 250-word abstracts to: annaczarnowus@op.pl.

The deadline is 1 December 2026.

Members of the Society interested in submitting panels and sessions are encouraged to do so. Those wishing to discuss session-formation with other Society members are encouraged to use the Society Discord to do so; those not already having access to the Society Discord may request it by emailing the Society at talesaftertolkien@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Medievalist Fantasy and Science Fiction for NEPCA

𝔖ociety member Michael Torregrossa has a call for papers out, writing (with some adjustment for the present format)

My group is hoping to get a Medieval/Medievalism Area up and running for the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA). To do this, we need to show them there is interest in the topic. To that end, we'd like to organize a session this year on the theme of "Medievalist Fantasy and Science Fiction" for NEPCA's upcoming fall conference. The event will be online from Thursday, 15 October, through Saturday, 17 October. Registration costs are usually low, and NEPCA offers some funding opportunities, if needed.

If you're interested, please send me the following no later than 14 June:

• Name
• Email
• Academic Affiliation
• Brief academic bio (75 words or less)
• What is your level of experience with NEPCA?
• Are there any accommodations that would make the conference more accessible to you?
• Time Zone
• Proposal Type:
• Working Title
• Abstract (for a full panel, 250 words or less)

He notes, too, the following

Full panel presentation: Three to four people are each presenting their own paper, however the papers are thematically connected. Each presenter will have 15-20 minutes to present depending if there are 3 or 4 papers being presented. All names are required for full panel presentation at time of proposal.

If you're interested, let him know by emailing him here: medievalinpopularculture@gmail.com

From #Kzoo2026 and Looking towards #Kzoo2027...and Maybe #Kzoo2028

𝔊reetings, all!

At the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Society hosted two paper sessions (Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms and Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction), a roundtable cosponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo (Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in movies, Games, and Other Transmedial Texts), and the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Remarks about each follow.

The first paper session--Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms--took place in a hybrid session at 10:30am Kalamazoo time on Thuirsday, 14 May 2026. Presiding was Society Social Media Officer Geoffrey B. Elliott. Presenting were Kristin Noone of Irvine Valley College and Society President Rachel Sikorski. Noone writes of her paper, "Unicorns, Dragons, Chaucer, Tintagel, and Euphoric Scentscapes," "Scent, Elise Vernon Pearlstine proposes, reflects identity, with deep historical connections to wealth and power. That history is evident in the scent catalogue of perfumer Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. BPAL’s scentscape medievalism allows wearers to construct identities via a fantasized, affective, creative reenactment of an imagined aromatic Middle Ages." Sikorski, her paper's title changed from program listings to "Toss a Cover to Your Witcher: The Fandom and Virality of Fantasy Media’s Musical Reinterpretations," writes "This paper aims to explore, analyze, and discuss the rise of medieval and neo-medieval inspirations within various modern musical sub-genres such as bardcore, dwarf-metal, dungeon-synth, and more." Presentations were well received, and discussion that followed was both entertaining and generative.

The second paper session--Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction--took place at 3:30pm Kalamazoo time. Presiding was Sikorski; presenting were Rebecca R. Davis-Lock of the University of Central Oklahoma, Elliott, and Julie Loveland Swanstrom of Augustana University. Davis writes of "The Imagined Medieval: Gendered Medievalisms in Tolkien Fanfiction" the following: "This paper explores how Tolkien fanfiction writers expand marginalized female characters while often incorporating Victorian-influenced medievalisms into their characterizations and narratives. Using literary analysis and corpus linguistics, it examines how assumptions about gender, class, and romance shape fan portrayals, revealing the lasting impact of medievalism on the fantasy genre." Elliott writes of "Another Update to 'Moving Beyond Tolkien's Medievalism'" that "The Fitz and the Fool novels evoke and frustrate the tropes Tolkien uses to simultaneously establish Hobb’s work as belonging to the Tolkienian tradition and assert independence from it, doing so in part by getting aspects of the medieval wrong in ways that differentiate Hobb’s work substantively from Tolkien's." Swanstrom writes of "Landlords, Succubi, and Environmental Harm: Medieval Christian Theology and Political Philosophy in Snow White and the Huntsman" that "In Snow White and the Huntsman, medieval Christian theology and political theory are both illustrated and misapplied. Lordship providing prosperity appears in Snow White's close and revitalizing connection to nature, a view historically applied to men. Further, Ravenna illustrates Christian concerns about female power, further illustrating the significance of gender." Discussion following the presentations was lengthy and enthusiastic, both on video and in chat.

The roundtable--Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games, and Other Transmedial Texts--took place online at 1:30pm Kalamzoo time on Friday, 15 May 2026. Presiding was independent scholar Danielle Dupuis. Presenting were Elliott, independent scholar Margurite Lamy, independent scholar Robin Anne Reid, Sikorski, and Kris Swank of Pima Community College. Elliott writes "Expansions of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying’s rules-set further the kind of medievalism that serves as a through-line from the game back through its antecedents into Tolkien and his own." Lamy writes "This presentation assesses Dunlendings' portrayal in The Lord of the Rings and adaptations of Tolkien's work. Drawing on adaptation and post-colonial medieval studies, it will examine how adaptations construct Dunlendings as the 'Other' and explore how 'other minds and hands' have crafted sympathy or antipathy for the people of Dunland." Reid writes "Drawing on medieval scholarship on rape and Kristine Larsen’s presentation on the language of rape in Tolkien, I analyze how the scene between Grima and Éowyn in the extended TT draws on two scenes in LotR (TT III, vi, 515 and RK, V, vii, 867) for Grima’s dialogue." Sikorski writes "The prepared statements for this roundtable will focus on how the video game developers of Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game actually interpreted, translated, and expressed Tolkien's world, characters, and the spirit of the hobbits and their homes." Swank writes "This talk explores how non-canonical character names in screen adaptations of Tolkien’s works—like Figwit, Tauriel, Arondir and Héra—balance faithfulness to invented languages with storytelling goals. It investigates naming as a lens into adaptation choices, and how these creative decisions shape audience perceptions of authenticity in Middle-earth narratives." (Sreyasi Dey of St. Xavier's University, who was slated to lead off, was not present and did not deliver the anticipated remarks: "The paper posits the character of Itadori Yuji from popular shonen manga Jujutsu Kaisen in contrast with Frodo Baggins from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It explores the Tolkienian echoes in the hero's sacrificial character in modern dark fantasy while plunging into the cultural differences that inform it.") Discussion among panelists and with the audience was lively and amicable.

The AGM took place online at 8pm Kalamazoo time on Thursday, 14 May 2026, and was called to order at 8:06pm. In attendance were Sikorski, presiding; Elliott; standing member Michael Torregrossa; and new member Vicky Rampin, who was at her request added to the mailing and membership lists of the Society during the meeting. Per earlier notice, the AGM treated the following items:

• Determination of offerings for the 2027 ICMS;
• Election of a Secretary, 2026-2029;
• Election of a Vice-President (At-Large), 2026-2029; and
• Other business brought before the membership, as time permits

By consent, the elections were treated first. Incumbent Vice-President (At-Large) Molly Brown and incumbent Secretary Rachel Sikorski were reelected by acclamation.

Elliott proposed four sessions for the 2027 ICMS, offering the following descriptions, as adjusted by discussion during the meeting:

•  “Will It Bardcore?”: Explorations of Medievalist Music (A Roundtable, possibly to be cosponsored)--During discussion at the 2026 ICMS session, Off of the Printed Prose Page, Dr. Elizabeth Perry asked of various songs “Will it bardcore?” Although offered partly in jest, the question prompts consideration of what bardcore is, really; what makes for “good” bardcore; what representative examples of the genre are; how the genre borrows from and interacts with Tolkien and other neo/medievalisms; and what purposes and functions are served by the genre. The proposed roundtable offers space for such considerations.
• Medievalism Outside Academe (A Roundtable or a paper session, possibly to be cosponsored)--Most faculty are contingent. The numbers of contingent faculty are dwarfed by those who, after spending years adjuncting, sought other careers yet still feel called to intellectual life. More yet did not pursue lives in academe but still have insights into the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist, as well as how they function. The proposed session looks to present perspectives on the medieval, medievalist, and neomedievalist from outside traditional academic structures, calling back to Richard Utz’s ICMS 2015 plenary lecture: medievalist work began as an amateur endeavor. Bringing in nonprofessional, underrepresented, outside perspectives remains worth doing.
• Continued Lessons from the Professor: Borrowings from Tolkien, 2020+ (A Paper Session, possibly to be cosponsored)--The Tales after Tolkien Society has as its stated goal the investigation of medievalism in popular culture; it has in its very name a commitment to conducting those investigations through the lens of Tolkien and his works. With the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent upheavals, it may well be that the focus that lens offers has changed. Papers for the session should look at shifts in use of Tolkien’s works, sources, and methods in the years 2020 and following, speaking to the “after” portion of the Society’s name with particular emphasis.
• A Porlockian Perspective: Interruptions in Post-Tolkien Medievalist Works (A Paper Session)--The International Porlock Society, long meeting at the ICMS, is dedicated to the study and practice of academic interruption. While the Porlock Society focused its attentions on the works of Sidney and Spenser (himself an early medievalist), it is the case that interruption abounds, both in medieval literatures (witness Arthurian legend) and in the medievalist and neomedievalist media that emerge from them. The proposed session investigates the instances, forms, and functions of interruption in works of post-Tolkien neo/medievalist literatures and other media.

Discussion of the proposed sessions noted possibilities for cosponsorship, with Sikorski and Elliott agreeing to undertake outreach to selected other organizations for that purpose; results of said outreach will be discussed once available. Discussion also determined that all four sessions (and a meeting session for the AGM) will be proposed to the 2027 ICMS, asking for hybrid sessions for each with virtual meetings as a fallback.

Further discussion at the meeting pointed towards other possible Society offerings and directions. Torregrossa suggested the Society might undertake some sort of multimedia production to increase reach and access; consensus at the meeting is that the idea is worth investigating but would require more discussion than the AGM could afford it, so further talk in that line will be conducted on the Society Discord. As in past years, the possibility of presentation at / engagement with conferences other than the ICMS, notably the various PCA groups, was raised, with Torregrossa providing some contact information for the Northeast PCA. Additionally, Torregrossa suggested outreach to the Journal of Tolkien Research and to the June 2027 International Robin Hood Studies conference; Rampin also suggested outreach to the Association for Computers and the Humanities, noting also that such projects as the LotR Project provide useful models and might form the bases for additional engagement and research.

Of interest was a comment Torregrossa made late in the AGM, questioning links between AA Milne and JRR Tolkien. Consideration of such a question in a potential "Tales around Tolkien" panel to be proposed for the 2028 ICMS was undertaken and generally approved of, with consensus approving and suggesting some outreach to other organizations at the ICMS for cosponsorship. Further discussion will take place on the Society Discord and elsewhere.

No other business being before the Society, Elliott moved to adjourn at 8:15pm Kalamazoo time, which motion was acclaimed.

---

The Society is happy to accept new members, as well as guest pieces. Please email talesaftertolkien@gmail.com to sign on and offer ideas!

AGM at #Kzoo2026

𝔗he President of the Tales after Tolkien Society, Rachel Sikorski, offers the following remarks regarding the upcoming Annual General Meeting of the Society:

The Society's AGM is being held virtually on Thursday, May 14th at 8pm EDT during the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo.

Agenda:

• Determination of offerings for the 2027 ICMS;
• Election of a Secretary, 2026-2029;
• Election of a Vice-President (At-Large), 2026-2029; and
• Other business brought before the membership, as time permits

The offices of Secretary and Vice-President may be any member of the Society in good standing who does not currently hold two offices on the Committee. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be emailed to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com.

If you are unable to attend the meeting for any reason but have business you'd like discussed, would like to run for an office, or have any other questions/concerns, please reach out to us.

Thank you and we hope to see you there!

A Long-Delayed Irregular Post

ℑt's been too long, of course, but there're several pieces of (maybe not new) news to pass along.

First is that the schedule for the International Congress on Medieval Studies is out. The Society has events, listed below in US Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4):

• Thursday, 14 May 2026, 10:30am, "Off the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms," featuring Kristin Noone of Irvine Valley College and Society President Rachel Sikorski
• Thursday, 14 May 2026, 8:00pm, the AGM.
• Friday, 15 May 2026, 1:30pm, "Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games and Other Transmedial Texts (A Roundtable),"featuring Sreyasi Dey of St. Xavier's University, Society Social Media Officer Geoffrey B. Elliott, independent scholar Marguerite Lamy, independent scholar Robin Anne Reid, President Sikorski, and Kris Swank of Pima Community College
• Friday, 15 May 2026, 3:30pm, " Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction," featuring Rebecca R. Davis-Lock of the University of Central Oklahoma, Geoffrey B. Elliott, and Julie Loveland Swanstrom of Augustana University

All are available to online attendees; we hope to see you there!

Noted also are a couple of CFPs of interest. One comes via Society members Carols Robinson and Jamison and can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14K65E64VKF_T8DzY6lwCOD5FmNzcNBTL/view?usp=sharing. Proposals are due via linked form on 1 March 2026.

Society member Michael Torregrossa reports another one here, https://periodicos.ufpb.br/index.php/scandia/announcement/view/1076, on post-medieval reception of Vikings and Norse myths. Proposals are due on 15 September 2026 (a common date for these kinds of things) via https://periodicos.ufpb.br/index.php/scandia.

We look forward to seeing what comes!

Still Another Irregular Update

𝔚ith apologies for the late notice, but this only came in this week...

Prof. Jesús Ángel Solórzano-Telechea of the University of Cantabria notes that the 22nd International Meetings of the Middle Ages of Nájera, dedicated to “Disability and Inclusion in the Medieval City: A Comparative View between Europe and the Islamic World,” will be held 27–28 November 2025. Attendees are welcomed online or in person; register by emailing neim@unican.es. Prof. Solórzano-Telechea also remarks that "Registration is completely free, as the conference is supported by public funding from Spanish and European institutions."

So, if you're available and willing, join in!

 

Yet Another Irregular Update

ℌello once again, all! Since the season advances, we thought it might be good to offer a few reminders; please consider submitting and lett your colleagues, students, friends, and folks you know are interested in this kind of thing know about the following:

The Society's call for papers for the upcoming 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies still remains live--until 15 September 2025. Details still remain here: https://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/2025/07/getting-going-for-kzoo2026.html. We'd love to have your submission for Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games and Other Transmedial Texts; Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms; or Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction ("I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun"). We continue to look forward to seeing you at the 'zoo!

Similarly still open until 15 September 2025 are

• Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Teamup
• The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: Resources for Finding and Accessing Comics and Critiques (A Workshop)
• Magics, Marvels, Metamorphoses, and Monsters: Horrors of the Medieval Past, Present, and Future
• The ISSM conference, online and hosted at UNM, details of which are here: https://medievalisms.org/cfp-issm-2025-conference-medievalisms-in-time-and-space/
• The ISSM sessions at ICMS 2026, details of which are here: https://medievalisms.org/issm-at-icms-2026/

Also always open is the Society's call for submissions to this blog; we love guest pieces! Email talesaftertolkien@gmail.com with a pitch or a full piece, ranging from short-form scholarship to rewatches and rereads to reviews to longer-form commentaries. What you've got, we still want to see! (And, since this is the blog of a learned society and there is editorial feedback, it does count for CVs!)

We look forward to hearing from you!

Another Irregular Update

ℑn an attempt to get back to posting often enough that it makes sense for people to look at what's going on here, the Society is pleased to make note of the following:

The Society's call for papers for the upcoming 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies remains live. Details remain here: https://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/2025/07/getting-going-for-kzoo2026.html. We'd love to have your submission for any of what we have going, and we look forward to seeing you at the 'zoo!

Other calls for papers have come in, as well, in which Society members might be interested. Society Member Michael Torregrossa has Medieval Classics (Re)Illustrated: A Medieval Comics Project Teamup (hybrid): https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7242, which he describes as 

Medieval literature has long been popular with comics creators as the source for stories and characters, which have been adapted, appropriated, and/or transformed within a variety of comics. In this co-sponsored session we seek, primarily, to unite the disciplines of Comics Studies and Medieval(ism) Studies at large to explore the history of comics adaptations, appropriations, and transformations of medieval literature for their value to our teaching and research. In addition, we hope panelists will also address how these comics can shed insight into a creator’s personal connections to the medieval past and/or their readers’ reception of the content.

Michael also has The Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies: Resources for Finding and Accessing Comics and Critiques (A Workshop) (virtual): https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7246. For this one, he writes

This workshop session will highlight the recently launched Medieval Comics Project Bibliographies (https://tinyurl.com/MedievalComicsProjectBiblios), an open-access resource devoted to spreading knowledge of comics based on medieval subjects and furthering discussion and debate of this material.

And one more from Michael:

Magics, Marvels, Metamorphoses, and Monsters: Horrors of the Medieval Past, Present, and Future (Virtual)

Co-sponsored by Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association, Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, International Society for the Study of Medievalism

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart University

Medieval art, culture, and literature contain many elements we view as fantastical today. Images and stories are filled with displays of magic, appearances of marvels, occurrences of metamorphoses, and threats of monsters. All of these are now considered features of the horror genre, but did readers in the Middle Ages perceive them as such? Has our view of the preternatural changed so radically from the medieval era to now? In what ways have these aspects been transformed over time and in new places? We seek to answer these and similar questions in this session designed to unite medieval(ism)ists with colleagues across Monster Studies.

Possible topics
Demons, dragons, Faerie, gargoyles, giants, the Green Knight, Grendelkin, magic, Melusine, Merlin (his origins/abilities), Morgan le Fay, the Questing Beast, revenants, sea monsters, transformations, vampires, werewolves, wild folk, witches, wonders of the East.

Please post paper submissions into the Confex site using the direct link https://icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7279.

Do send any questions to the organizers at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com.  Submissions are due no later than 15 September 2025.

Please be aware that those accepted to the panel must register for the conference in order to present. Past registration costs can be viewed at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration. The International Congress on Medieval Studies does offer limited funding as travel awards and subsidized registration costs; details are available at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.    

For more information about the Monsters & the Monstrous Area of the Northeast Popular Culture Association, do check out our website Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture: https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.   

For more information about the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture, do check out our website Mass Mediævalisms: The Middle Ages of Popular Culture: https://medievalinpopularculture.blogspot.com/.  

For more information about the International Society for the Study of Medievalism, do check out our website at https://medievalisms.org/ and consider signing up for our listserv (details at https://medievalisms.org/issm-listserv/).  [Note that the Society itself is on the listserv.]

Leah Haught brought to attention the following:

Medievalists Design Games is a collaborative and interdisciplinary event that will bring together specialists in medieval studies and experts in modern board game design on UChicago campus in December. Participants will explore the possibilities for design in the classroom and in the public sphere and will work together to prototype new games that reflect their expertise.

For more information, please visit https://medievalistsdesign.games. Be sure to enter your email for very occasional updates about the event.  If you'd like to attend, please register here: https://forms.gle/v7ZouidpTZ5tQMrDA.

There's clearly a lot of the kind of thing the Society likes to do going on, and we encourage you--and people you know--to be part of it.

One other thing: the Society is always looking for guest contributors; some good stuff has come from our guest authors and their work! Email talesaftertolkien@gmail.com with a pitch or a full piece, ranging from short-form scholarship to rewatches and rereads to reviews to longer-form commentaries. What you've got, we want to see!

Addendum: This was also pointed out and may be of interest:

Inspired by the Medieval Academy Fellows Speaker Series, the Lone Medievalist is attempting to build a Database of individuals willing to give virtual and/or in-person presentations on a variety of topics. We hope to provide this information to our Lone Medievalists (and the rest of the community) so that they have a wider range of willing experts to call on for their teaching and community outreach needs. This list will be made available on our website and on our listserv.

Note: You do not need to be a Lone Medievalist to add yourself to the Database! SO in addition to signing up yourself, please share this widely with your networks to help us build the Database!

To add yourself to the Database, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/RadcQHfjMGUsLTHe

As the Database develops, it can be accessed on our website here (be patient as it populates - come back frequently!): https://lonemedievalist.hcommons.org/speaker-database/

About "Carnap Finds the One Ring"

ℑt should come as no surprise that I read webcomics, perhaps more avidly than is good for me. I am, after all, a nerd, as the simple fact of my having written here and having returned to writing here (after far longer than should have been the case, I admit) indicates. But then, it's not a bad thing to be a nerd, and it is at least the case that my focus and attention doesn't result in much that can be used to do harm.

One subject of the comic
Image from Wikipedia, here,
and presumably public domain

In any event, as I was reading the webcomics I regularly read (and there are a few of them), I came across Existential Comics #611, "Carnap Finds the One Ring." For obvious reasons, it piqued my interest; for similarly obvious reasons, I thought a discussion of it here might be fitting. (If I'm wrong, I don't think I want to know.)

The comic itself pokes fun at both Carnap and Tolkien. The former is of a piece with the webcomic series as a whole; the entire premise of Existential Comics is that it presents philosophers and their works and ideas as somewhat absurd, something that no doubt finds much agreement among the reading public (and likely would among the non-reading public did they bother to look at the comic--but as non-readers, they would hardly be expected to do so). Carnap's struggle towards wholly objective language is made no more or less silly by the comic than is Plato's concept of ideal forms or the inevitability of certain puns in the context of philosophy. The latter is perhaps less common in my experience; those I've encountered who decry Tolkien's works rarely do so from a place of having actually read them in any detail but often on the grounds of disliking fiction or fantasy fiction or "that old shit," generally.

So much said, the comic does raise some good points.  One is that riddles depend for their effect on a tension between exactness and ambiguity of meaning. Indeed, I recall one of my professors at UL Lafayette, the late James E. Anderson, remarking that they were used in early English scriptoria specifically to help teach multi-level thinking. I know that in my own teaching, my use of riddles with students worked to that end, and generally well. (I've written about it more formally, for those interested; it's in Ballad of the Lone Medievalist, and an abstract can be found here.) For someone who strives toward exactness and away from ambiguity, engagement with riddles is an easy way to make a joke; addressing them in such a manner as is presented usefully points out the limitations of the riddle as a genre--namely that there is always another possible answer to them, depending on the approach taken.

Another point is that it is somewhat absurd that the riddle-game in The Hobbit happens at all. "For some reason" is, admittedly, something of a misrepresentation of the interaction between Gollum and Bilbo in the damp darkness under the Misty Mountains--both of them had good reason to stall for time, and riddling offers them both opportunity for such--but moving to such a game also admittedly can strike more modern audiences than those original to the novel as an oddity. Playing along with a threat to gain time for assessment makes sense; a word-game as the means for doing so, perhaps less so.

Of course, it must be remembered that the comic is a comic. The point is to get money for the comic-writer make a joke, and so misrepresentation can be excused in the service of that point so long as it does not proceed to the extent of making the subject matter unrecognizable. It does not in the present case. Indeed, the comic does work, or at least it did for me; I laughed at it when I read it, even if doing some dissection on it kills the humor later on.

There is this, too: the treatment of Carnap and Gollum is not the only time Existential Comics has taken up Tolkien...but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to go there at the moment. Another time, perhaps?

An Irregular Update

ℌello once again, all! Thank you for continuing to check in on this webspace, infrequent as updates to it have been. We'll try to be better about getting material up here, and we appreciate your ongoing indulgence.

There are a few points to note. One of them is that Dennis Wilson Wise's New Poets of Rum-Ram-Ruf series, which began here, has a new entry out on Forgotten Ground Regained, "The New Poets of Rum-Ram-Ruf: Charles R. Sleeth." As always, Wise's writing is a pleasure to read, and Society members will likely find much of interest in the online journal as a whole. The upcoming Summer 2026 issue will be particularly prominent for it, being focused on Alliterative Verse in Arda.

Another is that the Society's CFPs for the upcoming International Congress on Medieval Studies remain open. Details are here; as ever, Society members are encouraged to submit and are asked to disseminate information on the proposals widely. Voices from outside traditional academic structures and from historically marginalized communities are especially welcomed.

A couple of other CFPs from Society membership and that may be of interest have also been noted. They have been posted to the Society's Facebook page; for those not on that social media platform, glosses follow here:

• The UNICORN Virtual Museum of Medieval Studies and Medievalism is having a virtual poster session at the 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies. The UNICORN remarks "This poster session is for offering proven strategies for incorporating various types of games into the medieval classroom" and "Suggestions for participants include submit standard poster-size slides (using Canva or Powerpoint) and/or short videos that can be accessed throughout the conference. During the session, participants will introduce posters and be available for questions." Additionally, the CFP description reads "This virtual poster session will explore how we use games to enhance student engagement with and understanding of the Middle Ages and medievalism. Posters can present highlights from effective classroom use of various types of games, including board games, role-playing games, and virtual games. This session can explore how gaming enhances classes taught in various delivery modes, including face-to-face, hybrid, and online asynchronous courses." It's Session 7182, and submissions may be made on Confex.
• The International Society for the Study of Medievalism has a CFP for a virtual conference treating Medievalisms in Time and Space. Noted by them are " We welcome submissions considering aspects of Medievalisms in Time (any temporalities or relationships between them) and Space (inner spaces, Outer Space and outer spaces, contested spaces, geographies real and imagined, trans-temporalities); Trans-medievalisms of all kinds (such as transgender medievalisms, transformative medievalisms, transgressive medievalisms)" and "While we encourage proposals covering these key themes, we welcome papers addressing any aspect of Medievalism." Submissions are requested via Google Form at https://forms.gle/NvsV1vxaVbiiNaNo6.

One more point to bring up: we are always looking for submissions to this blog. Form and format vary, although there is a focus on short-form medievalist scholarship. (For ideas about what that is, see here and here.) Ideas or whole pieces can be emailed to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com under subject line "Post for the TaT Blog"; we're happy to hear from you and work with you to get your work out into the world.

Again, we're working to get things going here once again, and we hope both to hear from you and to have your eyes on what we do!

Getting Going for #Kzoo2026

ℌappy July, all!

The Society is pleased to report that we have THREE offerings for the 2026 International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo! All three are online. The first of them is co-sponsored with Tolkien at Kalamazoo, the roundtable Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games and Other Transmedial Texts. Building upon the #Kzoo2025 work of the Society, it's session 7564, and the description the Congress has of it is

This roundtable explores enduring medieval influences in adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's works across various media, including films and television, table-top and video games, and other transmedial texts. Roundtable panelists will examine how Tolkien's deep engagement with medieval literature, history, and mythology continues to shape modern interpretations, from the visual aesthetics and world-building in cinematic adaptations to the narrative structures and mechanics in interactive games and other media. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the discussion will address ways medieval motifs are preserved, altered, or reimagined in these adaptations, considering both creative intentions and audience reception.

The second session, a paper session, is Off of the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms. It's session 7569, and the description the Congress has of it is

While the pop culture landscape of books and films often borrow from and are inspired by "the medieval period"–as well as frequently disseminated, propagated, and influenced by neo-medievalist works such as those by Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, and Hobb–relatively little discourse focuses on how other types of contemporary works pull from the same and/or similar influences. With the increasing popularity of medievalism in games, music, etc., this paper panel seeks to prompt, deepen, and explore the study and discussion of the less commonly talked about–yet no less consumed–works and how they look to and use popular mis/understandings of the medieval.

The third, another paper session, is Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction. Originally subtitled "I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun," it's session 7572, and the description the Congress has of it is

This session seeks to examine the misuses and misapplications of the medieval within any fictional media from 1974 forward. Sometimes, accessibility to contemporary audiences requires deviation from what is known to scholarship; sometimes, narrative demands impose changes to particular interpretations of source material. Sometimes, however, things are flatly wrong. Effects on audiences differ, but it is clear that many audiences and authors use contemporary fiction as a means to understand earlier periods. This session seeks to explore what they get right, what they get less right, and why it matters to our ongoing understanding of the belief about the medieval.

Dear members, and dear readers, please publicize this widely; tell your friends, tell your colleagues, tell your students who have them! And get your own abstracts ready; we'd love to have your work!

Update: submissions for each are due no later than 15 September 2025 via Confex. Details are still forthcoming of the AGM.

So, About #Kzoo2025 and Looking at #Kzoo2026

ℌello, all; we hope you are and continue to be well!

At the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies, held at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Society cosponsored a paper session with Tolkien at Kalamazoo: Return of the Franchise: Twenty-First-Century Continuations of Tolkien's Medievalism. The session, taking place at 3:30pm local time on 10 May 2025, was organized by Yvette Kisor (Ramapo College) and Society President Rachel Sikorski and presided over by Society member Kris Swank (University of Glasgow); it consisted of four papers.

The first was "Dice of the Rings: Reflections on a Particular Tabletop Roleplaying Game Set Amid Tolkien's Legendarium," by Geoffrey B. Elliott (Society Social Media Officer). Elliott writes of it "Among the many adaptations of Tolkien's Legendarium are many tabletop roleplaying games. These include the principal example of the genre, Dungeons & Dragons. They also range to several licensed tabletop roleplaying games. The adaptations necessary to such games illuminate both Tolkien's continued reception and popular mis/use of the medieval." A copy of the text of his paper is available at his website, Elliott RWI, and is linked here.

The second paper was "'Do not touch the water!': Gendered Materiality in Tolkien's Visual Frames," by Benjamin E.C. Shotton (University of Bristol). Shotton writes "This paper articulates the systematic and morally fraught processes of vision and visuality in The Lord of the Rings by considering how the materiality of both the Mirror of Galadriel and the Palantíri construct and enforce gendered modes of looking."

The third paper was "Peace(ful) Bywater: Exploring 'Tales of the Shire' and Analyzing the Rise of Cozy Media within the Lord of the Rings Franchise," by Rachel Sikorski. Sikorski writes "By analyzing 'Tales of the Shire and its marketing material,' this paper aims to identify and explore the thematic, aesthetic, and narrative elements that make a piece of work ‘cozy.’ Additionally, it will examine why Tolkien’s oeuvre provides an ideal backdrop for such a game within the current pop-culture landscape."

The final paper was "Rings of Power: Narrative Framing and Past Feminist Critique of Tolkien's Works," by Julie Loveland Swanstrom (Augustana University). Swanstrom writes "As Tolkien’s works are explored, examined, and expanded upon, some properties like Rings of Power seem to deal directly with several critiques levied at Tolkien’s works, namely a lack of gender and racial diversity. Centering on women and normalizing characters of color utilizes some existing Tolkienian to include more fans."

Delivery and discussion of the papers went well, with ample audience participation in the latter. It is hoped that subsequent Congresses will be able to build upon the work done.

A privately hosted annual general meeting followed the paper session at 6pm local time that same day. Owing to late notice and the scheduling concerns occasioned by the same, attendance at the meeting itself was limited, with only Rachel Sikorski and Geoffrey B. Elliott in attendance. Discussion at the scheduled meeting therefore treated matters only of immediate interest.

The first of them was cosponsoring a session with Tolkien at Kalamazoo--"Adaptations of Tolkien: Medieval Traces in Movies, Games and other Transmedial Texts (A Roundtable)"--at the 2026 Congress. The text of the session proposal is "This roundtable explores enduring medieval influences in adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's works across various media, including films and television, table-top and video games, and other transmedial texts. Roundtable panelists will examine how Tolkien's deep engagement with medieval literature, history, and mythology continues to shape modern interpretations, from the visual aesthetics and world-building in cinematic adaptations to the narrative structures and mechanics in interactive games and other media. Through interdisciplinary perspectives, the discussion will address ways medieval motifs are preserved, altered, or reimagined in these adaptations, considering both creative intentions and audience reception." Given the success of the day's paper session, it was determined that the Society would cosponsor the session.

The second matter of immediate interest was re-addressing the meeting. Since notice had not gone out in a timely fashion, it was determined that matters of interest that would normally have been treated in an annual general meeting would be addressed via online survey distributed via the Society email list and discussed in responses to the same, as well as the Society Discord.

Said survey was drafted and disseminated, if with some challenges, with over a week afforded members to respond. The transmission of the email was noted on the Society Facebook page, with a call for members who did not receive their copy of the same to request it be sent to them again. Seven responses were received, with minimal differences among them.

The survey asked the following:

• Luke Shelton has offered to remain VP (USA) for the 2025-2028 term. Do you approve?
• If and only if you do not approve of Luke Shelton as VP (USA), whom would you nominate for the position? The nominee must be a member in good standing and must not presently hold two committee positions in the Society.
• Geoffrey B. Elliott has offered to remain Social Media Officer for the 2025-2028 term. Do you approve?
• If and only if you do not approve of Geoffrey B. Elliott as Social Media Officer, whom would you nominate for the position? The nominee must be a member in good standing and must not presently hold two committee positions in the Society.
• The Society offers to propose as a paper session at the 2026 ICMS the following
  
  Off the Printed Prose Page: Multimodal Medievalisms
  "Other media than literature, ranging from the obvious movies to video games and music, among others, make much of the medieval and the kinds of ideas of the medieval that are promulgated and propagated by Tolkienian-tradition works. Rich as other arts are, and borrowing from the medieval as they do, there is relatively little discourse that focuses on how contemporary works in multiple media make use of the medieval, as such. The proposed paper session seeks to open conversations about how non-literary works look to popular mis/understandings of the medieval, making use of and influencing commonplace perceptions of the medieval."
  
  Should the Society propose the paper session?
• The Society offers to propose as a paper session at the 2026 ICMS the following
  
  Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction; or, I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun
  "That much contemporary fiction looks to the medieval for inspiration is clear. That that fiction gets a lot of the medieval wrong is also clear. Why the wrongness persists, what forms it tends to take, and what functions the particular errors serve may not be quite as clear--and so they bear examination, which the proposed paper session purposes to foster."
  
  Should the Society propose the paper session?
• If the Society should *not* propose either of the listed paper sessions, what should it propose and why?
• Is there other business you would like the Society to consider? Please let us know!

All respondents affirmed that Shelton and Elliott should remain in their positions; no other nominees were proposed.

Six of the seven respondents affirmed that the Off the Printed Prose Page session should be proposed. The lone dissenter noted difficulty filling multiple sessions and emphasized that the Bad Medieval/ism session should be proposed.

All respondents affirmed that the Bad Medieval/ism session should be proposed.

Consequently, the Society will be submitting proposals for a cosponsored roundtable with Tolkien at Kalamazoo, as well as two paper sessions. The intent, to facilitate attendance, it to have all sessions take place virtually. Similarly, the Society will ask for formally hosted virtual space for its 2026 annual general meeting at the 2026 Congress; expected agenda items will be the election of a Vice-President At-large (term ending 2029), the election of a Secretary (term ending 2029), and the determination of offerings for the 2027 Congress. Details of submissions and scheduling will follow as they become available.

AGM at #Kzoo2025

With apologies for the late notice: 

AGM to happen at the following Zoom link, https://us05web.zoom.us/j/84395462130?pwd=EW4q8mLqQSzc828gcAMiAZcaVugtW5.1, at 6pm K'zoo time after our panel. Agenda:

• Determination of offerings for the 2026 ICMS
• Election of a Social Media Officer, 2025-2028; and
• Election of a Vice-President (USA), 2025-2028.
• Other business brought before the membership, as time permits

The offices of Social Media Officer and Vice-President may, be any member of the Society in good standing who does not currently hold two offices on the Committee. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be emailed to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com.

Moving towards #Kzoo2025

ℌello, again, all, and may you continue to be well!

The Tales after Tolkien Society is pleased to report that the program for the upcoming 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies is up, here, and that the Society's hybrid session--number 405, "Return of the Franchise: Twenty-First-Century Continuations of Tolkien’s Medievalism"--will take place at 3:30pm US Eastern Time on Saturday, 10 May 2025. For those on site, it will be in Sangren 1320.

 No business meeting is scheduled among Congress proceedings; details of the AGM will be forthcoming.

The Weirdness of Tolkien’s Old Norse Poems

The guest-post series by Dennis Wilson Wise, "The New Poets of Rum-Ram-Ruf," concludes its investigation of Tolkien's works, furthered here.

If you like the work Wise does, find more of it in his edited collection, Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival, reviewed by Daniel A. Rabuzzi at Strange Horizons.

Editorial intrusion remains minimal, mostly inserting relevant links.

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[Last week, I discussed Tolkien’s poem in dróttkvætt meter, “The Derelicts,” and showed how “Black Heave the Billows” is in ljódaháttr meter. This helps date both texts to 1932-1934. As I’ll show here, however, the picture is actually more complicated than that.]

The Problem

𝔗o pick up where I left off last week, I’ve been arguing that Tolkien’s four poems in Norse meters all appeared roughly together during the period of 1932–1933. By relying on metrical form rather than subject matter, I also avoid the problem of why Tolkien might have chosen Old Norse meters for Old English subject matter.

That problem is mainly why I hesitated with the dating provided by Scull and Hammond. After all, they linked “The Derelicts” with Tolkien’s first lectures on the old Germanic legend of Finn and Hengest, which in my view puts the poem two years too soon, and they also linked “Black Heave the Billows” thematically with the Old English poems The Wanderer and The Seafarer. Although I ultimately agree with their c. 1932 dating, there’s nothing concrete about any of these poems’ contents to suggest this linkage. Nothing except vibes, anyway.

Here’s the hitch. Even if “The Derelicts” and “Black Heave the Billows” are Old Norse-style poems (and they most definitely are), they sure are weird Old Norse-style poems.

Actually, let me back up a moment. Earlier, I had harped on the idea of Tolkien using a metrical form that misaligns with his content. However…well, he sometimes did do exactly that. At least for “The Prophecy of the Sibyl,” we can blame things on habit. Tolkien was just used to writing poetry in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. In something like The Fall of Arthur, though, he clearly uses Old English meter for an Arthurian subject, but the Anglo-Saxons, of course, never had an Arthurian tradition. It was the Saxons, after all, whom Arthur was most famous for trouncing from one end of the British Isles to another.

My best explanation for that one is that Tolkien just wished to combine the “Matter of Britain” with a metrical form especially connected with the English language prior to the Norman Conquest. Yet it’s relevant, too, I think, that Tolkien had just completed his Norse quartet. He remained bored with octosyllabic couplets and had rediscovered his joy in alliterative verse. The Fall of Arthur helped him continue in that vein.

Which brings me back to the weirdness of “The Derelicts” and “Black Heave the Billows.”

Now: Old Norse and Old English alliterative poetics share the same basic fundamentals. In terms of content, however, they had some differences. Norse poets generally used fornyrðislag for heroic legends and ancient myths. Dróttkvætt is a court poetry for praising kings. Ljódaháttr typically applies to wisdom poetry, magical charms, and dialogue.

None of these conditions apply to “The Derelicts” or “Black Heave the Billows.” In fact, according to Tolkien’s own lecture notes, Old Norse poets like to “seize the situation.” They had a flair for the dramatic and the shocking. In other words, these poets (says Tolkien) wanted to “poke you in the eye,” or to borrow a more contemporary idiom, Old Norse poets wanted to present their audiences with a nice swift kick in the gonads. 

E.g.
Taken from Giphy

What does such gonad-kicking entail? You know, the standard things. Murder. Incest. Bloody betrayals. Or maybe eating a dragon’s heart cooked over an open flame. Perhaps even forcing your (semi-) beloved young sons to knead dough filled with poisonous serpents, but after they start whining about the snakes like the sniveling little cowards they are, asking your handsome brother to decapitate them with a battle-axe. The usual.

In the Old English tradition, however, scopas brought a slightly different sensibility to things. Oh, don’t get me wrong. They liked a good old-fashioned blood feud just as much as the next guy, particularly if everyone winds up dead at the end. But they at least expected you to feel sad about it.

Their sense of elegy, this mournful melancholy, is certainly a mood that pervades Tolkien’s two Norse-metered texts. In the first one, “The Derelicts,” Tolkien hits on bleak nature imagery especially hard. A nameless “they” are gazing upon a lonely beach at night, and various pools are reflecting “winter’s candles,” the stars, as a wind causes ripples across their surface. Tolkien’s next stanza then transitions to the stanza reprinted by Roberta Frank, then moves onto a third stanza that emphasizes gloom and silence. By this time, however, a mist had enshrouded the shore, so now the repeated phrase “winter’s candles” no longer refers to pool-reflected starlight but to starlight as “twisted” by the thick encroaching mist. 

Seems nice to me, actually.
Image provided by Wise

Which, you know, seems pretty bad. Somehow.

Happy times continue with “Black Heave the Billows.” Like Tolkien’s dróttkvætt poem, this one hits the nature imagery hard (i.e., waves–ship–shore), but Tolkien also subtly hints at a vicious, piratical marauding: “On a gleaming gunwale a glint of shields, / a white foaming furrow.” Yet beyond such vague hints of soul-destroying violence, the central situation—the reason for such gloom—is no more spelled out than in “The Derelicts.” We encounter an atmosphere of spiritual desolation as incarnated within bleak seascapes, but nothing specific.

This kind of spiritual desolation goes unparalleled within Old Norse literature. For one thing, skalds rarely bother to describe nature. Even more to the point is how frequently academics comment on the emotional impassivity of folks in Norse texts, especially the sagas. Such characters avoid every demonstrable expression of emotion. When a passionate response arises, poets generally represent them through involuntary gestures such as facial tics or random fist clenching. Or to put matters more bluntly, Norse heroes are about as attuned to their feelings as hard-boiled detectives. Mr. Sigurd Sigmundsson? Meet Sam Spade.

For Old English poets, however, although they don’t ever focus on the psychology of individual people, if you read their work long enough, you soon realize how every scop is basically just an emo goth kid moping his way through life. Emotional coloring suffuses their verse, especially the elegies. Britt Mize in Traditional Subjectivities (2013) does a good job highlighting this general moodiness. In Old English verse, he says, the poets give “generous attention to mental and emotional qualities and states” (p. 6). Even more importantly, they often strive to create an “atmosphere dominated by the portrayal of private emotion” (p. 7)

To me that sure sounds like “The Derelicts” and “Black Heave the Billows.” Tolkien punts on individual psychology, and he combines natural seascapes with a randomized sense of spiritual gloom in order to create a particularly un-Norse-like effect. He doesn’t “poke you in the eye”; he takes you by the hand and asks if you’d like to see a priest. So when Scull and Hammond date “Black Heave the Billows” to c. 1932 because of the striking similarities they see between this poem and The Seafarer and The Wanderer…well, damn. I can’t entirely disagree.

In fact, just about the only real Norse quality to these texts (other than meter) is Tolkien’s technique of stanzaic parataxis. Both New Lays use this often. Rather than wasting syllables by describing how episodes relate to one another causally, Tolkien simply sets his episodes side-by-side. He therefore forces readers to make the necessary connective leaps themselves, to deduce how situation A has contributed or led to situation B.

The same paratactic technique occurs throughout “The Derelicts” and “Black Heave the Billows.” The former poem has three stanzas; so does the latter. Between these stanzas there exists no explicit causal connections. In fact, we can’t be entirely certain these stanzas even constitute unified texts at all. But if they do form single texts (and I suspect they do), it’s up to readers to glean the narrative situations these poems seem to imply.

At end of day, it’s still not entirely clear to me why Tolkien chooses to mix-and-match medieval traditions in quite this way. What is clearer, at least in my humble estimation, is that “The Derelicts” and “Black Heave the Billows” are sister poems, perhaps written consecutively, and each belongs to the 1932–1933 period when Tolkien was likewise experimenting with fornyrðislag for his two New Lays.

The Final Countdown

Finally, though: why does any of this matter?

Well, for me, perhaps the major reason simply involves coming to a better understanding of Tolkien’s trajectory as a poet. Everyone knows that The Lord of the Rings contains verse, and everyone knows several of these verses appear in Old English alliterative meter. For that, Tolkien’s brief Norse phase was a stepping stone.

There’s a more general biographical interest as well. Tolkien was a busy guy, and for him the early 1930s were an especially fruitful time. Besides his alliterative anni mirabiles, Tolkien was also rewriting his “Sketch of the Mythology” in 1930; working to reform the Oxford English Syllabus in 1931; composing A Secret Vice by August of that year; taking on new students like E. O. G. Turville-Petre; writing and drawing his annual Father Christmas letters; and composing The Hobbit up through the death of Smaug. (He lent the manuscript to a friend at the end of 1932 or shortly thereafter.)

Between all this, Tolkien somehow found the time to reinvent himself as a poet. By June 1933, moreover, Tolkien was nominated as an honorary member of the Icelandic Literary Society—a group dedicated to promoting Icelandic language, literature and learning. I have no idea if Tolkien’s membership was connected somehow to his Norse quartet. Maybe. Or maybe he was nominated solely because of his teaching on Norse subjects. In any event, for understanding Tolkien better as a scholar, a poet, and as a fantasy author, everything helps.