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!
