The conference takes place May 7- 10

Thanks to Tales after Tolkien, Tolkien at Kalamazoo, The Fantasy Research Hub at the University of Glasgow, William Fliss, and Elizabeth A. Terry-Roisin for organizing the panels!

 

On Thursday, May 7:

10:00am–“Medieval World-Building: Tolkien, His Precursors and Legacies”

The papers will be:• Tolkien, Robin Hood, and the Matter of the Greenwood,
Perry Neil Harrison, Fort Hays State Univ.
• Valinor in America: Faerian Drama and the Disenchantment of Middle-earth, John D. Rateliff, Independent Scholar
• Tolkien’s Golden Trees and Silver Leaves: Do Writers Build the Same World for Every Reader, Luke Shelton, Univ. of Glasgow
• Infinity War of the Ring: Parallels between the Conflict within Sauron and Thanos, Jeremy Byrum, Independent Scholar

 

On Friday, May 8:

1:30pm–“Deadscapes: Wastelands, Necropoli, and Other Tolkien-Inspired Places of Death, Decay, and Corruption (A Panel Discussion)”

The papers will be:• Sites of Memory in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings,
Geoffrey B. Elliott
• Death and Politics in the Fourth World: Apocalypse and Recovery in the Earthdawn Roleplaying Games, Karol Rybaltowski, FASA Games, Inc.
• “Beorhtnoth we bear, not Beowulf”: Descriptive Restraint in The Homecoming of Beorthnoth, Beorhthelm’s Son, Brian McFadden, Texas Tech Univ.
• “Filled with Echoes”: Norse and Celtic Elements of Tolkien’s Early Realms of the Dead, Amy M. Amendt Raduege, Whatcom College

 

Saturday, May 9

10:00am–“Tolkien and Se Wyrm”

The papers will be:• A Womb of One’s Own: The Power of Feminine Spaces over the Mythical Phallus, Annie Brust, Kent State Univ.
• Signum Draco Magno Scilicet, or, Earendel and the Dragons: Heavenly Warfare in Medieval European and Tolkienian Annals, Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State Univ.
• Of Serpents and Sin, Michael A. Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.

The papers will be:
• Materiality in Tolkien’s Medievalism: The Production of Secondary Manuscript Traditions, Brad Eden, Independent Scholar
• A Letter To a Friend: The “King’s Letter” as Para-text in The Lord of the Rings, Andrew Higgins, Independent Scholar
• Finding and Organizing Tolkien’s Invented Languages,
Eileen Marie Moore, Cleveland State Univ.
• Do Young Readers Care What Authors, Editors, or Publishers Think? Young Readers’ Engagement with Paratext and Epitexts of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Luke Shelton, East Tennessee State Univ.
• The Things He Left Behind: Signatures, Marginalia, and Ephemera in Tolkien’s Irish Library, Kristine A. Swank, Univ. of Glasgow.

 

3:30pm–“Tolkien’s Chaucer”

The papers will be:
• Romance and Sexuality in Tolkien’s Lost Chaucer, Yvette Kisor, Ramapo College
• Tolkien, Chaucer, and the History of Ideas, Sharin F. Schroeder, National Taipei Univ. of Technology
• Travel, Redemption, and Pilgrimage Redux, Victoria Wodzak, Viterbo Univ.

 

Sunday, May 10:

8:30am–“Tolkien and Manuscript Studies”

The papers will be:
• Cotton MS Vitellius A.XII and Tolkien’s “Asterisk” History of the Lord’s Prayer, John R. Holmes, Franciscan Univ. of Steubenville
• Tolkien, Manuscripts, and Dialect, Edward L. Risden, St. Norbert College
• God and the Artist: Francis Thompson (1859–1907) and Sub-Creation, Brad Eden, Independent Scholar

10:30am–“The End of Game of Thrones in History and Literature”

The papers will be:
• The End of Game of Thrones: Contra-Lewis and Tolkien, Knighthood, Kingship, and the Realm, Elizabeth A. Terry-Roisin
• George R. R. Martin’s Muscular Medievalism: Masculinity, Violence, and Fantasy, Steven Bruso, Endicott College
• Waking the Dragon: Daenerys’s Mad Turn and the Politics of Colonialism in Game of Thrones, Thomas Blake, Austin College