Queer Lodgings is one year old! Help Grace, Leah, and Alicia mark the occasion with a bit of reflection of the first year of the podcast as Tim asks a few questions about their experience thus far. We also share some teasers of what listeners can expect in our second year and beyond, and share some laughs over failed attempts of auto-transcription at Tolkienian names. Plus, learn how listeners can convince the co-hosts to do readings from Demetrious Polychron's terrible knock-off Lord of the Rings sequel!

Thanks for joining us on this journey over the past year, and we hope you'll continue on this path with us for many more!

Rory and Stuart from The Alliance of Arda join us to discuss Aromantic/Asexual (Aro/Ace) readings of Tolkien. Bagginses! Aldarion! Istari! Sauron!? Listen in as we fill in some of the gaps (and some deep, problematic holes) with Queer Readings that put the 'A' in LGBTQIA+!

Content Warning: Transphobia, Acephobia

Catching up on some recent and upcoming events in the world of Tolkien, we begin by lauding some of our favorite presentations from the recent Tolkien Society Seminar and GIFcon. We compare a couple of very different upcoming Religion-themed Tolkien-focused events, and then highlight the participation of the Queer Lodgings team in several panels and presentations at the Mythopoeic Society's Online Midsummer Seminar on Aug 5th-6th. Queer Lodgings also took over the #TolkienTrewsday hashtag recently, and we discuss what a great experience it was for the Tolkien Twitter community! Finally, we fan swoon over the Lord of the Rings-themed 'Magic: The Gathering' set, and the wonderful representation found in the art on some some of the cards. Lots of teasers here for future content on our podcast from great Tolkien scholars doing ground-breaking work!

Content warning: Spanking, BDSM, Forced Marriage

In the second part of our 'Tolkien Would Hate This Podcast' series, Leah, Grace, and Alicia examine the world in Tolkien's time as it relates to sexuality and queerness, and JRRT's own opinions, experiences, and relationships with them. Listen to Grace's theory that polyamory could have prevented the events of The Silmarillion, and the evidence that Tolkien stayed up late in the bath reading a book of gay poetry that included references to glory holes. #ReleaseTheTolkienSmut

CW: sexual assault, rape, homophobia, suicide, HIV/AIDS

We're back! In this new series of episodes, Alica, Grace, and Leah tackle the criticism that "Tolkien would hate this podcast" for a whole host of reasons: We (and our listeners) are too Queer, too Progressive, not Catholic enough, too 'woke', or too willing to accept multiple and even contradictory readings. In this first episode of a series, we talk about Tolkien’s attitudes about his fans, reader interpretation/response to his works, and adaptation.

To celebrate our first 'Tolkien Reading Day' as a podcast, we each chose a favourite poem from Tolkien to read. Grace selected 'The Mewlips' (1962), Alicia chose 'Progress in Bimble Town' (1931), and Leah's pick was 'Errantry' (1933).

Leah, Grace, and Alicia are joined by 'Tolkien White Man' Tim to discuss representations of masculinity, patriarchy, and gender roles in Middle-earth, with a specific focus on Aldarion, Faramir, Aragorn, and Elrond.

To celebrate Black History Month, we welcome Tolkien scholars Megan B. Abrahamson and Maria K. Alberto for a discussion on their in-progress research into Black fan art depictions of the elf Fingon. In between Fëanorian apologia, they share what inspired Tumblr artists to break with the 'default' depiction of Tolkien's elves as light-skinned.

Note: We experienced some intermittent audio issues while recording this episode. Please excuse the audio quality in places.

We're back for our first episode of 2023! Leah, Grace, and Alicia welcome on new friend-of-the-podcast Taylor Driggers, author of 'Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature: Fantastic Incarnations and the Deconstruction of Theology', to discuss the intersections between faith, fantasy, and queerness. Get ready for discussion of the history of queerness and the influence of christianity upon it, queer readings of Tolkien, and some recommendations for new queer fantasy.

As our special holiday gift to our listeners, Alicia, Grace, and Leah take a look at a lighter topic of Tolkien fandom - fan fiction. In particular, the festive pairing of 'Silvergifting'... that's Sauron/Celebrimbor, for the uninitiated. After some introduction to fan fiction and its history, we engage in a few dramatic readings of Silvergifting fics. Let's just say we really earn the 'Explicit' tag this episode, and uncover a disappointing lack of 'creative' uses of Rings of Power with this pairing.