In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Ali Mirzabayati about death and mourning in Tolkien's work. Ali published his thesis Death as a Gift: A Heroic Celebration of Life in The Lord of the Rings in December 2024.

Ali Mirzabayati is a scholar of medieval literature and modern fantasy, including Tolkien's legendarium.

More Ali:

Mourning and Melancholia in The Lord of the Rings

Sounds of Battle and Battle of Sounds: Belliphonic in Tolkien

Beowulf and Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods of Hrothgar and Gandalf

Further reading/listening:

Amendt-Raduege - The Sweet and the Bitter: Death and Dying in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Vaninskaya - Fantasies of Time and Death

Freud - On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Lee Konstantinou about Tolkien's right-wing (or neo-reactionary) fans in Silicon Valley. Lee's essay Mythic Capital: How Tolkien is Whispering in the Ears of America's Most Powerful Men, is out now from Arc. Long-time listeners will know that this is our third time talking about this subject -- our first episode on the subject, from November 2022, can be found here, and our second, from July 2024 about then-VP nominee JD Vance, can be found here.

Lee Konstantinou is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland whose writing has been featured in Slate, Arc, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.

More Lee:

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Strangers in a Strange Land: Science-fictional Notes on the "Abundance" Agenda

Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction

Something is Broken In Our Science Fiction

Further reading/listening:

Tally (Spectre, 8/24) - Tolkien's Deplorable Cultus

Canavan (Dissent, 1/25) - Tolkien Against The Grain

Kakutani (NYT, 5/25) - Why Silicon Valley's Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits

Douthat (NYT, 6/25) (audio) - Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

Gellman (The Atlantic, 11/23) - Peter Thiel is Taking A Break From Democracy

Alexander (Substack, 5/25) - Moldbug Sold Out

Gabor (Phenomenal World, 2/25) - How To DOGE USAID

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 17 and 18 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the coming of men into Beleriand, the death of Fingolfin, and Hurin and Huor's visit to Gondolin.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Robert Tally about his new book The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien's Demonized Creatures, out now from McFarland Books.

Robert Tally is a Professor of English at Texas State University. He's written extensively about Tolkien and Marxist literary criticism.

More Rob:

Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology

JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit: A Critical Companion

Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien's Inhuman Creatures

Demonizing The Enemy, Literally: Tolkien, Orcs, and the Sense of the World Wars

The Southern Phoenix Triumphant: Richard Weaver, or, the Origins of Contemporary U.S. Conservatism

Also mentioned:

Bould/Mieville (ed.) - Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction

Croft et. al (ed.) - Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey

Fonstad - Atlas of Middle-Earth

Jameson - Archaeologies of the Future

Jameson - Fables of Aggression

Jameson - The Political Unconscious

Lukas - The Historical Novel

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

Mohler (Existential Comics) - The Council of Elrond

Sofge - Orc Holocaust

Stuart - Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-Earth

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Stephen Yandell about Beowulf and the many ways it inspired Tolkien.

Steve Yandell is a medievalist and Tolkien scholar who has been a Professor of English at Xavier University since 2003. He regularly teaches courses on both Tolkien and medieval literature, including Beowulf.

More Steve:

"A Pattern Which Our Nature Cries Out For": The Medieval Tradition of the Ordered Four in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien

Cruising Faery: Queer Desire in Giles, Niggle, and Smith

Selection from Math Son of Mathonwy, from the Mabinogi

The translations:

Tolkien - Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Heaney - Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

Headley - Beowulf: A New Translation

Primary sources:

Tolkien - Beowulf: The Monsters and The Critics (PDF)

The Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

Also mentioned:

Howarth - 1066: The Year of the Conquest

Leyerle - The Interlace Structure of Beowulf

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 15 and 16 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the founding of Gondolin, Thingol's abolition of Quenya, and the tragic tale of Eöl, Beleriand's palest and weirdest elf.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Also mentioned:

The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

Butcher's Crossing - John Williams

Alchemy is real

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Robin Reid about feminist and queer Tolkien scholarship and fandom.

Robin Reid is a Tolkien scholar who was a professor of English at Texas A&M University until her retirement in 2020. She is currently working on a book that will be a feminist reception study of women and non-binary readers of Tolkien, with updates posted on her Substack here.

More Robin:

Women & Tolkien: Amazons, Valkyries, Feminists, and Slashers

J.R.R. Tolkien, Culture Warrior

Thrusts in the Dark: Slashers' Queer Practices

Sources/mentions:

Brown - “Éowyn it was, and Dernhelm also”

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Craig - Queer Lodgings: Gender and Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings

Crowe - Power in Arda: Sources, Uses, and Misuses

Donovan - The Valkyrie Reflex in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Fimi - Tolkien, Folklore, and Foxes (YouTube)

Kisor/Vaccaro (ed) - Tolkien and Alterity

Merrick - The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms

Queripel - The Mariner (and his wife): Rethinking Aldarion's (A)sexuality

Rateliff - The Missing Women: J. R. R. Tolkien's Lifelong Support for Women's Higher Education

Smith - At Home and Abroad: Éowyn's Two-fold Figuring as War Bride in The Lord of the Rings

Timmons - Hobbit Sex and Sensuality

Vaccaro - “Dyrne Langað”: Secret Longing and Homo-amory in Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Walls-Thumma - The Inequality Prototype: Gender, Inequality, and the Valar in Tolkien’s Silmarillion

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 13 and 14 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the death of Feanor, the reuniting of the Noldor, and a very long description of a map. To make "Of Beleriand and Its Realms" a bit easier to digest, here are a couple maps: this one by Tolkien himself, this "cleaner" one by Sirelle on DeviantArt, and this political map by u/tolkien_erklaert on Reddit.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Also mentioned:

Atlas of Middle-Earth - Karen Wynn Fonstad

The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien - John Garth

The Verge - Patrick Wyman

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including King Thingol of the Sindar, the creation of the sun and moon, and the coming of men (finally).

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's love of trees and the environment.

Primary sources:

The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Curry - Defending Middle-Earth

Kocher - Master of Middle-Earth

Hull (Reactor Mag) - The Long Defeat: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change

Wikipedia - Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings

More reading:

Pope Francis - Laudato Si

Demsas (The Atlantic) - The Culture War Tearing American Environmentalism Apart

Solis (Nevada Current) - Solar power project threatens prime desert tortoise habitat, conservationists warn

Ruhl & Salzman - The Greens' Dilemma: Building Tomorrow's Climate Infrastructure Today

Our earlier episode on Aule and Yavanna

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