Well, the autumn term is nearly upon me, but I did manage to escape to Oxford a couple of weeks ago to take part in Oxonmoot, Tolkien Society’s annual gathering that combines a conference, art exhibition, performances, etc. Oxonmoot has been…
I am on annual leave at last (hooray!) and it’s time for another long-overdue update. It’s been a very busy few months, mainly taken up by working on two books (!) and being involved in a number of events. First…
Stuck in trains for hours yesterday, I was revisiting favourite passages from The Lord of the Rings. It’s almost a cliche to say that every re-reading rewards you with new details of Tolkien’s invented world that you hadn’t quite noticed…
Tolkien scholars and fans alike have been extremely lucky to have witnessed a flurry of recent publications of Tolkien’s works such as The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009), The Fall of Arthur (2013) and Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary,…
It’s been a while since my last update: I am back to lecturing full-time now, and I really hit the ground running this term! Among other modules, I taught Literary Transformations (Year 2), Gothic and Science Fiction (Year 3) and…
The two online courses I run at UWIC last autumn will run again in May, starting on Monday 23rd May 2011. Enrolment is now open! Fantasy Literature: Tales Before and After Tolkien (Year 3 undergraduate level) will examine the origins…
Thanks to all of you who sent e-mails with kind words about “Clash of the Gods”: I am pleased you found it informative and engaging. I have still only seen bits and pieces of the three episodes I was in…
A new series on world mythologies has been airing in the USA History Channel since late August 2009. The series started with Classical Greek Myths (Zeus, Medusa, Hercules, and others) and the next few episodes are now going to focus…
In the last few months a number of reviews of my book Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits have appeared in various journals and magazines. I was delighted to see the latest one: a review by Jon…
The sixth volume of the journal Tolkien Studies has just been published. As always it contains a great selection of scholarly articles, shorter notes and book reviews on many different aspects of Tolkien’s creativity. The leading article is a very…
