Episodes

  • The Mismeasure of Orcs (w/ Robert Tally)

    The Mismeasure of Orcs (w/ Robert Tally)
    Jun 19 2025
    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 IdeologyJRR Tolkien's The Hobbit: A Critical CompanionLet Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien's Inhuman CreaturesDemonizing The Enemy, Literally: Tolkien, Orcs, and the Sense of the World WarsThe Southern Phoenix Triumphant: Richard Weaver, or, the Origins of Contemporary U.S. ConservatismAlso mentioned:Bould/Mieville (ed.) - Red Planets: Marxism and Science FictionCroft et. al (ed.) - Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom ShippeyFonstad - Atlas of Middle-EarthJameson - Archaeologies of the FutureJameson - Fables of AggressionJameson - The Political UnconsciousLukas - The Historical NovelMills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish ManifestoMohler (Existential Comics) - The Council of ElrondSofge - Orc HolocaustStuart - Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-EarthLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    2 hrs and 24 mins
  • An Echo of an Echo (w/ Stephen Yandell)

    An Echo of an Echo (w/ Stephen Yandell)
    Jun 2 2025

    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


    Leave us a review! Email us at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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    1 hr and 32 mins
  • Eöl The Pale

    Eöl The Pale
    May 18 2025

    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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    1 hr
  • Femme Fandoms (w/ Robin Anne Reid)

    Femme Fandoms (w/ Robin Anne Reid)
    Apr 25 2025
    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 SlashersJ.R.R. Tolkien, Culture WarriorThrusts in the Dark: Slashers' Queer PracticesSources/mentions:Brown - “Éowyn it was, and Dernhelm also”Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A BiographyCraig - Queer Lodgings: Gender and Sexuality in The Lord of the RingsCrowe - Power in Arda: Sources, Uses, and MisusesDonovan - The Valkyrie Reflex in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsFimi - Tolkien, Folklore, and Foxes (YouTube)Kisor/Vaccaro (ed) - Tolkien and AlterityMerrick - The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction FeminismsQueripel - The Mariner (and his wife): Rethinking Aldarion's (A)sexualityRateliff - The Missing Women: J. R. R. Tolkien's Lifelong Support for Women's Higher EducationSmith - At Home and Abroad: Éowyn's Two-fold Figuring as War Bride in The Lord of the RingsTimmons - Hobbit Sex and SensualityVaccaro - “Dyrne Langað”: Secret Longing and Homo-amory in Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the RingsWalls-Thumma - The Inequality Prototype: Gender, Inequality, and the Valar in Tolkien’s SilmarillionEmail us at entmootpod@gmail.com! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Caranthir Always Takes His Cut

    Caranthir Always Takes His Cut
    Apr 10 2025

    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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    59 mins
  • Sindar, Sun, Secondborn

    Sindar, Sun, Secondborn
    Mar 21 2025

    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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    46 mins
  • The "Infernal" Combustion Engine

    The "Infernal" Combustion Engine
    Mar 8 2025

    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


    Leave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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    1 hr and 28 mins
  • Tolkien Against The Grain (w/ Gerry Canavan)

    Tolkien Against The Grain (w/ Gerry Canavan)
    Feb 11 2025

    In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Gerry Canavan in a far-reaching conversation about loving Tolkien as leftists. Topics include Tolkien's racial politics, the political valences of science fiction and fantasy, Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel, and of course, Huan the talking dog.


    Gerry Canavan is the Chair of the English Department at Marquette University where he also teaches a class on Tolkien. His essays on Tolkien include Tolkien Against The Grain in the Winter 2025 issue of Dissent Magazine and The Eowyn Mystique, a review of the new animated film "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" for the Los Angeles Review of Books.


    More Gerry:

    Octavia E. Butler (University of Illinois Press)

    Imagining Utopia (article for Verso on Fredric Jameson)

    The lesson of JRR Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel (article for Washington Post)

    Grad School Vonnegut/Achebe podcast

    Twitter


    Primary sources:

    The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion


    Secondary sources:

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

    Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

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


    Leave us a review!

    Send us an email!


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    1 hr and 19 mins