The Entmoot Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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 take a break from actually discussing Tolkien and instead do a deep investigation into the life and times of a certain Tolkien fan.

Harrington - Brief reflections on the politics of Dune

The legendary Wikipedia article

Carolyn Gallaher -- After The Peace

The Third Way (the "wills and bequests" page is here)

Solidarity Union

Great UK Products You Can Buy

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In this EMERGENCY EPISODE, co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance's love of Tolkien. When the Entmoot Podcast wished for a Tolkien fan in the White House, the monkey's paw curled. This episode is a sequel to our 2022 episode Hard Right Hobbits, which you can find here.

Sources:

Adam Wren (Politico) - How Lord of the Rings Shaped JD Vance's Politics

Simon van Zuylen-Wood (Washington Post) - The Radicalization of JD Vance

Salvador Rodriguez (CNBC) - Why Silicon Valley is obsessed with 'The Lord of the Rings'

Jack Butler (National Review) - Does The Left Really Want To Argue That Enjoying Lord of the Rings is Far-Right?

I won't include a link to Vance's book, but if you want to read it for some reason make sure to buy used.

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1967 novella Smith of Wootton Major.

Primary sources:

Smith of Wootton Major (PDF) | Tales From The Perilous Realm (includes SoWM as well as all of Tolkien's other "minor works") | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | On Fairy Stories (PDF)

Secondary sources:

Kocher - Master of Middle-earth (out of print)

Webb - The Lives of the Saints (contains KT's favorite version of the Voyage of St Brendan)

Calvino - Invisible Cities

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1949 comic short story Farmer Giles of Ham.

Primary sources:

Farmer Giles of Ham (PDF) | Tales From The Perilous Realm (includes FGoH as well as all of Tolkien's other "minor works") | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Kocher - Master of Middle-earth (out of print)

Link to the Alan Lee illustration of Farmer Giles and his blunderbuss

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1939 essay "On Fairy Stories." Part 2 of 2.

Primary sources:

On Fairy Stories (PDF) | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

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

Le Guin - The Dispossessed

For discussion of "Man and the Machine" in Tolkien's work: Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1939 essay "On Fairy Stories." Part 1 of 2.

Primary sources:

On Fairy Stories (PDF) | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

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

For discussion of Tolkien and race/culture: Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

For discussion of Tolkien's arguments with Christopher Wiseman: Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

For discussion of "Man and the Machine" in Tolkien's work: Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's experience fighting in World War I and the ways it informed his worldview.

Primary sources:

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

Secondary sources:

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

Garth - The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-Earth

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

Loconte (for NYTimes) - How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front

Collins (for The Collector) - Lewis, Hemingway, & Tolkien: Three Authors of the Great War

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters seven and eight of the Quenta Silmarillion, including Feanor's creation of the Silmarils, Melkor's first plot to steal the Silmarils, Feanor's exile from Valmar, and Melkor's destruction of the Trees.

Primary sources:

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

Secondary sources:

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

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

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