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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 20 and 21 of the Quenta Silmarillion, which include an account of the Fifth Battle and the tragic tale of Turin Turambar.
Primary sources:
The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Books we've been reading:
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam joined friend of the show Ethan Colburn for an episode of the Cineflek Podcast about Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
For a great documentary with more information on the making of the movie, check out "An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings" from Folding Ideas on YouTube.
For more on adaptation rights to Tolkien's work, listen to our episode from earlier this year "State of the Estate."
For more of our opinions on movies, you can follow each of us on Letterboxd: Ethan (an actual Letterboxd influencer), Kenny, Sam.
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Cami Agan about the 2018 volume Beren and Luthien and about the textual history of the tale. This episode is a companion piece to our previous episode on chapter 19 of The Silmarillion, which you can find here.
Cami Agan is the Distinguished Professor of Language and Literature at Oklahoma Christian University and a prominent scholar of Tolkien's First Age.
More Cami:
Lúthien Tinúviel and Bodily Desire in the Lay of Leithian
Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth
Hearkening to the Other: A Certeauvian Reading of the Ainulindale
Also mentioned:
Moore - A Song of Greater Power: Tolkien's Construction of Lúthien Tinúviel
Whitaker - Corrupting Beauty: Rape Narrative in The Silmarillion
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapter 19 of the Quenta Silmarillion, the incredible story of Beren and Luthien. Included is also a discussion of current events affecting Sam as a resident of Washington DC -- listeners with an allergy to that sort of thing can skip to 17:25 to get to "the good stuff."
Primary sources:
The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | Beren and Luthien | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Bret Devereaux about the Siege of Gondor and the Battle of Helm's Deep, including discussions of pre-modern logistics, cavalry charges, flails, command structures, battle speeches, and much more.
Bret Devereaux is an ancient and military historian who currently teaches as a Teaching Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University. You can find him on Twitter and Bluesky, or at his blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.
More Bret:
Blog series on Siege of Gondor
Interview with Patrick Wyman on the Punic Wars
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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:
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
Leave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!
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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:
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)
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
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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
Email us at entmootpod@gmail.com!
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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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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
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
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the history of adaptation rights to Tolkien's work.
Sources:
The Tolkien Trust and their finances
The Times - Tolkien sold film rights to Lord of the rings to avoid taxman
John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg - Screenplay for The Lord of the Rings (1970)
The Guardian - The saddest story in rock (The Zaentz/Fogerty scandal)
Dan Olson [VIDEO] - An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings
Open Culture - The 1985 Soviet TV Adaptation of The Hobbit: Cheap and Yet Strangely Charming
Charlie Rose (ew) [VIDEO] - 2002 Interview w/ Peter Jackson
The Guardian - Tolkien estate sues Hobbit producers over video and gambling games
Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Weinstein brothers sue Time Warner over Hobbit films
The Hollywood Reporter - Warner Bros prevails over Weinsteins in Hobbit profit fight
Ars Technica - Amazon will run a multi-season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series
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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapter nine of the Quenta Silmarillion, including Feanor's ascendancy to Noldoran leader, the death of Ungoliant, and the First Kinslaying.
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 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)
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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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