We have a special treat for you this episode... a discussion about "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" with the film's credited "Tolkien Expert" (and a Lodger herself), Janet Brennan Croft! Join us as we talk about Janet's approach to encouraging lore accuracy and consistency in the film's script, and how she pursued questions like "Could glasses and spyglasses reasonably exist in Middle-earth?". We also explore queer readings of the film's characters and narrative, especially Sapphic and ace/aro readings. And you can even hear Janet encourage Alicia to embark on her highly-anticipated rant on the "Watcher" creature and the cultural history of Japanese tentacle "art."  Information regarding the "Tolkien in Popular Culture" subject area (chaired by Janet) at the Southwest Popular Culture Association conference, including the Call for Papers, may be found here:  https://robinareid.substack.com/p/cfp-swpca-tolkien-in-popular-culture https://swpaca.org/subject-areas/ Janet's IMDB page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5523767/

Queer Lodgings returns for its first episode in 6 months, with special guest Willie Jenkins, better known on Tiktok and other platforms as "Knewbettadobetta". Willie joins Alicia, Grace, Leah, and Tim to discuss growing up as a Tolkien fan in Brooklyn, how Tolkien's Legendarium provided escapism, and a former home with some friends that's known as "Goblintown" to this day. It even had its own rap, and Willie graced us with a bit of its verse! We chat about Willie's strategies for dealing with and attempting to "convert" Tolkien trolls, and experiences of racism on different social media platforms, as well as his positive experiences and community with other diverse Tolkien creators, which includes his work with the "Voices of Arda" podcast. Connect with Knewbettadobetta & Voices of Arda: https://linktr.ee/Knewbettadobetta  Join us on the Queer Lodgings Discord server! https://discord.gg/8NPNaPqCAY

We are so excited to bring you this interview with actor Adam Brown - Ori in the Jackson "Hobbit" films - as part of our series on Tolkien adaptations! Adam graciously joined us from the UK to discuss his experiences as a gay man in the production of the Hobbit movies (including adventures in Wellington gay bars), his fellow dwarves dropping dwarf slash fic art in their group chat, and his passion for British pantomime theatre (including touring "Mother Goose" with Sir Ian McKellen). Plus a never-before-told tale of a planned Moscow premiere for "The Desolation of Smaug" which was cancelled after actors and crew wrote a letter of concern regarding Russia's anti-LGBTQ policies.

As the first part of a new series, Alicia, Grace, and Leah are joined by Producer Tim to discuss some of the lesser-known (ie. non Jackson/Amazon) adaptations of Tolkien's works. After each of us shares our personal philosophies about adaptation and adaptational changes in general, we dive into a rundown of Tolkien adaptations of every kind - from infamous foreign TV adaptations to stage shows, radio plays, video games, and more. Queer connections? Samurai Boromir? Swol-um? Potato Eagle? It's all here, and then some!

The final part of our 'Queer Readings' trilogy on Eowyn and Faramir. Join Alicia, Grace, and Leah as they pontificate over how Eowyn's gender queerness and Faramir's soft masculinity combine to form the Queer Relationship Voltron of "Bi Wife Energy". 

Part 2 of our 3-part discussion about the relationship between Eowyn and Faramir. This time, the focus is on Tolkien's 'author insert' character, Faramir, and the nuances of his presentation of masculinity. How does Faramir's softer, non-toxic masculinity compare against that of his father Denethor and brother Boromir? Where does Faramir fall on the gender spectrum? And next time, the conclusion diving into the queer aspects of Eowyn and Faramir as a couple!

The Queer Lodgings team makes our triumphant Pride Month return after a break with our long-threatened series on Eowyn & Faramir! Well... it wasn't actually planned to be a series... but we recorded for 4 hours total, so decided to break it up into three parts. The first part frames the discussion and jumps into Eowyn's complex gender identity and presentations, including both trans and non-binary readings of her character. Plus the intricacies of how Eowyn relates to the patriarchal society of the Riddermark and its expected gender roles. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Faramir, and Part 3 on the queer aspects of their relationship!

For our first episode of 2024, we take a look through the Quick Post as Alicia is joined by 'Producer' Tim to recount the highlights of their December trip to New Zealand in December to a decidedly jealous Grace and Leah. Then we excitedly gush together about the upcoming online seminar we're hosting on Feb 17th-18th, 'Something Mighty Queer', featuring many of our pals and past podcast guests. We hope to see you there, Lodgers and Birches! To finish off, we summarize some recent developments in Tolkien scholarship, including a run of excellent and much-needed work by Tom Emanuel, some wonderful pieces by our friends in a recent issue of Mallorn, and also one obnoxious article that will not go unchallenged. Register for the Mythopoeic Society's Online Midwinter Seminar 'Something Mighty Queer' here: https://mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2024.htm [https://mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2024.htm?fbclid=IwAR1XWusXi5Qh-goAuujPXW0N5gd4Z6tbPy-uPKBkamVkF75m8O0I2bMPxCw]

Friend of the pod Cait Rottler joins Leah, Grace, and Alicia to talk all about horses and the 'Horse Girl' character trope. We start out with a look at the overlap between Horse Girls and Queer identity, continue with a quick review of the major tropes of Horse Girl stories (with a detour into the related genre of 'Dragonrider' stories), and then celebrate our favorite 'Horse Girls' from Middle-earth, including Movie!Aragorn/Viggo Mortensen,  Arwen, Tom Bombadil, Beorn, Glorfindel, and more.  Visit our website (www.queerlodgings.com [https://queerlodgings.com/]) for full notes and resources for this and all of our episodes.

For a special Halloween episode, we invited our favorite Sauron experts Cameron and Mercury to talk to us about some of Arda's biggest villains. Specifically, the ship pairing known as 'Angbang', which pairs the Dark Lord Sauron against the fallen Valar Morgoth, also known as Melkor. From the history of this ship and how its depictions changed over time, to the best-known Angbang fan fic and fan artists, to all the problematic, messy power dynamics involved... we dive deep into some dark, kinky transformative works to explore why 'Angbangers' are so enthralled with this pairing. Content warning: This episode includes discussion of sex, sexual relationships, kink, BDSM, intimate partner violence at various levels of consent, rape, sexual assault/abuse, abusive relationships, and abusive power dynamics.

We have a special treat for you this month - Leah, Alicia, and Grace welcome not one... not two... but three guests! They are the editors of the forthcoming edited anthology '"There Are Many Paths to Tread": Queer Approaches to Tolkien's Middle-earth' from McFarland (due to release in 2025), and each is a well-known Tolkien scholar in their own right - Robin Reid, Chris Vaccaro, and Steve Yandell. Join us as we discuss the landscape of Queer and Intersectional Tolkien studies, why they're important, and what these important and fresh outlooks can contribute to Tolkien scholarship.

Queer Lodgings is one year old! Help Grace, Leah, and Alicia mark the occasion with a bit of reflection of the first year of the podcast as Tim asks a few questions about their experience thus far. We also share some teasers of what listeners can expect in our second year and beyond, and share some laughs over failed attempts of auto-transcription at Tolkienian names. Plus, learn how listeners can convince the co-hosts to do readings from Demetrious Polychron's terrible knock-off Lord of the Rings sequel! Thanks for joining us on this journey over the past year, and we hope you'll continue on this path with us for many more!

Rory and Stuart from The Alliance of Arda join us to discuss Aromantic/Asexual (Aro/Ace) readings of Tolkien. Bagginses! Aldarion! Istari! Sauron!? Listen in as we fill in some of the gaps (and some deep, problematic holes) with Queer Readings that put the 'A' in LGBTQIA+! Content Warning: Transphobia, Acephobia

Catching up on some recent and upcoming events in the world of Tolkien, we begin by lauding some of our favorite presentations from the recent Tolkien Society Seminar and GIFcon. We compare a couple of very different upcoming Religion-themed Tolkien-focused events, and then highlight the participation of the Queer Lodgings team in several panels and presentations at the Mythopoeic Society's Online Midsummer Seminar on Aug 5th-6th. Queer Lodgings also took over the #TolkienTrewsday hashtag recently, and we discuss what a great experience it was for the Tolkien Twitter community! Finally, we fan swoon over the Lord of the Rings-themed 'Magic: The Gathering' set, and the wonderful representation found in the art on some some of the cards. Lots of teasers here for future content on our podcast from great Tolkien scholars doing ground-breaking work! Content warning: Spanking, BDSM, Forced Marriage

In the second part of our 'Tolkien Would Hate This Podcast' series, Leah, Grace, and Alicia examine the world in Tolkien's time as it relates to sexuality and queerness, and JRRT's own opinions, experiences, and relationships with them. Listen to Grace's theory that polyamory could have prevented the events of The Silmarillion, and the evidence that Tolkien stayed up late in the bath reading a book of gay poetry that included references to glory holes. #ReleaseTheTolkienSmut CW: sexual assault, rape, homophobia, suicide, HIV/AIDS

We're back! In this new series of episodes, Alica, Grace, and Leah tackle the criticism that "Tolkien would hate this podcast" for a whole host of reasons: We (and our listeners) are too Queer, too Progressive, not Catholic enough, too 'woke', or too willing to accept multiple and even contradictory readings. In this first episode of a series, we talk about Tolkien's attitudes about his fans, reader interpretation/response to his works, and adaptation.

To celebrate our first 'Tolkien Reading Day' as a podcast, we each chose a favourite poem from Tolkien to read. Grace selected 'The Mewlips' (1962), Alicia chose 'Progress in Bimble Town' (1931), and Leah's pick was 'Errantry' (1933).

Leah, Grace, and Alicia are joined by 'Tolkien White Man' Tim to discuss representations of masculinity, patriarchy, and gender roles in Middle-earth, with a specific focus on Aldarion, Faramir, Aragorn, and Elrond.

To celebrate Black History Month, we welcome Tolkien scholars Megan B. Abrahamson and Maria K. Alberto for a discussion on their in-progress research into Black fan art depictions of the elf Fingon. In between Fëanorian apologia, they share what inspired Tumblr artists to break with the 'default' depiction of Tolkien's elves as light-skinned. Note: We experienced some intermittent audio issues while recording this episode. Please excuse the audio quality in places.

We're back for our first episode of 2023! Leah, Grace, and Alicia welcome on new friend-of-the-podcast Taylor Driggers, author of 'Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature: Fantastic Incarnations and the Deconstruction of Theology', to discuss the intersections between faith, fantasy, and queerness. Get ready for discussion of the history of queerness and the influence of christianity upon it, queer readings of Tolkien, and some recommendations for new queer fantasy.