The Entmoot Podcast

In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to William Fliss about Tolkien's manuscripts and life as an archivist. Bill Fliss is the Manuscripts Archivist at Marquette University, which places him among the foremost authorities in the world on Tolkien's manuscripts for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. He runs the Anduin Project at Marquette which is an invaluable tool for Tolkien researchers.Add your voice to the Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection and tell Bill we sent you! More Bill:“Things That Were, and Things That Are, and Things That Yet May Be”: The J.R.R. Tolkien Manuscript Collection at Marquette University(Documentary) The Muster At Marquette: Preserving 6,000 Fan VoicesLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Jyrki Korpua about the Kalevala and the inspiration that Tolkien drew from it. This episode is a companion piece to our previous episode on chapter 21 of The Silmarillion, which you can find here.Jyrki Korpua is a researcher and lecturer of literature at the University of Oulu in Finland. He has published extensively on both the Kalevala and Tolkien, and we are here primarily discussing his 2024 book Tolkien and the Kalevala.More Jyrki:The Mythopoeic Code of Tolkien: A Christian Platonic Reading of the Legendarium“Master of Fate, yet by fate mastered” – Tolkien’s Túrin Turambar and Kalevala’s KullervoAlso mentioned:Lönnrot (Bosley translation) - The KalevalaLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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. TolkienBooks we've been reading:The Wages of DestructionRide The Pink HorseThe Long GoodbyeGileadThe Sot-Weed FactorThe Fort Bragg CartelThe Age of EmpireLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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 LeithianCities and Strongholds of Middle-earthHearkening to the Other: A Certeauvian Reading of the AinulindaleAlso mentioned:Moore - A Song of Greater Power: Tolkien's Construction of Lúthien TinúvielWhitaker - Corrupting Beauty: Rape Narrative in The SilmarillionLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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

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 GondorBlog series on Helm's DeepBlog series on logisticsInterview with Patrick Wyman on the Punic WarsLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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 RingsSounds of Battle and Battle of Sounds: Belliphonic in TolkienBeowulf and Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods of Hrothgar and GandalfFurther reading/listening:Amendt-Raduege - The Sweet and the Bitter: Death and Dying in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsVaninskaya - Fantasies of Time and DeathFreud - On Murder, Mourning and MelancholiaLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!

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:Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Strangers in a Strange Land: Science-fictional Notes on the "Abundance" AgendaCool Characters: Irony and American FictionSomething is Broken In Our Science FictionFurther reading/listening:Tally (Spectre, 8/24) - Tolkien's Deplorable CultusCanavan (Dissent, 1/25) - Tolkien Against The GrainKakutani (NYT, 5/25) - Why Silicon Valley's Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With HobbitsDouthat (NYT, 6/25) (audio) - Peter Thiel and the AntichristGellman (The Atlantic, 11/23) - Peter Thiel is Taking A Break From DemocracyAlexander (Substack, 5/25) - Moldbug Sold OutGabor (Phenomenal World, 2/25) - How To DOGE USAIDLeave us a review! Send us an email at entmootpod@gmail.com!