King Arthur in Smithsonian Magazine

My thanks to my sister for the head's up on this:

Joshua Hammer's "Was King Arthur a Real Person?" is the spotlight article for the current issue (September 2022) of Smithsonian Magazine featuring Rubin Eynon's sculpture Gallos on the cover.

Out Now Arthuriana 32.2

Contents for the latest number of Arthuriana:

Arthuriana for Summer 2022

Table of Contents
(32.2)

Source: https://www.arthuriana.com/322-2; access by subscription or via Project MUSE.

What Should a Knight do for Ladies? Knightly and Scholarly Ethics and the Different Versions of the Morte Darthur

Laura K. Bedwell



Aggravain in the Night: Malory's Comet-Villain

D. Thomas Kanks, Jr.



Chivalric Adventure (Âventiure) as Resistance to Law

Jonathan Seelye Martin

The Round Table:

News and Notes from the North American Branch



Some Thoughts on The Northman

Shaun F.D. Hughes



In Memoriam: Geoffrey Ashe

Christopher Snyder



In Memoriam: Douglas Kelly

Keith Busby 

REVIEWS

Amy V. Ogden, ed. and trans., The Life of Saint Eufrosine: In Old French Verse with English Translation

Joan Tasker Grimbert



W. Mark Ormrod, Winner and Waster and its Contexts: Chivalry, Law, and Economics in Fourteenth-Century England

Jennifer Goodman Wollock



Nicholas Perkins, The Gift of Narrative in Medieval England
Walter Wadiak



A.W. Strouse, Form and Foreskin: Medieval Narratives of Circumcision
William Robert



Leah Tether, Laura Chuhan Campbell, and Benjamin Pohl, with the assistance of Michael Richardson, The Bristol Merlin: Revealing the Secrets of a Medieval Fragment

Jean Blacker



M.J. Toswell and Anna Czarnowus, eds., Medievalism in English Canadian Literature: From Richardson to Atwood

Raymond H. Thompson



Megan Woller, From Camelot to Spamalot: Musical Retellings of Arthurian Legend on Stage and Screen

Kristin Yri

CFP: Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth at NeMLA

 

Tolkien’s Medievalism in Ruins: The Function of Relics and Ruins in Middle-earth at NeMLA

deadline for submissions: 

September 30, 2022

full name / name of organization: 

Nick Katsiadas and Carl Sell / Slippery Rock University and University of Pittsburgh

contact email: 

nicholas.katsiadas@sru.edu

This call for papers is for the NeMLA conference which is scheduled to take place in person in Niagara Falls, NY between March 23-26, 2023.

 

Many notable scholars have probed the motif of ruins in ancient and medieval texts: Alain Schnapp, Alan Lupack, Geoffrey Ashe, and Richard Barber read the poetics of ruins in Latin poetry, the Exeter Book, and Arthuriana. Scholars working outside of the Classical and Middle ages have also examined how this topos persists in literary periods up through the Renaissance, Romanticism, and to today. In short, the structural and symbolic purposes of ruins in literary texts have a long history, and the literary-critical history of engaging these poetics influences our interests in presentations grounded in reading the relationships between ruins and Tolkien’s legendarium. It is time for a formal study on the topic, and we are pleased to welcome proposals from a variety of theoretical approaches for a special session at the 54th Annual Northeast Modern Language Association Convention, with possible inclusion in a special issue of The Journal of Tolkien Research.

 

Throughout J. R. R. Tolkien’s history of Middle-earth, ruins appear as images that capture the mood, personality, and disposition of the characters. From the ruins of Erebor in The Hobbit to the various images of Amon Sûl, Moria, and Osgiliath in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien captures each character’s awareness of the glories of the past and their desire to emulate them. This panel seeks to deepen the awareness and importance of ruins in Middle-earth while simultaneously focusing on how Tolkien’s vision of history functions within and outside of the Middle Ages.  

 

Topics and texts about Tolkien’s legendarium may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:

 

• Ruins and trauma and/or war
• Ruins and nostalgia and/or melancholy
• Ruins and loss
• Ruins and memory
• Ruins and travel
• Ruins and Medievalism
• Ruins and Classicism
• Ruins and Romanticism
• Golden Ages
• Literary History
• Abandoned cities

 

We seek 300-word abstracts for critical essays across periods and nations that address topics related to ruins and Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Abstracts should clearly delineate the essay’s argument in relation to this theme. Once abstracts have been collected, the organizers will send out acceptance and rejection letters after the due date (30 September 2022). We ask that abstract submissions follow MLA format.

 

Please submit abstract proposals to Nick Katsiadas and Carl Sell through the NeMLA portal here: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19804