Queer Lodgings: A Tolkien Podcast Queer Lodgings Podcast

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