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Dr. Anna Smol, Professor in the Department of English at MSVU, has received multiple grants to support her research on J.R.R. Tolkien and his alliterative poetry. In this conversation, we delve into how the grants she obtained allowed her to travel farther to advance her research, and how The Conversation Canada helped to spread her knowledge.
Why were you originally drawn to this research topic?
I had previously worked on various topics in Tolkien studies, but I was drawn to my current area of research, J.R.R. Tolkien and alliterative poetry, for many reasons. One is that this kind of study is wide-ranging, drawing on expertise in medieval literature, Tolkien studies, and contemporary medievalisms (the study of contemporary responses to the Middle Ages). My research topic allows me to examine the development of Tolkien’s creative work and how it intersects with his scholarly ideas as a professor of medieval literature. It also enables me to examine how Tolkien and writers after him use or revise this older poetic form to write about contemporary concerns such as war, heroism, language, and race. A study of this kind asks the question that is at the core of medievalism studies, which is, how do we use the past to understand our present?
Alliterative poetry is the form of verse written in early medieval England in poems such as Beowulf, and Tolkien recreated that form of poetry in his modern English compositions as well as in Old English, and even in the older form of Gothic. Although Tolkien wrote in other poetic forms besides alliterative verse, a few pieces of his alliterative poetry are widely read, as some of it is embedded in The Lord of the Rings, which has a global readership — for that reason, one critic has claimed that Tolkien is the most widely read alliterative poet ever! — even if readers don’t always recognize this poetic form. I’m hoping that my research project will shed light not only on Tolkien as a poet and medievalist but also on how 20th and 21st-century poets use or revise this verse form to express ideas about the present day. I’m also hoping that this project might even lead to increased interest in and appreciation of alliterative verse.
What were the MSVU internal grants that you received during the beginning stages of this research?
I have received several internal grants over the years, including MSVU Standard Research grants, a Student Assistantship grant, and a SSHRC Explore grant. These enabled me to hire student assistants and to travel to England for short summer research trips to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in order to look at some of Tolkien’s unpublished manuscripts. There I found that the Library had 10 drafts of a verse play titled “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth” that Tolkien wrote in the Old English style of alliterative metre. Scholars aren’t allowed to photocopy, scan, or take pictures of these Tolkien manuscripts, so I had to spend every visit to the library typing up my notes. I was also able to look at Tolkien’s unpublished lectures on medieval literature and alliterative metre, which helped me to understand his ideas on medieval poetry. Examining subsequent drafts of “The Homecoming” allowed me to see Tolkien’s developing ideas about drama, early medieval poetry, war, and heroism, and to see how these ideas played out in some of his other works. My research now extends to other examples of Tolkien’s alliterative poetry.
How has internal grant funding aided in the expansion of your research?
Without internal grant funding I would not have been able to go to the Bodleian Library in Oxford to read Tolkien’s unpublished manuscripts. These aren’t available any other way except by going to Oxford in person. Of course, it’s quite thrilling to be able to read and handle an author’s original papers. I could see where Tolkien crossed out lines or inserted new ones. I could see where he jotted notes to himself. Details like these give you some insight into what the author was trying to do. Also, in reading his lectures, I could get a sense of his personal voice as he talked to various groups, from his university classes to BBC radio audiences to a local musical society.
How did the internal grants you have received enable student involvement in your work? How have students been able to engage in your research?
I’ve always tried to employ students in my projects, hopefully giving them some insight into how scholars build their research and some taste of the excitement of developing and publishing ideas. Although many people assume that research assistants would be graduate students, I have found that undergrads are capable of accomplishing a lot. Often, I ask research assistants to compile an annotated bibliography on a particular subject so that in the process they gain knowledge about a research topic that I hope interests them as well. They also gain a lot of experience in searching for and organizing material. In addition, I look out for opportunities for undergraduate students to get their names on publications – I’ve had a student who published an encyclopedia article, another student who wrote a short essay in a volume on teaching and learning, and a student who became a co-author with me on a peer-reviewed article. Seeing your name in print can be quite exciting!
How have MSVU internal grants assisted your success in obtaining external funding?
My various trips to Oxford were funded by internal grants that allowed me to look at material that was otherwise inaccessible. My analysis of this material has been published in several articles and has provided the basis for planning an expanded study that led to obtaining external funding from SSHRC.
Is there anything throughout the stages of your research that you would have done differently?
I don’t think so. Of course, you always wish that you could do more in less time, but that’s just inevitable when trying to balance family and academic life.
You have posted on The Conversation Canada! Please tell us a bit about your experience with the platform.
I decided to pitch a story to The Conversation partly to challenge myself to write in a very different way from the scholarly writing I’m used to doing and partly as a way of expressing some ideas about a television adaptation of Tolkien’s stories that was the target of racist and misogynist abuse last fall. I think that it’s important for academics to reach out to broader audiences, and publishing in The Conversation certainly accomplished that: I had thousands of readers in the first month, was invited to do a podcast, and was interviewed by an Italian newspaper. My article was also featured on Yahoo News and other sites. The arts editor worked with me to shape the focus of the piece --– and you need to focus when you only have about one thousand words to convey your message in short sentences and paragraphs! I would encourage more people to try writing for The Conversation, especially those in the humanities, as we need to demonstrate to the public what we do and how our research contributes to a more thoughtful society.
To learn more about how to write and publish on The Conversation Canada, join us on Wednesday, April 12th from 12:15-1:15 for a virtual session. This session will include hearing from published members of MSVU Faculty, including Dr. Smol, learning about our institutional analytics, tips and tricks for writing, copyright, and more! Contact research.comms@MSVU.ca to RSVP.
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