Hosts & Guests
Cait
(she/her) Cait is a self-professed horse girl from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and if you ask her about her horse, she’ll never shut up. Her partner in riding adventures is Rocket, a 24-year-old Paint Horse. Tumblr.
Alicia
(she/they) A queer Tolkien scholar and Zelda nerd interested in adaptation, audience reception, and biography.
Grace
(she/her) An acquirer of books, a queer-rights activist, serves as as the Subscriptions Steward of the Mythopoeic Society, and is a Professional Nerd (okay, technically it’s an unpaid internship).
Leah
(she/her) Just another weird Tolkien geek living in the Grey Havens (also known as Seattle WA) with two rabbits and far too few books.
Resources
Conferences
Mythopoeic Society OMS 2024: Something Mighty Queer
Organizations
International Gay Rodeo Association
Books
Diana Wynne Jones, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion. Ed. Christopher Tolkien.
Articles
Deborah Bright, “Horse Crazy.” Horsetales: American Images and Icons 1800-2000.
Susana Polo, “Aragorn is absolutely a Horse Girl: But only in the movies”. Polygon.
Presentations
Websites
“30 Fantasy Books Featuring Dragonriders”. Fanfiaddict.
About This Episode
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.
Related Episodes
Episode 28 – Writing a Book Chapter! (or “Why We Didn’t Record Much in 2025”)
Learn more about the process of academic publishing as Leah and Grace recount their first times writing for academic publishing, guided by Alicia’s experience. Thank you for sticking with us! We have so much more in store for you.
Episode 27 – The Redemption of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins: Petty Thief to Folk Hero
Is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins actually the villain she’s made out to be in “The Hobbit” and “Fellowship”, or simply a victim of narrative bias? Plus JIRT’s “mommy issues” and a contrast of Lobelia as an ‘Aunt’ archetype with biographical information about Tolkien’s own family.
Episode 26 – Tolkien Adaptations Part 3: “The War of the Rohirrim” with Janet Brennan Croft
A discussion about “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” with the film’s credited “Tolkien Expert”, Janet Brennan Croft! We discuss her approach to encourage lore accuracy and consistency in the film’s script, explore queer readings of the film, and even the history of Japanese tentacle “art.”