The Tolkien Professor

[Insidious Rex]

Not really sure where to put this since we dont have a general TOLKIEN AND HIS WORKS thread (or a Tolkien resource thread for that matter) so Ill just plunk it here. Feel free to move if necessary.

Perhaps this has been noted here before (couldnt find it after trying several searches) but I wanted to alert people to the works of one Corey Olsen who is a professor at Washington College not too far from me in Maryland. He teaches Medieval History and a lot of his course involves Tolkien's works. I know virtually all of us here would have killed to have had a chance to go to a school where we could take a full course on Tolkien Lore by a passionate expert in the field so it is very fortunate that Prof. Olsen has decided to FREELY PUBLISH/POST his lectures on a web site called The Tolkien Professor (http://www.tolkienprofessor.com). Check it out and listen to some of the lectures. They are fascinating and especially intriguing for wonks like us.

Oh and he made a Tolkien quiz and posted it on the Washington Post's Blog Page (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/college-inc/2011/02/quiz_test_your_lord_of_the_rin.html?sid=ST20110209 03874) if you want to try your luck...

[EllethValatari]

I've had this website bookmarked for a long time-never thought to share it here! Thanks for bringing it up, IR!

He really is an expert on Tolkien and his lectures are very good-and free to listen to! He also has a new recording from a discussion with John DiBartolo and Ted Nasmith-they're on the homepage of his site.

[Alcuin]

Thank you, Insidious Rex.

[Valandil]

Yes - thanks, IR! This looks cool. I'll have to give it more time later.

[GrayMouser]

Haven't had time to visit the blog, but the first two questions on the WaPo quiz are:

1) Do Balrog have wings?
2) What is Tom Bombadil?

The answers, very definitely, according to the Prof, are "no" and "a Maiar" respectively.

[Rían]

Well, that's no fun! You mean we have to stop debating? ;)

At least at the end of the quiz, it says "you agreed with the professor on x out of x questions" instead of "you are right on x out of x questions".

Thanks for the link, IR - it will be fun to browse thru :cheers:

[Fool_of_a_Took]

I really enjoyed this quiz! Thanks for posting it.

I'm in my 4th year of college and EVERY semester, I look for a Tolkien class but sadly, none have been taught at my school while I was a student. I think we need to petition that Tolkien be taught at all public Universities :D

On a slightly dissappointing note, I have recently leaned that the high school I attended and many others in the area have cut the works of Tolkien from the curriculum because teachers fear that students will only watch the movies and not read the books :(