J.R.R. Tolkien

This course explores the endlessly alluring world of Middle-earth, which J. R. R. Tolkien was developing throughout the sixty years of his adulthood. Our real-world contexts for this exploration might include his work as a 20th-century scholar of medieval languages and literatures, his service as a lieutenant his during World War I, and his love of the natural world, while our literary contexts might include his translations or rewritings of Anglo-Saxon epic, medieval romance, Norse myth, and Arthurian legend. Certainly, we will be reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and selections from Tolkien’s scholarship and short fiction. Prerequisite: ENG 250 or FRPG 1011 (the Tolkien FYP).