Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works
- Editor: Leslie A. Donovan
- Pages: xiv & 284 pp.
- Published: 2015
- ISBN: 9781603292061 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603292054 (Hardcover)
“This book is a stellar accomplishment. . . . It has moved the whole field one step forward.”
—Tolkien Studies
A philologist and medieval scholar, J. R. R. Tolkien never intended to write immensely popular literature that would challenge traditional ideas about the nature of great literature and that was worthy of study in colleges across the world. He set out only to write a good story, the kind of story he and his friends would enjoy reading. In The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien created an entire world informed by his vast knowledge of mythology, languages, and medieval literature. In the 1960s, his books unexpectedly gained cult status with a new generation of young, countercultural readers. Today, the readership for Tolkien’s absorbing secondary world—filled with monsters, magic, adventure, sacrifice, and heroism—continues to grow.
Part 1 of this volume, “Materials,” introduces instructors to the rich array of resources available for teaching Tolkien, including editions and criticism of his fiction and scholarship, historical material on his life and times, audiovisual materials, and film adaptations of his fiction. The essays in part 2, “Approaches,” help instructors introduce students to critical debates around Tolkien’s work, its sources, its influence, and its connection to ecology, religion, and science. Contributors draw on interdisciplinary approaches to outline strategies for teaching Tolkien in a wide variety of classroom contexts.
Cami D. Agan
Jane Chance
Christopher Cobb
Christopher Crane
Deidre Dawson
Michael D. C. Drout
Melissa Ridley Elmes
Nancy Enright
Justin Edward Everett
Liam Felsen
Dimitra Fimi
Verlyn Flieger
Judy Ann Ford
Craig Franson
James Gould
Ted Hazelgrove
Julia Simms Holderness
Keith W. Jensen
Yvette Kisor
Kristine Larsen
Thomas L. Martin
James McNelis
Philip Irving Mitchell
Shelley Rees
Robin Anne Reid
Sharin Schroeder
Anna Smol
Robin Chapman Stacey
Leslie Stratyner
Michael Tomko
James R. Vitullo
Brian Walter
Preface (ix)
Acknowledgments (xiii)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Tolkien in Context (3)
Editions
The Lord of the Rings (9)
The Hobbit (11)
The Silmarillion and Other Works from the Legendarium of Middle-earth (12)
Works of Short Fiction (13)
Scholarship and Other Nonfiction Works (16)
Translations (17)
The Instructor’s Library
Historical and Biographical Resources on Tolkien’s Life and Times (18)
Reference Works (19)
Literary Criticism (20)
Languages and Linguistics (21)
Journals and Periodicals (22)
Resources for Teaching (22)
Multimedia Aids for Teaching Music (23)
Audio and Video Recordings (24)
Visual Aids (25)
Charts and Maps (25)
Films (26)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction: Seed of Courage Not So Hidden (31)
Teaching the Controversies
The Perils of the Tolkien Course: Reading the Readings (36)
Teaching the Critical Debate over The Lord of the Rings (44)
Tolkien’s Other Works as Background Eucatastrophe and the Battle with the Dark (50)
Why Teach The Silmarillion? Tolkien’s Mythology of the Abject Hero (56)
Child of the Kindly West: Innocence and Experience in The Hobbit (65)
Using The History of Middle-earth with Tolkien’s Fiction (75)
Connections to the Past
Presenting Tolkien’s Pasts (84)
Teaching the Oral Tradition in The Lord of the Rings (92)
Becoming Tolkien: Reading His Anglo-Saxon and Boethian Sources (97)
Tolkien as Nation Builder: Teaching The Lord of the Rings in an Epic Literature Class (103)
Conceptions of the Pastoral in The Fellowship of the Ring (108)
Modern and Contemporary Perspectives
Teaching Tolkien in the Context of the Fantasy Tradition (114)
Tolkien and the Modern: Reading the Canon through The Lord of the Rings (126)
The Tower, the Sausage Maker, and the Soup: Teaching Tolkien in a Postmodern Classroom (137)
Teaching Tolkien and Race: An Inconvenient Combination? (144)
Women Students and The Lord of the Rings: Showing Them Where They Fit In (150)
Language, Culture, Environment, and Diversity in The Lord of the Rings (157)
Interdisciplinary Contexts
Starting with the Film: Jackson as a Way Back to Tolkien on Heroism and Evil (165)
Tolkien and Faith: An Interdisciplinary Approach (172)
Melkor, Moon Letters, and Menelmacar: Middle-earth in the Science Classroom (177)
Tolkien and Environmental Sustainability in the Science Curriculum (183)
Classroom Contexts and Strategies for Teaching Tolkien in the First-Year Literature Survey Course (191)
Team-Teaching Tolkien in a Large Lecture Class: Challenges and Opportunities (200)
England’s Mythmaker? A Tolkien Learning Community (207)
“[T]hings That Were, and Things That Are, and Things That Yet May Be”: Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Online (214)
Morals and Malice in Middle-earth (219)
Tolkien Immersion: Why a Three-Week Intensive Course Works (225)
The Council of Elrond, All Those Poems, and the Famous F-ing Elves: Teaching the Hard Parts of Tolkien (231)
Fellowship and the Rings: Intellectual Sociability and Collaborative Learning among Tolkien and the Inklings (237)
Notes on Contributors (243)
Survey Respondents (249)
Works Cited (253)
Index of Works Written, Edited, or Translated by J. R. R. Tolkien (273)
Index of Names (275)
“This work fills a major need. It will give graduate students and experienced professors alike the confidence to teach Tolkien and the ability to construct a meaningful and challenging course.”
—Janet Brennan Croft, University of Oklahoma
“[A]ll of the contributors clearly love Tolkien’s works and enjoy teaching them. Such enjoyment is contagious, and I find that I am more excited than ever to return to Middle-earth with my students next semester.”
—VII: Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center
“[T]he book functions well as both a reference tool and overview of the field, and can be relevant to readers who are philologists, medievalists, or scholars in other fields.”
—Parergon
“There is an old saying that if you want to learn a subject really well, you should teach it to someone else, and in reading about teaching Tolkien to others, new perspectives on his writings are revealed. Those who enjoy viewing Tolkien anew may indeed consider adding this volume to their libraries, even if they never plan on standing behind an instructor’s podium.”
—Journal of Tolkien Research
