He's wandered all over Middle-earth...
Over the last few years we have seen a profound rise in Tolkien scholarship and education from various platforms, looking at all aspects of Tolkien himself and his work. There is a huge amount of scholarly books out there now, which is wonderful!
Beyond that, there is a growing trend to examine the creative endeavours of companies using Tolkien’s world as their playground in things like Massively Multiplayer Online Games, SSG’s Lord of the Rings Online.
Coursera: Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
https://www.coursera.org/learn/interactive-media-gaming
I was fortunate to take part on Coursera’s “Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative” back in 2015 and re-did the course in 2017. This course looks at new media such as MMOs and how they creatively use literature, art and films. It looked at storytelling, gaming and so many other aspects. It definitely helped me understand Lord of the Rings’ place in literature much better and opened new doors for me in terms of literature I hadn’t had chance to read before. When I did the course back in 2015 it was free, the course still runs with a lite-version for free and a paid for version which includes peer-to-peer coursework. I’d highly recommend it.
The next course starts 22nd January 2018.
Signum University: "Exploring The Lord of the Rings"
https://signumuniversity.org/news/explore-the-lord-of-the-rings-on-location/
https://forums.signumuniversity.org/index.php?categories/exploring-the-lord-of-the-rings.50/
https://mythgard.org/activities/mythgard-on-lotro/exploring-lotr/
http://tolkienprofessor.com/lectures/
Another course studying LOTRO and Tolkien is being run by Professor Corey Olsen, aka the Tolkien Professor. He has run many courses about LOTRO and Tolkien in the past and he founded the Mythgard Institute in 2011 for the purpose of supporting research into Tolkien studies through online medium. As well as being an avid LOTRO player himself, Professor Olsen has worked with Tubine and Standing Stone Games for several broadcasts where they examined lore within LOTRO. His most recent course started in January 2017 and still ongoing, where he discusses a chapter of Lord of the Rings from the ingame Lore Hall in Bree. After the lecture, he takes a field trip out to discover locations mentioned in the lecture.
Maine School of Science and Mathematics & LOTRO
https://mssmenglish.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/j-term-day-1-welcome-to-lord-of-rings.html
The final course looking at LOTRO is one being run from a school in Maine, USA. This one is a closed session, so you can’t join in, but it’s interesting to see what they are doing nonetheless. The tutor, Dr. Helana E. Brigman, is leading her pupils through character creation and playing in the Shire region of LOTRO. They are learning teamwork whilst having fun, but there is also gameplay homework at the end of each day!
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Outside of MMOs and gaming, there are still plenty of courses about Tolkien to get involved with as well as other ways of learning more about Tolkien whilst out and about.
The Tolkien Society
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/
https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/seminar-2018/
The Tolkien Society was set up as a charity to promote the life and work of JRR Tolkien and its core focus is education. Through their “Tolkien to the world” initiative they provide books by Tolkien to libraries and schools in less-developed countries. Each July they run a day of lectures about JRR Tolkien called the Tolkien Seminar, held in Leeds. This insightful event has a different theme each year, for 2018 it is “Tolkien the Pagan? Reading Middle-earth through a Spiritual Lens.”
Leeds Medieval Congress
http://dimitrafimi.com/tolkien-sessions-at-imc-leeds-july-2018/
https://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/imc2018_call.html
Usually the day after the Tolkien Society Seminar, the Leeds Medieval Congress starts and for the last few years there has been lectures looking at JRR Tolkien, thanks to the hard work and organising of Professor Dimitra Fimi. Professor Fimi has posted all the lectures on her blog, listed above. The Congress is an annual event.
Official CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien Walking Tour of Oxford
http://www.experienceoxfordshire.org/shop/tickets/cs-lewis-jrr-tolkien-walking-tour-oxford/
Run from the Visitor Information Centre in Oxford, this informative walking tour visits the significant places and haunts in Oxford of both JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. It’s well worth booking on one of these, but do so in advance because they are quite popular!
Department for Continuing Education at University of Oxford: Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in Oxford
https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/tolkien-and-cs-lewis-in-oxford?code=O17I611JDR
In August 2018 John Garth will teach a week-long course looking at CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. John Garth is a fantastic speaker and passionate about Tolkien, the course content definitely looks fascinating! The price, whilst not cheap, includes accommodation within Oxford University.
Finally, if you are planning a trip to Oxford, you might want to take into account the following upcoming exhibition…
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, 1 June-28 October 2018, Weston Library, Oxford
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2017/mar-17
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-exhibitions
https://www.bodleianshop.co.uk/tolkien-maker-of-middle-earth.html
This is the biggest Tolkien exhibition in over sixty years. If you are a Tolkien fan, I have a feeling this will be on your to-do list for 2018 because not only will it be the biggest gathering of Tolkien material, but there will be items on here not seen by the public before. There also looks to be a fantastic accompanying catalogue book being published as well. Tickets will be available in February 2018.
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Image of Tolkien from: https://www.thedailybeast.com/tolkiens-unfinished-epic-the-fall-of-arthur
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