On-line Tolkien course
 

In case anyone is interested Cardiff University is currently running a course on Tolkien: The Foundations of Middle-earth: Myth, Language and Ideology in J. R .R. Tolkien’s Literature. Find out more here

...Interesting. I'll have to look into doing that. Are you doing it Davem?

I'm really in two minds about it. I only recently found out about it via the Tolkien Society site. I suppose it would be interesting if a few of us Downers did it together. Don't know if anyone else would consider it....

That would be really interesting to do. I'll consider it, when I'm out of high school. :rolleyes:

Online course? And here's me expecting University-based frolics in Wales with other Barrowdowners.

We could all share a flat. Just an idea...

Did you mean flat or flet, Eomer? I thought we already shared a barrow.

I got top bunk! Who has my plane ticket?

Yeah, it would be quite cool if several downers did it together. Then I'd have someone I could cheat....ing is bad, and something I wouldn't do. :p

:cool: It could be like The Young Ones. Who's going to be Neil? :p

I would actually be scared of doing a course about Tolkien, in case I got bad marks! The shame would be unbearable!

But online learning is a great idea if anyone fancies it. You usually get access to a 'chat area' where you can discuss your assignments with other distance learners, so you have no need to miss out on the sociable aspects (hey, you can have a beer while you type if you want to imagine yourself in a student union...). It also allows people to learn more at their own pace, and it doesn't exclude anyone with limited time in the day. There, that's my 'official' side coming out, I used to deal with that kind of learning as my job. :)

I'm too much in love with the campus lifestyle. Besides, if I had to study online I'd get distracted by the Barrowdowns.

As for The Young Ones, I'm used to being Neil, it being one of my names and all. :D


*Note: The Young Ones is not entirely representative of British Student Life.

I am quite tempted by this - it would be more interesting than last year's Certificate in computerised payroll ( admittedly this is not a challenging criteria and I think I have all the books.) But is my brain up to such exertion? And I used to have Neil style hair.... :o

Ahhh. The second part of the course, the Northern European Mythology one, is especially droolworthy...

I agree, a physical course would be better still. Perhaps we should all just roll up to the Open University and try an Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic course...though I think perhaps only Cambridge offers it...

No time at all, naturally, what with 6 AS levels and writing to keep up...

Cambridge? What is this Cambridge place? Is there a university there? :p
Open University is a lot more expensive. I looked at one of their post-grad courses but it was more thousands than hundreds....

Well, naturally as a dweller of the Oxenford, I refuse to believe Cambridge is any more than a small depressing grey town with a Roundhead Civil War record, but some conspiracy theorists have suggested that an occasional Cambridgian has been known to be literate...

My sister's profound attitude on this question is "Oxford has bigger and better parties!"

Yes... parties.. harder with an online course .. and punting might be a problem too.. Aieee we sound more "Footlights College" even so than "Scumbag"-Rah rah rah! We're going to smash the oiks! ;)

Well, any UK based prospective University students might do well to consider English at Leeds. I'm working with a graduate from there who tells me that Tolkien is a major area of study there. Wonders will never cease - an English University that considers Tolkien serious enough to study! :eek: Not only that, but fellow students wrote whole dissertations on Tolkien.

Looking on their website, the following modules are available:

One which includes LotR as a required text, and Shippey as further reading:Romance, Ballad and Fairy Tale

Three other Tolkien-friendly courses are also available:
Arthurian Legend: Chivalry and Violence
Beowulf
Old Norse Mythology

Of course, both Tolkien and Shippey taught here, so there must be a considerable influence due to their scholarship; but back in 1989 they did not offer this range of courses. :(

Toot Toot, sounds Fordim's horn in the distance, Toot Toot

I taught a non-credit course on Tolkien a few years ago -- if you would like I could run it again as an online course, for Downers only. I mean, really, let's face it, you all really could learn a lot from me. :eek: And wouldn't it be great to sit at your computer screen in rapt attention for hour after hour of Professor Fordim telling you about Tolkien and LotR and resolving all your questions about it? :p Oh, but I forget, you already have that luxury... :D

Creeping back to my barrow now. Please, do not throw objects either too heavy or too sharp.

Sounds like your Barrow Downs Dream , Fordim. However, given the attitude of some of our Downers, I would hope that none of your students in their misery over your 1500 word assignment on "Canonicity and Forgiveness: Primary and Secondary World Creation" would think of--as they have of their other professors and assignments--assigning you to Mordor . ;) :D

I think the most fitting punishment would be to take him up on his offer..... :D

I am seriously considering the welsh one if it is not too late but his would save me £60 ...

There's another course offered by Cardiff this year: Exploring Tolkien: There and Back Again

If anyone takes it, please do post to let us know about your experience!

I made half of my mind to take it, but I grudge them £121.50. Not that I'm that kind of a skinflint, but I already own (and have read, that is) all their reading suggestions but one, and hesitate for fear the whole course would turn out to be of the 'nothing new for me' kind... still more 100 odd pounds in UK and down my way are quite different sums (buying power differences, you see)...

Besides, there is following funny note to make me wary:

What happens to Mr. McDuck's investment than? :rolleyes:

But if I do make another half up after all, I'll share the experience, o'course