[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Of course you could always have mentioned this place, which combines an important person, computers and your relationship therewith.

I managed to write Tolkien into two essays for my Master's course: one on The Battle of Maldon and the other on the difficulty of analysing lost texts from later copies. In the latter I just dropped in a quotation about using personal theories to emend the Finnsburh fragment, but my whole reason for wanting to look at Maldon was to check Tolkien's conclusions and see what later scholars had to say about him. Naturally I gave his opinions on the subject an airing. I also managed to arrange to be the person who gave a synopsis of 'Beowulf:The Monsters and the Critics' to my Old English Texts seminar.

The great thing about medieval studies for one of us is that a significant number of lecturers in the area are not-so-secret Tolkien fans, and his academic work is in any case relevant to most discussions. The enthusiasm for his writing goes right to the top of the discipline, people like (Professors) Tom Shippey and Michael Drout, so it's an unlucky student who finds themselves losing marks for admitting their interest. I'm not sure it would be as wise in mainstream English Lit. courses, but the more courageous might consider giving it a try.

I should point out that most people who rise high in academia do so because they have enough interest in and love of their chosen field that they would study it anyway, given half a chance. Everyone has their favourite subjects, to which they return in later arguments, so that it can be seen that Tolkien repeatedly returned to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Donald Scragg did a lot of work on Maldon in the early 1990s. Now that Tolkien Studies is itself becoming a discipline, albeit slowly, I can see sneaking him into academic work forming the basis of a career for some. Probably not so much on this side of the Atlantic, though, at least not yet.