Teaching Tolkien

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

As it happens I have taught a course on Tolkien in the past and found that Bethberry's advice is the best. Ask them questions about the text to get them engaged, and then direct their attention toward the relevant passages of the Appendices to get them looking there for the answers.

The key thing here, though, is to ask useful questions, not just "what parts of the novel do you think are cool?" Ask them things that will get them wondering about the thematic elements (things like, "Does Frodo 'fail' in his quest or not?" or "Are women important in the novel?" or "Why does Tolkien have all these songs and 'made-up' languages?") After the students have batted these issues around from within the context of the novel alone, you can work with them through the material in the Appendices that will help their understanding.

The key point that I always like to make about the Appendices is that they lead the reader past the 'end' of the book and help make the transition between the relatively 'closed' experience of reading a novel and the more 'open' experience that Middle-Earth has become. What is so interesting about the Apps is not what they do explain, but what they don't. The very fragmentary nature of so much of it leads our imaginations to wander and look past the covers of the book for answers.

Heck! You can even tell them about the Downs -- what are we doing here if not exploring the unanswered questions or interesting threads introduced in the Apps?

Finally, I think the really key thing to work through on the Apps is that Tolkien clearly felt that it was very important for his readers to have a sense that Middle-Earth is 'real' -- that it possesses a history and a cuture(s) and language(s) that exist 'outside' the book. The Apps are the main way he takes Middle-Earth and 'gives' it to the rest of us: it's not just his own place that he has created in his novel, its a world that is open for all to imagine and enter into: we can research its history and ponder its mysteries and learn its languages and debate its moral codes. If you can get your students thinking about why Tolkien wanted his book to end this way, you might find them becoming really engaged with what makes Middle-Earth work.

One Final Thought -- you might want to read Tolkien's fabulous essay "On Fairy-Stories". It's in the book Tree and Leaf; in that essay he explains why it's so important that a 'fairy tale' be made to 'feel' (and even BE) 'real' -- which is what the Appendices are there to do!

Have fun with that class! I always LOVE teaching Tolkien!

[Bêthberry]

Fordim Hedgethistle,

Wonderful extrapolation of what I meant. I think it is so important to ask open-ended, non-directive questions which stimulate real reflection and engage serious attention and thought.

I would also agree with your way of understanding Tolkien not as a closed system of meaning but as a text which opens itself to further understanding. Too often it seems to me that answers about Tolkien are set in stone, given absolute quantification by the Letters, The Silm, HOME, UT when in fact, I think, in my humble estimation, his work, like the best fantasy, is not a closed system.

But this is what I think the best teachers do, inspire students not to be satisfied with neat little answers but to extend the way of thought to other possibilities. I had always thought of The Appendices as "overflow", part of Tolkien's magnificent fecundity of imagination rather than as part and parcel of the 'scholarly' apparatus he implies elsewhere with his narrator. Thank you for making me think of them in a new light.

Now, if only your website link did not take me to the outer limit of something....

[davem]

Both these groups offer help with teaching Tolkien - don't know if they have exactly what you're looking for, though

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/ed/index.html

http://www.skiesofrohan.com/teach.html

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Yes, Gorwingel, it's a high school class. It's taught every two years, depending on how many people are interested. They switch it up with a creative writing course.

I gave my first 'lesson' today... But it was pretty hard, because the teacher didn't explain that they were supposed to be listening to ME, so they all immediately assumed that I was just trying to show off or something. Oh well. Anyhow, I had them read up to the hiatus in "The Kings of Numenor" (as far as I dared go for the first day) and then explained who these people were, and how they are connected to the characters in the main story. (Elrond's dad, Aragorn's great(many greats)-grandfather, The Ultimate Baddie who taught Sauron, "That one that Bilbo sang about", "The Elf that Arwen looks like"). I think it went pretty well. Only it was somewhat interrupted by the teacher "explaining" how Dwarves came into being. According to the alternate text she must have been reading (ha..ha..ha..), Elves got bored, so they made the Dwarves.

Spring break now, so I've got over a week to decide what to do next. I can't present them with anything that gives away the end of the book (we're only just past Minas Tirith), so that makes it harder. I had to bend the truth a little as is, what with the mention of the union between Aragorn and Arwen... I claimed that by 'union', Tolkien meant 'love'. I think some of them actually believed me.

Again, thanks for the help. You guys are brilliant.

Fea