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The Tolkien Professor

I was 11 when “The Fellowship of the Ring” came out in theaters. My dad had been a fan of the books, and I made him tell me as much of the plot as he could before I decided to read them myself. My copy of “The Two Towers” was confiscated by Ms. Schultz when I tried to read it during her 7th grade science class. When ”The Return of the King,” hit theaters, my friends and I went to our first midnight premiere on a school night before final exams. We made matching t-shirts.

It’s been over 15 years, and the intense passion I felt for “The Lord of the Rings” as a dorky middle-schooler has not waned. Rereading series has become a yearly tradition, and the movies are common background noise in my house. There’s a shelf on my bookcase set aside for copies of the trilogy, Tolkien’s essays and letters, supplemental novels, and a miniature Legolas action figure.

“The Lord of the Rings” isn’t just a fantasy series — it’s the fantasy series. J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t just write a series, he created a world with functional languages, specific geography, and detailed history. “LOTR” is stuffed with details about the legends and history of Middle Earth, and has six appendices stuck on the end with even more. And if that wasn’t enough, you can read a whole additional book of mythopoeia. Tolkien’s writing was so attentive to detail, and so imaginative, that colleges around the world offer classes on his works.

Enter The Tolkien Professor, a podcast that is more like attending a collegiate lecture than tuning into talk radio. Dr. Corey Olsen is a legitimate Tolkien professor: he’s taught classes on “The Lord of the Rings” and other Tolkien works at Washington College in Maryland.

The Tolkien Professor isn’t like the average podcast. Dr. Olsen usually has several shows going at once, episodes tend to be 2 and a half hours long, and they can be updated somewhat irregularly. Currently he’s in the middle of two separate series while also working to create an accredited university.

There is so much content on The Tolkien Professor that it can get overwhelming: Dr. Olsen has been hosting podcasts and posting lectures for 8 years, and the evergreen material means you can still learn a lot from shows that are old enough to be in second grade. But if you’re new to the show, I have three lists to make it easy on you:

The Hobbit Series

“The Hobbit” is regarded as Tolkien’s most accessible work: it was written for his own children and read in elementary schools around the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s lacking any literary merit. This series is a great exploration of the book, and a celebration of the Middle Earth character I most relate to: Bilbo Baggins.

The Tolkien Course

This series is a legit college course. After listening to these episodes, you could ace any final exam on Tolkien. Recorded in his actual classroom, Dr. Olsen walks his students through Tolkien’s essays and short stories, “The Silmarillion,” “The Hobbit,” and of course “The Lord of the Rings.” It’s quite a lot of content to cram into one semester, but it’s a great launching pad for someone who is looking to really get into Middle Earth.

Silmarillion Seminar

Get ready for a deep dive. “The Silmarillion” is notoriously dense; even some of the biggest Tolkien fans give up before chapter 2. But this epic work is full of beautiful prose, and gives the history to legends mentioned in “LOTR.” Dr. Olsen discusses the publication and helps you along some of the more difficult passages. Who knows if I ever would’ve finished “The Silmarillion” without his guidance.

Currently, Dr. Olsen is working through a Silm Film series (a discussion of how one might adapt “The Silmarillion” to the silver screen) and Exploring the Lord of the Rings — an in-depth and slow-moving lecture series on the trilogy. And when I say in-depth and slow-moving, I mean 2 hours discussions on a single poem and 60 episodes without moving past chapter 9.

The series is released on his podcast stream, but you could make it to a recording live. Or at least, your Middle Earth avatar can. Dr. Olsen lectures virtually in “Lord of the Rings Online,” a massive multiplayer online role-playing game where you can explore and attempt quests in Middle Earth. After you attend your lecture, Dr. Olsen leads the class in a virtual field trip, visiting sites in-game that are relevant to the content. The series is also streamed on twitch.tv.

“The Lord of the Rings” occupies a sacred place in my heart. It was a connection with my dad, something that kept my friendships glued together in middle school, a gateway drug into more elevated literature. The stories that Tolkien created have taught me about more about sacrifice, friendship, and hope, and I continue to learn more with every podcast episode.  The best thing about The Tolkien Professor is that it shows no matter how deep you dive into this world, there is always only more to discover.

 

Do you love or make a cool podcast? Do you want to be featured on our blog? Email Emily ([email protected]) to tell her why your favorite show should be featured next.

 

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