Teaching Lord of the Rings

[Forkbeard]

For those who might be interested, I'm teaching Lord of the Rings this month to freshman in an introductory literature class. I thought it might be interesting ot share their reactions to the books, not the movies as we go along if folks here are interested, while at the same time trying to invite commentary from all of you on how to make the experience richer for my students.

Today was the second day we've dealt with the LoTR. We're spending four days on each book. That isn't enough, and some are finding the pace grueling.

Monday I "lectured" (well, talked about) Tolkien's life, the writing of the LoTR, and other background types of stuff. They were to have read through book I.3.

Today I wanted to discuss two related aspects of the books with them, and this led of course to some other aspects. My topics for conversation were to note Tolkien's use of scene description: why is it so detailed in places and what function does it play in the novel. So we examined a scene as a class discussed Tone evoking emotion, dissolving the line between reader and character--i. e. you feel like you are one of the company travelling, you the reader are a witness to the events, and the passage of Time. The Time issue led to pointing out a) Frodo's age (we've discussed epic this semester to death, and one aspect of Epic is that the hero is never a young man, but rather a middle aged one.) b) and the calendar was touched on, the significance of when this journey starts for Frodo and when the climax happens.

We then moved on to discussing the role of Nature in the books, discussing the Old Forest and Tom Bombadill and the use of Nature and Scene.

For next class they're reading through the Council of Elrond, and topics of conversation will be names and language in Tolkien (not elvish, etc, but Tolkien's use of the English language) in addition to beginning to discuss the nature of Evil and the nature of Good in the books and to begin to observe characterization.

Any thoughts?