Needless to say, I was very excited to see another podcast pop into my feed from the Tolkien Professor as I truly enjoy all of his series and not only have learned quite a bit but have also started picking up varies other books that have been sitting on my shelves, including the Silmarillion.  This episode is another Q&A session which are always interesting to hear not only his views but those of his students, however that’s not the only exciting part.

For those of you in the Mid-Atlantic area (near Baltimore) there are a couple of events being held at Washington College that might be of interest:

  • Thursday November 4th at 7:30pm Benjamin Bagby will be performing Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon such that you can get the full experience of what it would’ve been like to hear that as it was originally told.  The performance is free and open to the public.  Head over to the Washington College Website and look in the Calendar of Events for all the details.
  • A couple days later on Saturday November 6th Dr. Olsen is holding the 7th Annual Tolkien Movie Marathon showing the 3 Lord of the Rings movies in their extended versions with catered meals as the intermissions.  I’m not sure I could think of a better way to spend a Saturday then LOTR, food, and a chance to interact with Dr. Olsen.  Your best bet on this one would be to contact Dr. Olsen for the details, all his contact information is on his site.

For the rest of us not so lucky to be in the Mid-Atlantic, there still are some cool updates.

First up, this Wednesday October 13th Dr. Olsen is holding another Skype call-in session starting at 9:30 PM Eastern.  If you have any questions for him, I highly recommend hopping on Skype and giving him a ring, his name is just TolkienProfessor.  Also, if anyone has questions but can’t call in for whatever reason I’d be more than happy to have an excuse to chat with him, so either post your question in the comments or shoot me a message.

Dr. Olsen is also planning (details forthcoming) an online Silmarillion reading group to have periodic readings and discussion sessions.  I listened to the portion of his class covering this book and can’t wait for a slower paced more interactive version of it.  Since the Silmarillion is one of Tolkien’s harder works to make it through, having a guide makes a huge difference.  I’ll post more updates as I get them.

And finally, he’s been given approval to record and release his Spring Class again this year which will be on Fairy and Fantasy.  Starting from the Medieval times through the contemporary discussing not only the origins but the evolution as well.  I’m very curious about the reading list but if it is anything like his previous class it will make me quite jealous that I didn’t have such options while I was in school.  But at least we can re-live those moments without the pressure of tests or papers!