Tolkien's grave

Since it's relevant to Thursday's reading from the Silmarilion, I thought I'd put up a photo of the headstone under which Tolkien and his wife are buried. Look closely--the "epitaphs" here are his choosing (he ordered hers, and left instructions for his).

War poetry

Crumbs. I apparently didn't copy the Wilfred Owen and Jessie Pope poems I wanted. Here is the Wilfred Owen one. Some of you may have seen it before.

Here is "The Call," Jessie Pope's best known poem, which you should also read. As this site tells you, Owen wrote "Dulce et Decorum Est" in direct response to Pope. In fairness to Pope, as the war dragged on she got much less gung-ho than she is here and in this similar poem, "Who's for the Game"?

You may want to print these out so you can refer to them easily in our on-line discussion on Tuesday.

Readings for the rest of the semester

Here are the readings for the remainder of the semester:

Tues: Nov. 27: Items from the "War writing" folder in library (poems by Kipling, Owens, Pope)
Thurs: Silmarilion. Skim the preface, read the "Ainulindalë,” and “Valaquenta” and the Beren and Luthien chapter of the “Quenta Silmarilion.” For comparison, you may want to refresh your memory of Sir Orfeo and look over some Paradise Lost if you have a copy and have the time.

Tues., Dec. 4: “Leaf by Niggle” and “Farmer Giles of Ham” from the Tolkien Reader. I didn’t get a copy of “Smith of Wooton Major” made, so we’ll skip it.

Wed., Dec. 5: Submit your paper as an MS Word doc or rtf file in Blackboard. Go to the “Assignments” Content Area to do this. If you have Word 7.0 you will need to save your file as an earlier version of Word (.doc extention); if you have Word Perfect you will need to save it as an .rtf file.

Thurs. Dec. 6: Readings from the “Retro-Medievalism” folder on reserve in the library (Kipling and Morris).

Don’t forget to go fill out a course evaluation in Norma Wells’ office next week!!!

Blackboard site

The Blackboard sites for this class are now visible. I am using the "announcement" function to send you all mass emails. These are set up to go to your LMU address. Be sure to check that email address for these announcements and log in to Blackboard. If your LMU address doesn't work or you can't get in to Blackboard, email Sherry Lang and ask her to fix it. The final exam will be administered over Blackboard, so make sure this works now.

I am going to set up Blackboard for the papers to be submitted there. I realize it's easier for you to email it to me, but for some reason the web portal I use at home for our LMU email sometimes doesn't let me open attachments. It's random as near as I can tell, but since right now I can't get to my LMU office computer, I need to make sure I can open your documents. Please remember that I cannot read Word Perfect files, and save it as a Word document.

Finally: free candy! Norma Wells will have it (if you get there fairly soon) and she'll give you some when you drop by to fill out course evaluations. Please, please make sure you do that at some point in the next few weeks.

Visual reference in movie version of RotK

Hey, everyone.

Remember what the throne room of Gondor looked like in the film? I'm struck by its similarity to the Palace Chapel / throne room of Charlemagne in Aachen.

If Peter Jackson is deliberately evoking Charlemagne here, why? How does his interpretation arise from the text, and do you agree with it?

See you all online this afternoon!

Update

Well, things did not go as planned. I'm going to have to finish the semester with you all on-line as we discussed. This is sad, because you're a terrific group of students and I really enjoyed meeting with you all. However, we'll forge on with Chat, Blogger, and Blackboard and we'll get through the rest of the term.

If anyone had any questions or comments about the appendices from REturn of the King, please post them as a comment to this post and we'll discuss them there. For Tuesday's chat discussion on MSN Messenger, we'll be discussing the REturn of the King movie. We'll probably want to keep a list of things that we notice are different, or things that we otherwise want to talk about. I'll start Tuesday's "class" by throwing the floor open to your comments, and we'll take it from there.

I will post the workshopping sheets on Blackboard (the course should become available next week). Once you get to the class in Blackboard, look for the handout under the "Course Documents" content area. you will be able to download the forms from there. You do not need to turn these in, but I want you to have them. You will have to set up your own workshopping groups in person or over email, as you prefer.

I hope this is coherent, as painkillers evidently do not do much for my style (I keep typing sentences that don't make sense--how the heck did Coleridge manage Kubla Khan on opium?). I'll be on email intermittently to answer questions.
Prof. B

No class Thursday November 8

No class Thursday. Class next Tuesday as announced.

An Anglo-Saxon Chamber burial

Tolkien's description of the burial of Theoden, "he was laid in a house of stone with his arms and many other fair things that he had possessed, and over him was raised a great mound. . ." is reminiscent of an Anglo-Saxon chamber burial. In the last few years, the best chamber burial site ever found was unearthed at Prittlewell. Tolkien didn't know about it, of course, but this site provides good illustrations of what a chamber burial might have looked like, as well as some really great images of the actual treasures that have been unearthed.

Prittlewell Prince.

I'll try to remember to bring in a little pamphlet I have that contains even more pictures on Tuesday.