- HOME PAGE
- About JRR Tolkien
- About The Tolkien Society
- F.A.Q.
- Events
- Education
- Resources
- Tolkien Park
- Guestbook
- Birthday Toast
- Tolkien 2005
- Contacts
- Links
- Mathoms
- Media News
- TS Trading
- Members Only
In this Section:
This section of the Tolkien Society site is for teachers, lecturers and other facilitators of learning.
It's not just about 'teaching Tolkien', or even about teaching reading, or English Literature in general. It's for teachers of mathematics, geography, religious education - or anything else. It is also for those who use Tolkien when facilitating personal development.
The Education section is being developed by the Tolkien Society's Education team - a small group of volunteers from the membership who want to help their colleagues (and learn more themselves) about using Tolkien in the classroom, gallery, lecture-hall, www and other educational settings.
05/10/2008 - Questionnaire Request added to Teachers' Page.
14/07/2008 - New Hall of Fire added.
02/04/2008 - New Thesis Abstract added - A Mythology for England or a Modern Novel? A study of interacting chronotopes in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Bert Raman.
12/01/2008 - Information on Tolkien Studies Journals added to this page and the bibliography page.
26/11/2007 - Beowulf information added to this page.
01/07/2007 - Course information added to the Courses page.
22/06/2007 - Thesis Abstract added to the Abstract page.
22/06/2007 - Course added to the Courses page.
11/06/2007 - Spanish and Portuguese resources added to the Bibliography page.
The contents list of the excellent Tolkien Studies Journals can be accessed online easily and is a valuable research tool in itself. Writers hoping to submit essays for consideration by the journal should, however, be aware that Tolkien Studies has a rather rigorous set of Conventions and Abbreviations, and that these need to be accessed via http://jrrtolkien.wheatoncollege.edu They can be freely copied, re-posted, and disseminated so long as the journal is credited.
The new Beowulf film is creating some interesting responses. Some people love it, some don't. But no one as far as I know has yet mentioned the fact that without Tolkien's groundbreaking essay on the poem it would still not be understood. A great deal of the work done in the later 20thC by scholars like John Niles and Andy Orchard has drawn on Tolkien's brilliant analysis of the essential role of the monsters. They are not weird intrusions, any more than the Christian references are. They demonstrate important points about the changing of Anglo-Saxon society at the time when the poem was written down.
If you intend seeing the film, why not also read the poem, in translation of course. Michael Alexander does a great job in the Penguin version, lots of people like Seamus Heaney's 'translation', and there are plenty of other versions but please, make sure that if you choose a poetic translation it retains the proper alliterative form, otherwise it won't have the effect that is so special about the original. Oh, and be warned, there is no glamorous 'watery bint' (Ref. Monty Python's Holy Grail) in it, she's a very angry troll-wife!
The courses have now moved to a new page, 'Courses'.
If you have a lesson plan using Tolkien, would you like to share it with us? The lesson plan could be for any age of students (from pre-school to post-compulsory education) and be for any subject (we would especially welcome plans for Science and Mathematics). We welcome plans from anywhere in the world (but please let us know the student age range, and any range/system such as 'KS2/English system' or 'Grade 7/US system').
We would also like images of your student's working/their work, to liven up the page. By submitting your lesson plan or image to us, you give us the non- exclusive right to reproduce it. If we display your plan or image on the website, or use it as an example of good practice in a teacher's pack we will credit you and your school (if you wish) and send you a mouse-mat (illustrated with Pauline Bayne's Oliphaunt).
You may translate these pages into other languages, or other educational systems, if you make your translations freely available (e.g. on a free-to-view web page, or at the cost of photocopying), and credit the Tolkien Society as the copyright owner of these pages, and obtain the copyright permission of others, where applicable.
We would very much like to host, or link to, your translations here: please
let us know!
Please suggest other links!
Want to help more?
If you are a Tolkien Society member, and a teacher or other person interested in education, and would like to join the Education Team, please contact the education officer.
