With the books selling well over 100 million copies and the film trilogy earning billions in revenue, it would be an understatement to declare that there is a steady renewed interest in the works of one J.R.R. Tolkien. With the popularity of this beloved author in mind, this year U of T has included an introductory course on the fascinating world of Frodo, Sam, and the wizard Gandalf.
The Lord of the Rings: A Journey Through Middle Earth is a humanities course that will discuss the characters and events of Tolkien’s namesake trilogy and continue on with student projects explaining the history of Middle Earth, explanations on its peoples and languages and how various alliances and active mobs shaped the great War of the Rings. Other course topics include Tolkien’s inspiration for the trilogy and the author’s sources as well as the themes of good and evil, the idea of “free peoples” and the role of “higher powers” in Middle Earth.
Interestingly, one topic of discussion for this class is the enduring appeal of the three novels, which is sure to include talks on the complicated process of adapting such a popular novel to a major blockbuster film of great cultural impact.
The Lord of the Rings: A Journey Through Middle Earth is a first-year seminar course taught at Woodworth College by Professor J. Browne. It is a full-year course open only to new students at University of Toronto.
