End of the semester thoughts

Hey everyone!

I just thought I'd hop on here and give my final thoughts about the class. I am honestly very sad this class is ending because I really enjoyed this class a lot. I enjoyed all of our discussions in class and reading everyone's blogs throughout the semester because a lot of good points were made and it really helped me enjoy the books at a deeper level and with more appreciation. In addition to this I really enjoyed our bigger assignments and projects because they felt a lot more fun than normal essays or assignments. I definitely can't wait to read other Tolkien books/pieces that we didn't get to and I am also very excited to reread the ones we did. I also can't wait to do a reread to find any things I might have missed since many people in our last zoom session said there was a bunch of stuff they learned after doing multiple rereads which I think is very unique in a piece of literature but that just speaks to how amazing Tolkien is as a writer. Overall I enjoyed this class a lot and will definitely miss it a lot.

-Frodo

And he lived happily ever after until the end of his days

This was a great class. If I'm being honest, coming into this class I was concerned that I was going to be in way over my head. I thought that you all would know way more about Tolkien than I did, and I would basically be playing catch up. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a wide variety of experiences with Tolkien present in the class. It all worked out very well. Through the semester, I get much more comfortable in class, and I feel that many of you did as well. We truly became a fellowship throughout the course of the semester. I'll definitely miss this class, and I'll miss getting to nerd out with all of you.

Stay healthy and safe everyone
-Haleth AKA Atlin

Common Tolkien themes in film/shows

Throughout the semester, we had briefly talked about common Tolkien themes throughout cinematic history. For example, in the first Narnia movie, the children hide under the tree and are running away from something (it was Santa). In LOTR (The Fellowship), the Hobbits are all headed to Bree, and they hide under the roots of the tree from the Black Riders.

In Harry Potter, the womping willow can be closely related to the tree in the LOTR that attacks people and if you get too close, the roots will swoop you up and kill you. The branches in the womping willow would also do the same by smashing the person that got too close. Also, the spiders in the forbidden forest that are big and talk, related to the Spiders in The Hobbit with Bilbo and the spiders.

In Game of Thrones, the theme really relates to Jon Snow and him being the "True King" which also relates to Eragorn being the True King. Also, the Good v. Evil with the White Walkers v. Kings Landing also Gondor v. Mordor. This could be pretty convincing since they hide behind the gates and wall, and technically so do the walkers. They are also both considered a "supernatural" being.

Tolkien really opened up the world of fantasy to a lot of cinematic goldmines. Without the works of Tolkien, I'm wondering if plotlines would be any different had he never published his works.

Comparing Elrond to the woman behind the pseudonym

As this semester comes to an end, I figured the only thing that seemed acceptable was to compare myself to my Character, Elrond. Although him and I have a lot of differences, we do have some strong similarities. He served in the Military and was a Captain, and I am also joining the Military, trying to make it my Career and protect my Country, like Elrond tried to do in the Second Age against Sauron. I would also say I have a lot of Leadership skills (aside from this class), because I really do take initiative more than not. He really cares for the people and is a healer, which I do help my friends a lot, and consider myself an empath. Elrond is a very strong character that has a small major part in the LOTR, and I feel like I was also somewhat if a pivotal part this semester, being the noob bringing new insight to all of my Tolkien loving classmates. It's been an honor, y'all

Final Thoughts with a Hobbity Twist

While we were discussing all our final thoughts and takeaways from the semester, I could not help but consider how earlier on during the semester I felt like Bilbo Baggins in the early chapters of The Hobbit.  You see, I classify myself as being more introverted, and I'm generally pretty quiet in class discussions.  In fact, I normally begin to fret when I hear that a large percentage of my final grade will come out of participation points.  I confess I began to worry at the beginning of this semester.  Just like Bilbo had no original interest in going on an adventure, so too did I not initially want to use my voice during classtime.

However, we all know how the story goes.  Bilbo wakes up to find the dwarves out of his house, but without much choice of his own, he is shoved out his door by Gandalf to accompany Thorin and his band on their great quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain.  Well, I feel like my Bag-End is my reserved attitude, and this class served as Gandalf, giving me the shove out the door and out of my comfort zone. 

Yet, for all my early fears about having to speak up and engage in discussion, I return to my hobbit hole quite changed.  I felt so comfortable in this class to share my opinions, ask questions, and ultimately be an active participant to a degree unlike any other Honors class I have taken.  Like all the hobbits in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they returned to the Shire, I feel different, and this in a good way.  With the semester coming to a close, I return to my metaphorical Bag-End of introversion.  While that is still who I am, I don't feel like I have to hide behind that every time I enter a classroom anymore.  In fact, I'm already eager to revisit Rivendell, the Lonely Mountains, and Lake-town to see whether this most uncharacteristic change will persist.  I believe it will.

So, with that being said, I want to thank Dr. Donovan and the rest of the class for a fantastic semester, one that will go down in the books as one the strangest but more importantly one of the fondest.  Have a great summer, and perhaps our paths will cross again when we are all able to pop out of our hobbit holes once more.

Signing out,

Aragorn (Daniel)

Tolkien Across Generations

I mentioned this to Dr. Donovan after our last class, but I just wanted to share a really cool way this class has led to a lot of great conversation and reading for my family.  My grandma has been a lifelog Tolkien fan, and so I wrote her an email at the beginning of he semester letting her know that I had registered for this class,.  Since then, we have regularly kept in touch about what we have learned and talked about in this class, and have our own discussions about different pieces of Tolkien's writing.  She has also recommended different short stories and essays to me that we didn't cover in this class, so I will definitely have a lot of Tolkien to read continuing into the summer as well.  It was really great that we got to talk about what makes Tolkien's writing influential and meaningful across multiple generations, because these conversations with my 85 year old grandma really prove that point even more.  It amazes me that more than 10 years after I read my first book by Tolkien (The Hobbit), his literature continues to impact my life in new ways.

Thank you everyone for  making this such a great class, stay safe, healthy, and read on!

Hobbit Movies

Hello!

I was thinking about the Hobbit movies and wondering why it was turned into three movies. I know that the biggest reason is probably profit. They wanted to get as much out of that series as they could. However, I find one thing curious. Most of the time, when turning books into movies, the biggest reason they cannot put something into the movie is time. So why is it that, even with three movies and each movie being about three hours long, they changed the story so much? I imagine they put Legolas in because they wanted to connect it even more with LOTR. But there were quite a few changes that I didn't see as necessary. For example, we see Radagast in a number of scenes in the movie, but he is only mentioned by name in the book. I just find it curious that even with all the time that they could ever need, they still changed it from the book in such a large way.

Keep Up Your Merry Hearts, and Ride to Meet Your Fortune!

Hello!

I wanted to use this last post of the semester as an opportunity to thank Dr. Donovan and all of you, my fellow classmates, for such a great class! I'm so glad I decided to take this course and it has honestly been my most favorite and exciting class this whole semester. Despite the second half of the semester being shaken up and everything having to go online, this class acted as a great motivator for me to keep up my studies and I learned so much from it!
Good luck to you all on your Final Portfolios and exams! I hope you all have a good summer and stay safe and healthy!

- Emma (aka Tom Bombadil)

Here At the End of All Things ...

This class was definitely the highlight of this past semester, especially when the quarantine began and UNM was forced to limit its operations. Taking a class that focused on the stories I grew up listening to and continue to love was really amazing. Not only was this class awesome, in all its Tolkienness, but it was also full of like-minded, intelligent individuals that made it all the more worthwhile and great. I'm really sad that its come to an end, especially since I won't have a class with Dr. Donovan in the Fall 2020 semester. That being said, I wish you all the very best and I hope that we'll come together in the future once the show focused on Aragorn is released. Thank you for a great semester!

Until next time ... :)

Finland and Tolkien

We talked in class a little today how it was really cool to hear about Tolkien's sources when it came to writing his stories of Middle-earth. I wanted to include a little portion of my revised paper that talks a lot about the sources that Tolkien drew from Finland:  

"believe that Finland's landscape was Tolkien's inspiration for many places within
Middle-earth like Mirkwood and other woodland realms. When I think of Middle-earth, the first
images to cross my mind are wide open countryside’s, densely populated forests, and steep
cliff sides carved by a river. Many people attribute this atheistic found in Middle-earth to
Switzerland, which I must agree with wholeheartedly. However, I will also argue that these
surroundings can also be found elsewhere in Europe. Finland is Europe’s most forested country
having about 70% of the land covered with trees. “The country lends itself to
a sense of magic and mystery”. For this reason, I believe that Mirkwood could be
inspired, at least in part, by the forests and natural landscape of Finland."

Who is Samwise?

I know that I put this out on the chat earlier today but I also wanted to post it here for anyone that wasn't able to make it to class today.

Samwise is Joshua Rodriguez.

It's been a pleasure learning about Tolkien with all of you and reading all of your marvelous blog posts. The biggest takeaways for me were learning just awesome Lord of the Rings is, how it's okay for adults to love fantasy literature, how invested Tolkien truly was in creating an immersive world, and the concept of the eucatastrophe and how it applies to all  of us today during these crazy times! Congrats to all of those graduating and have a great summer everyone!   

Quarantine Teachings

In our wrap up discussion today, we talked about things we’ve learned this semester and things we’ll take away from this experience (this class, this semester, this quarantine situation). I hope one thing that we’ve all learned from this situation is to appreciate what we have, even though the things we don’t have may seem looming and numerous at times. Like Thorin said “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” I just want to celebrate all that we do have – and one of the biggest things we have are the people in our lives, whether we live with them or can only see them through technology! We can't change everything that's going on - “all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us,” and I’m so proud of all of you for what you’ve done this semester even with all the additional stresses we didn’t plan on having. My fingers are crossed that next semester you are all able to go back to campus and see people in person, but no matter how things turn out or how long we need to deal with Zoom meetings and six feet of distance, I know you will all find ways to stay connected and go on to do wonderful things. 

Thank you all for making this semester wonderful,

<3 Ashleigh

all good things must come to an end

I have loved this class and talking with all of you about Tolkien. Thank you all! I have definitely appreciated having people to talk to outside of my house during this crazy time! I hope all of us are able to get through it safely.

I don't have much more to say, so bye for now I guess, and hope I will see most of you around campus whenever it reopens. Congratulations Michael, Ashleigh and Taylor on graduating!

-Isaac

Wrapping up the Semester

As Elrond, I am really supposed to be "all knowing" when it comes to things in the LOTR. The truth is, I really am the exact opposite of my pseudonym. This class taught me the rich, deep, and love Tolkien put into his readings, making sure things didn't really end even at the end of the novels. People (including his son) kept his stories alive, even after death, whether it be just keeping the books alive by making blogs, websites, and even games. This whole semester opened me up to a new respect and appreciation to a section of Fantasy that I never really took the time to look at. The Lord of the Rings really changed my mind on this style of fantasy, and now I actually understand the movies as I watch them. This was a big chunk of literature that I really am not used to reading throughout the semester, so I fell behind and skipped around a little bit. However, I really do plan on going back and reading both The Hobbit and LOTR once I am done getting the rest of my life together. This class was a pure joy, and really turned me into a Tolkien fan. I still have a lot of catching up to do, in regard to Character formation, but I finally understand the overall premise of Tolkien's books.

Lots of Love

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take my last blog post to say thank you to you all for such an amazing semester. It really was amazing and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to meet such wonderful people. I know that everyone in this class is going to go out into the world and do amazing things. 

I also wanted to specifically thank Dr. Donovan for being such an amazing teacher and for showing how much she cares for us during this time of uncertainty.

I do have a few book recommendations for you all. I really enjoyed both the Falconer series by Elizabeth May and the Doon series by Lorie Langdon and Carey Corp. Both are fantasy, involve the Fae, and take place in Scotland. (Also they both have romance because I'm a sucker for men in kilts. What can you do?).

Love you all and hope to see you soon!

- Celeborn (Abby)

Robin Williams Quote :)

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." - Robin Williams, from the Dead Poets Society film.

“Leaf by Niggle”

In our last discussion, we talked about how this story might be a reflection of Tolkien on himself as a writer. How this story might depict how he was never satisfied with his work. How he never accomplished as much as he wanted. And how what he managed to actually get out was only a pale comparison to the vision he actually had. Well, that’s quite telling in and of itself as what he produced is incredible and so detailed so I can’t imagine what it actually could have been if his vision was fully realized. That’s a whole other discussion in itself, but not what I really want to look at. 

What I’m interested in exploring here is another possible interpretation for this story, one I had upon initially reading it, after looking past the not so subtle spiritual allegory aspect of it, this story could also be read, in my opinion, as a tale on the method of creating something artistic, whether that be a piece of art, a piece of writing, music, or whatever one’s artistic fancy may be. 

It details all of Niggle’s struggle to work on and get done this painting he wishes to accomplish, such as his responsibilities and his own lack of commitment. Then it shows how one sometimes has to put their work aside, not even think about, look at it, or consider it for a time. And then one can come back to it with fresh eyes and start anew, and possibly finally be able to realize the vision they’ve been striving for but have been unable to accomplish until now. That was the impression I took away from reading this story, pushing aside the idea that heaven is where all your greatest aspirations are realized, which is a nice thought but not a fulfilling one.  

Closing Thoughts on the Lord of the Rings

As we have all discussed, the ending of The Lord of the Rings is pretty long.  The scouring of the shire seems like such an odd thing to tack on after the climax of the overall story.  However, we get to see the changes brought to our characters shine through, and appreciate the brave hobbits that they have become.  Even after the Grey Havens, Pippin, Merry, and Sam all return to a seemingly normal life in The Shire.  If one reads the appendices, they can learn about their families and lives and how eventually all members of the Fellowship either die or pass on through the Grey Havens. 

Tolkien seems to bring everything back to the theme of home and the simple pleasures in life in this way.  We see all the remaining members of the Fellowship pursuing ordinary lives compared to their grand deeds in their younger days.  The hobbits remind me of a verse from Ecclesiastes in the Bible that says, "Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage" (Ecclesiastes 5:18).  This might be part of what inspired Tolkien, since he tries to send the message that simple pleasures are worthier pursuits than gold and power, as Thorin says before his death at the end of The Hobbit.  Perhaps this is why the hobbits succeeded on their quest: they wanted to protect each other and their homes, not seek power and gain for themselves.

Reading beyond Tolkien

As we finish our course and head into a summer that might contain some new reading, what authors (other than Tolkien) will you be reading or would you recommend to others who enjoy Tolkien's work?

One of my personal favorites is Guy Gavriel Kay, a fantasy writer, who got started by helping Christopher Tolkien compile The Silmarillion. If you are looking for epic fantasy to read, consider The Fionavar Tapestry by Kay. It makes me laugh and weep in some similar ways to Tolkien's texts.

The Scouring of the Shire

Reading The Lord of the Rings this most recent time introduced me to something very interesting about Chapter 8 of The Return of the King.  According to Tolkien's own words and alluded to throughout the narrative, the Scouring of the Shire was "foreseen from the outset."  This strikes me as somewhat odd since the whole story seems to hinge on the destruction of the ring, and while this may partially be Tolkien's intention, I think his decision to conclude the dramatic side of the story through sacking the Shire indicates that something more was behind his plans.  The Lord of the Rings was more than just a story of destroying a horrible evil.  It is also a catalog of personal growth.

Each of the four hobbits left the Shire not quite understanding what dangers and perils they would find themselves in.  Frodo did not yet understand the full corruptive power of the ring, Sam had not yet foregone the comforts of home for the discomforts of the road, Merry had not yet developed the full attributes of a leader, and Pippin had not yet found his courage.  However, upon return to the Shire, each one had gone through numerous trials, encountered great difficulties, and experienced tragic loss, and through these, they grew into the hobbits they were supposed to be.  I hesitate to argue this, but perhaps their transformations and the final trial of the Scouring provide the climax of the entire story.

Additionally, we discussed throughout the semester various instances in which Tolkien alludes to what is to come.  The history of the Old Forest, Sam's vision in the Mirror of Galadriel, and the spoils of Isengard all tease what will happen to their beloved home, and I suppose I was able to better catch these references this time around.  Still, something I haven't considered until writing this post is that these references I listed all involve a hobbit.  Merry retells the story of the forest, Sam looks into the mirror, and Merry and Pippin discover the pipeweed after Saruman's defeat.  I think this small detail is tremendously important.  If Tolkien alluded to this event primarily through Gimli, Legolas, or even Aragorn (though I think his role as a Ranger guarding the free lands of the West might excuse him), the gravity of the hobbits' discovery would not be as poignant.

This chapter remains one of my favorites in all of The Lord of the Rings.  The idea that life continues on, even after the destruction of the evil ring, is important to me.  I'm a steadfast believer in the concept of happy endings (or eucatastrophe, if you please), and I can also appreciate Tolkien's writing his ending to be more reflective of real life.  Struggles will spring up sometimes where we least expect them, but ultimately hope and joy will still prevail.