Welcome to the central hub of the Tolkien Professor site!
You can find several different lecture series here, including the most recent addition, Riddles in the Dark, which is a special Hobbit-themed lecture series with Mythgard Institute in anticipation of the forthcoming Peter Jackson movies.
If you are new to the Tolkien Professor’s lectures and discussions, you should begin with his introduction to Tolkien studies: “How to Read Tolkien and Why.”
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Exeter College, Oxford, where Tolkien studied.
The centerpiece of Professor Corey Olsen’s lecture series is his in-depth careful audio commentary on Tolkien’s major works, chapter-by-chapter, beginning with his podcast on The Hobbit. In the future, the Tolkien Professor hopes to follow up this series with one on the Lord of the Rings.
Also available on this site is a full session-by-session audio recording of Professor Olsen’s 2010 undergraduate Tolkien course at Washington College.
You can also listen to a second full undergraduate class recording of Professor Olsen’s Faerie and Fantasy course, which he offered at Washington College in the spring of 2011.
Interested in the Silmarillion? The Tolkien Professor offers an ongoing weekly online seminar where he works his way through the Silmarillion.
Occasionally, the Tolkien Professor gets the opportunity to record conversations that he has with fellow Tolkien enthusiasts on topics of interest in Tolkien’s works. These can be found under Tolkien Chats, where you can listen to discussions and debates with other scholars and former Tolkien Professor students.
From time to time, Professor Olsen announces a time slot in which he will be available through Skype to answer listeners’ questions; these are recorded and made available here. Call-in times will be announced in an audio episode and listed on the home page of this site.
Have a question for the Tolkien Professor? You can contact him via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. Sometimes, when he gets a chance, Professor Olsen records sessions in which he addresses questions that he receives and he posts the recordings of these and of his public lectures on the Bonus page.
If you need a good copy of Tolkien’s books in order to help you follow along, check out the Literature Page where you can find Tolkien’s classics, criticism, and more.
