Tolkien For Teachers: How to Use Tolkien in Class

A) Literature

– Classical literature study with a paper, general or specific
– Drama: divide the class group into smaller groups and have them re-enact scenes, or summarize parts of the story so all the groups tell the entire tale (perfect for this would either be scenes from the LOTR book/movie, if you’ve read/seen it in class; the Lay of Beren and Lúthien, or Ainulindalë)
– Poetry: take one of the poems and make a study of it as if it belonged to a real culture, or make a classical analysis of it (comparison to Caedmon’s Hymn, The Wanderer,…)
– Style: compare different paragraphs to see how Tolkien uses ‘style’ to set the tone and pace of his story (e.g. 1.I. vs. 3.VI.)
– History of literature: make links with Anglo-Saxon traditions (Beowulf), Arthurian romances (Aragorn, Andúril, Arwen, Gandalf…), epics (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), everyman tales…
– History of literature: introduction of ‘fantasy’ in the 20th century
– Mythology: parallels with mythological stories (Atlantis, biblical creation myth,…)

B) Religion/Morality/Philosophy/Whatever

Ainulindalë is perfect to explain the ideas of:
– creation
– God vs. gods
– Free Will
– participatory creation (the responsibility of man for his surroundings)
– the Fall (necessity, determination vs. free will)
– good vs. evil vs. good evil
– Evil in Tolkien

C) Art/Music/Crafts/Creative Stuff

– Put songs from the books (like the Hobbit songs or the Tom B. stuff) to music
– Perform the Ainulindalë – try to have your class create music out of initial chaos without interfering or telling them what they’re supposed to do
– Illustrate a scene from the book/movie
– Make an illuminated manuscript, mediaeval monk-style, for one of the poems
– Make your own ‘Beren & Lúthien’-comic book (for large groups or multiple classes, you can make an entire LOTR-book by handing clusters of chapters to different people/groups)
– Make a doll after your favourite character

D) English/Other languages

– Old English/classical English/modern English
– How does a language work? Check out Sindarin!
– Translations: differences, problems (‘Durin’s Hymn’ or ‘Eorl’s Hymn’ could work perfectly as examples)
– How does language (sounds, phrasing,…) influence meaning? Look at a dubbed version of a part of the movie (of a language that’s known, or not known) and then at the English one

E) Movie/Aesthetics/Media

– How do you make a movie? (camera, light, grading…) – the EE’s are amazing resources for this kind of stuff!!
– Write a movie review
– Write a movie review of one specific scene (mind certain points, like camera angles, performance, props…)
– Review a specific group of scenes (e.g. Rivendell in FOTR – TTT – ROTK: how are lights, grading, music, props, camera angles etc…used to create emotion in a set?.)
– Music & film: watch scenes with and without the sound (perfect for this: Aragorn on Brego in TTT; the lighting of the beacons on ROTK)
– Art: compare movie Lórien to art deco or Edward Burne-Jones; compare Moria to a gothic cathedral…or find equivalents in art for the movies

F) Randomness

– Make a technical design or a map of Helm’s Deep based on the description in the book
– Geography: maps
– Math/geography: calculate the duration of the journey from The Shire to Rivendell based on the map and the info in Tolkien’s books, or v.v.
– Make a Trent Reznor out of papier mâché and dress him up like a LOTR-figure

by Figwit