INSTRUCTORS:
Note for Spring 2025: This course will run “with demand”. We are gauging interest from Signum students for this course in the Spring 2025 semester. If this course does not run this spring, it will be deferred to a future semester. Please fill out this interest form no later than December 15, 2024, after which time we will make a final decision on this and other “with demand” courses.
How did Tolkien view Beowulf? How did Beowulf influence Tolkien?
Tolkien’s involvement with Beowulf was lifelong. His 1936 lecture to the British Academy on “the Monsters and the Critics” has been said to be the most-cited academic paper of all time, in the humanities. But he also lectured to undergraduates until he retired in 1957 – and then Oxford asked him back for a repeat course in 1963. Some of his views appeared posthumously in 1982 (Finn and Hengest), and more came out with his translation and partial commentary in 2014. They cast much unexpected light on the poem, but at the same time the poem, as read by Tolkien, casts unexpected light on his own fiction. We know literally nothing about the author of Beowulf, and what we can safely infer is not much. But to Tolkien, he was a kindred spirit. Reading Tolkien and Beowulf together, and reading each through the other, is an illuminating experience. This is the first course ever to try to do so, and it will be taught by a professor equally prominent as a Tolkienian and a Beowulfian
Weekly Schedule
This class includes pre-recorded lectures by Dr. Tom Shippey & Dr. Nelson Goering. Students will meet once a week for a 1-hour discussion session as assigned.
Course Schedule
Week 1 – Lines 1 to 200
Tolkien 1-156, pp. 13-18
Week 2 – On To Line 500
Tolkien 157-405, pp. 18-27
Week 3 – Forward To Line 700
Tolkien 406-573, pp. 27-33
Week 4 – On To Line 1000
Tolkien 574-807, pp. 33-41
Week 5 – (The Problematic) Lines 1000-1400
Tolkien 808-951, pp. 41-46
Week 6 – (The Problematic) Lines 1000-1400 continue
Tolkien 952-1165, pp. 46-53
Week 7 – The Next 300 Lines
Tolkien 1166-1415, pp. 53-62
Week 8 – To Line 1900 (Possibly the Most Philosophical Lines)
Tolkien 1416-1583, pp. 62-68
Week 9 – Up to Line 2200 (The Poem’s Warm Center) & Through 2400
- Tolkien 1584-1851, pp. 68-77
- Tolkien 1852-2019, pp. 77-83
Week 10 – (Disentangling) Line 2400 to The End
Tolkien 2020-2669, pp. 83-105
Week 11 – (Disentangling) Line 2400 to The End
Tolkien 2020-2669, pp. 83-105
Week 12 – (Disentangling) Line 2400 to The End
Tolkien 2020-2669, pp. 83-105
Required Texts
- The Monsters and the Critics – J.R.R. Tolkien
- Beowulf: a translation and commentary, with Sellic Spell – edited by Christopher Tolkien
Additional required texts will be made available in the final syllabus. The Amazon links are provided for convenience only, and we encourage students to purchase texts wherever they wish.
Course History
This course has been offered in the following semesters.
| Semester | Preceptor(s) |
|---|---|
| Spring 2025 | Dr. Larry Swain & Dr. Chris Vaccaro |
| Fall 2022 | Dr. Larry Swain & Dr. Chris Vaccaro |
| Spring 2018 | Dr. Larry Swain |
| Spring 2015 | Dr. Nelson Goering & Sørina Higgins |
