OSHER 28 - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

This course will focus on Tolkien's masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. We'll spend the first week considering some of Tolkien's lesser-known writings, which reveal how the author himself understood what he was about, including On Fairy Stories, Leaf by Niggle, and Smith of Wootton Major. Using those as a springboard, we'll spend the second week on selected chapters from The Hobbit, and the third and fourth weeks on selected chapters from The Lord of the Rings. Week five we'll talk about religious perspectives and themes; week six, political perspectives and the Peter Jackson movies.