How to prevent professor's life from being boring?
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien should have been widely known as an exceptional linguist but readers often prefer fantasy over academic papers, so here he is – the man who invented the world of hobbits and developed a whole new language family, created two nearly completed languages and about 15 less developed other languages, dialects, and codes. His daily activities were rather tedious and might look boring while J.R.R. Tolkien did not feel a bit like that. What’s the secret?
Socialise.
There were no social media but belonging to a community was important for J.R.R. Tolkien. He had a strong desire to share professional discoveries, discuss own literary works, ensure one is not alone in their views and interests, and have fun with those cut from the same cloth.
Give it a personal touch.
One of the Oxford professors, J.R.R. Tolkien viewed his duty of giving lectures as a chance to demonstrate and infect more people with his passion for the Middle Age English. A rare lecturer would be able to do it by simply retelling the materials, making notes on a blackboard, and giving assignments to test the students’ knowledge. As a linguist, J.R.R. Tolkien viewed a language as an instrument to represent a corresponding culture, people and even an epoch. Hence, he aimed to give his students a whole feeling of what life was like for native speakers of the Old or Middle English , or Medieval Welsh , or Gothic , or even Elvish…
Also in the story
- who were the first people to discover Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?
- what was Tolkien's unique way to enter the room for a lecture was?
- how was Tolkien's homour and who could never be ready?
- what was the most boring thing for Tolkien and what it once led to?
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More from the J.R.R. Tolkien's Universe
Tolkien Gateway – The largest encyclopedia dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings.
JRRVF – J.R.R. Tolkien en version française – studies, commentaries, extra materials on Tolkien's literary works (in French).
The Tolkien Society – An educational charity, literary society, international fan club dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Sindarin Dictionary – A dictionary of one of the languages created by J.R.R. Tolkien