Class Review: Exploring Tolkien

After reflecting on this class for a month (also known as just plain not doing this), I feel now I can do this review.

I loved it! It encompassed so much of what I love about Tolkien, and the interests we share. I really enjoyed the sections on mythology, and of course, the one on philogy. In the part on English legend there were a lot of examples of how Anglo-Saxon compared to modern English, and that I just plain loved. I liked testing myself on those passages. The section on Elvish was interesting - it showed how much thought he put into his languages, and how the two Elvish languages were related (fascinating!).

Being an online class, there was a lot of reading, but that was alright. Of course, though, it then used a lot of ink since I printed out most of the readings. Not the end of the world, considering I didn't have a textbook to pay for. It was the first online class I've taken, and while it was good, I did find I missed the interaction you get in a classroom. We did have discussion boards, though, which helped. From what I saw, I really liked the professor.

And while we all know how much I struggled writing the final paper, I'm happy about how it turned out (and so was she apparently). I loved the topic and I think I learned something by doing it.

So in the end, I would highly recommend this class to Tolkien fans. However, if you're a normal person, I don't know that it would be for you. I loved it.