Bettering oneself

Alright, I've thought about this for years, but haven't really seriously considered it. Years ago I mentioned Mythgard Institute (now Mythgard Academy) and their Tolkien courses. From that starting point, they have now developed Signum University, an actual online university for studies of such things as Tolkien, philology, and various types of literature. They have a master's program (which I wouldn't do - a thesis and whatnot terrifies me), but they also have a certificate program, which involves taking five courses in a focused area. 

I really want that certificate in Tolkien studies. How great would it be to be able to say that I have that, just for my own benefit, if nothing else. I'm a little intimidated by the thought of online master's level courses, but it's only five, right? And I'm in no rush, I could do them one at a time and be done in 2 1/2 years (or a little more, depending on what is offered when).

One problem, though, is that with the choices of courses they have, I think I might enjoy getting their Germanic Philology certificate more than their Tolkien one. "Philology Through Tolkien" doesn't count toward the Tolkien certificate, for example, and of course I'd love to learn Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. 

But I don't need to decide on that right now. Right now I've decided I'm going to take one of their 'Anytime Audit' courses and see how it goes. The Anytime Audit courses are courses that are not being offered currently that you can take at your own pace and learn just for fun. "Philology Through Tolkien" is one of those courses. My plan is to try to do it according to the 12-week schedule it was first created with and see if I can keep up. It won't be quite the same because I won't be doing assignments, exams, or discussion boards, but it will give me an idea of what is involved. And if the assignments are listed in the outline of the course, I can just do them anyway. Also, like I said, that course is in the Germanic Philology program, not the Tolkien one, so this way if I decide to go the Tolkien route, I won't miss out on it. And if I go the Germanic Philology route, it opens up space for one more philological course, with me being able to take this one for far cheaper. I've wanted to take this course for about six years, so it's about time I do it.

So there you have it. I may or may not be going back to school. I'm very glad they have the Anytime Audit option so I can try it out before committing. We'll see!

Concerning Tolkien (and Philology) - Part One

My dear Professor Tolkien (a title which he didn't like, so I'll call him Mr. Tolkien, cuz that's what he preferred) was a philologist. (Philology is, contrary to what one would think, not the study of guys named Phil - though Linda might like that. It's the study of sounds, words, and word origins/the development of languages.) What a great job. Just to study words and languages.

Philology is where his heart truly lied. That is how Middle Earth came to be: he invented a language, but in order for a language to exist there has to be a culture to support it, thus the creation of Elves and the rest of Middle Earth. He studied the evolution of languages, and saw how words could have developed and used that pattern to guide the development of his own languages. (There are two forms of Elvish - Quenya and Sindarin.) Mr. Tolkien also used patterns from Old English, Middle English, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse to develop words used by other peoples of Middle Earth that, because they follow a specific pattern, sound not so foreign to us. He also brought back some words that had vanished long ago.

(Sorry if I don't make myself clear. Sometimes when I understand something, I think other people do, too, so I don't see that I'm unclear. [That would be why I can't teach.])

On Philology

"Philology is that venerable art which requires of those who honor her one thing above all: to turn aside, to take one's time, to become still and slow.... Precisely for this reason, she is more necessary today than ever, precisely on this account, she attracts and enchants us most powerfully, in an age of "work," which is to say, haste, the unseemly and sweating hurry that wants to be "done" with everything right away, even with every old and new book. She herself will not so easily be done with anything, she instructs reading well, that means, slowly, deeply, carefully, regardfully, looking forward and backward, with second thoughts, with doors left open, reading with delicate fingers and eyes...." - F. Nietzsche, Morgenröte

Concerning Tolkien (and Philology) - Part Two (I decided to break this post into two so that it wouldn't look so intimidating)

Anyway - so I'm reading this book that I find fascinating that no one else would find interesting called "Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary," by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner. And it so makes me want to be a philologist. I wanted to be one anyway, as soon as I found out there was such a subject to study, but this just makes me want to all the more. It is so fun to see where English came from. Example:
Middle English: Efter noes flode...eontas wolden areran ane buruh and anne stepel swah hehne Þet his rof astiзe up to heofena.
Our English: After Noah's flood...the giants intended to erect a city and a tower so high that its roof would ascend to the heavens.
So, if you know that 'Þ' is 'th,' and you know that eontas means 'giants,' you can see the relation. 'Efter noes flode' is pretty obvious, then 'eontas wolden' (taking the original meaning of the word 'would': 'to desire, to intend'), 'areran' would be hard to figure out, but then 'ane buruh' (a burrow: a town or city), 'and anne stepel' ('and a steeple (a tower)'), 'swah hehne Þet his rof' (getting 'hehne' from context), 'astiзe' would also be hard to figure, and then 'up to heofena.' It makes total sense! Isn't is wonderful!?! ('Wonderful' meaning 'a great thing that leaves one full of wonder and awe') :)
What a fortunate man to get to study such things! And to do what he did with them, using them to create words, languages, and cultures - oh how grand! ('Eontas' - 'giants' - is whence came the word 'Ents.') I could go on and give more examples of what he did with philology, but seeing as this is really long and I'm the only one who cares anyway, I'll stop here. But oh, if only I could study the likes of that!

please!

Dear Mythgard Institute,
Please, please, I beg of you, offer this class again. I'm devastated I didn't get to take it, but when you're gone for six weeks of the class it just doesn't work. Please, offer it again!
Extremely sincerely,
Melilot Dolly Brandybuck
http://www.mythgard.org/academics/fall-2013-courses/philology-through-tolkien/

leakycon day four part one

sunday morning chelley, auto, and i went to church, then sadly, auto and i watched chelley go. she had to get back and wasn't able to stay any longer. we were very sad, but then had to catch the bus to the hilton one last time. on the way we saw a bunch of people running in a field playing some game. auto and i were both confused by their lack of brooms. that fact made us both happy.

day four was the feast. hoping there would be something harry potter-y, like butterbeer or pumpkin juice, auto and i were slightly disappointed to find just your average brunch spread. it was nice, though, to have one final thing. we sat with some girls who seemed almost offended that we didn't care about starkids, but after they left some nice normal girls joined us. (leakycon is seriously not the place to go to meet men. the only one who intrigued me was about 50 and average-looking, and there with his 15-year-old daughter. i really liked what he was saying at the books vs. movie discussion, as well as what she was saying. it made me believe they were both intelligent and Christian. but he had a ring, so i couldn't even hit on an old widower.)

very few people were in costume that last day. i'm sure they were all packed, because people would've had to check out of the hotel already. it made for a sad feeling of things winding down, though. they had a little farewell message, with a drawing (which we didn't know about so we couldn't have entered) and announcement of where the next leakycon will be (there will actually be two - portland, OR and london, england). and then that was about it. oh, except that we headed downstairs to go to the bathroom, which meant that we got to come back up from the basement one last time. the elevators had been a highlight. we called them the floo network, though they were very reminiscent of the elevators in the ministry of magic.

as we left the hotel and got on the bus, a feeling of overwhelming sorrow came upon me. it had been so fun to see all the people and go to the classes and watch a little quidditch. i loved the feeling of having an automatic bond with these strangers. i told auto that it made me want to spend my life going to conventions of some sort or other, because i really like being with people who at least understand a part of me. so from leakycon i want to go to the oxenmoot and then to some Christian thing or other and then i'd say something twins-y, but i'm afraid of obnoxious drunks and hos. maybe i could go to a conference on philology or something. it's disheartening to never be around people who get you. it's lovely to be with people who do.

I am enjoying my class, but

My class is team-taught. The 70-year-old British gentleman, I adore. The 30-year-old American hipster who I was not thrilled with anyway, just said in response to Tolkien saying that he loved Gothic, that 'love' was too strong of a word for a language. How is this guy teaching philology? Philo - love, logos - word. For pete's sake.

special for honormommy

since i don't know anyone to tag, i'm copping out of part of this, but i'll do the first half. the trick is that i already posted 30 things about me one time (http://i-am-a-hobbit.blogspot.com/2010/11/30-things.html), as well as a few of my favorite things (http://i-am-a-hobbit.blogspot.com/2008/04/few-of-my-favorite-things.html), so 11 more random things could be hard to come by. but i'll try. :)

11 Things
1. i wash my white socks in whatever color load i'm doing at the time. i really don't care if they stay white, and i go through them fast because i try to save my cute ones for when people are going to see them. plain white are cheaper.
2. if i won the lottery, i would go to oxford and get my master's in philology (shocker, i know).
3. when all this stressful craziness came up last week, i had just finished a book. and so i picked up 'les mis.' it's my comfort book.
4. i want a pet frog, but i'm also slightly scared of them cuz they're fast, plus also they might pee on me.
5. i hate the sound of whispering.
6. i love climbing things (trees, trails, climbing walls), but i hate coming down, cuz i might die.
7. i'm the slowest vegetable peeler in the world.
8. i'm usually not a brand shopper, but don't mess with my skippy (creamy) peanut butter, premium saltines, or honey maid grahams. also, don't name your son graham.

9. i've been watching the first season of 'better off ted' on netflix when i'm at hobbitsister's. naturally, i've developed a crush on ted. hobsis doesn't see it, saying he looks and walks like a ken doll. i say i can't help it: he was 38.

10. i'm allergic to beets, which makes me happy, because i hate beets.
11. i can't not have dessert. whether it's a cookie, applesauce, peaches, licorice, or 4 m&ms, i have to have something. i don't like the aftertaste of meat and potatoes.

Questions from HM
1. What is your favorite color? green. it might not be that easy being green, but green's the color of spring. and green can be cool and friendly-like. and green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree.
2. If you could teach a dog a new trick, what would it be? why on earth would i want to spend any more time with a dog than i have to?
3. Do you enjoy singing? How about just in the shower? of course i do! today my shower consisted of some awesome abba karaoke.
4. If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? teleportation
5. Can you do a cartwheel? nope
6. What is your favorite sound? hm...that's a tough one. i think i'm going to go with wind in the trees. although baby giggles are pretty great. :)
7. What would you do with $27.56? sadly, i'm a saver. i'd probably stick it in the bank or buy something practical, like my meds.
8. Do you have any weird tricks? (i.e., double jointed? wiggle your nose?, etc.) i can cross my toes, but that's about it.
9. If you had to give up one of your five senses, which would it be and why? i'd say smell, but that means taste, too. but i feel like that would affect my life less than other things. maybe i'll just say taste, even though i'd really miss dark chocolate and my mom's spaghetti and apples.
10. Do you have a favorite Bible verse? What is it? that depends on my mood. i really like this one, though:
"Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with HIM,
we will also live with HIM;
if we endure,
we will also reign with HIM.
If we disown HIM,
HE will also disown us;
if we are faithless,
HE remains faithful,
for HE cannot disown HIMSELF." II Tim. 2:11-13
it's very comforting.
11. Which do you prefer: car, boat, or airplane? (money is no object) i'm gonna say airplane cuz then i get wherever i'm going faster, although i really like the whole sing-along in the car thing.

and sorry, honormommy, that's where i end.

Concerning Tolkien (and the Fact That I'm Not a Geek)

According to T.A. Shippey (who wrote J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century), Tolkien believed "that a taste for philology, for history of language in all its forms, names and place-names included, is much more widespread in the population at large than educators and arbiters of taste like to think...what he felt, Tolkien said, was:

'grievance that certain professional persons should suppose their dullness and ignorance to be a human norm; and anger when they have sought to impose the limitation of their minds upon younger minds, disuading those with philological curiosity from their bent, encouraging those without this interest to believe that their lack marked them as minds of a superior order.'"

So basically, what Tolkien said was that I'm normal. Yet another reason for me to love him: he said I'm not a geek.

my new baseball hero

Moe Berg, Catcher (from 1923-1939)

"He was a master of twelve languages..., graduated from Princeton University and Columbia Law School, studied philology at the Sorbonne and was a spy for the United States government before and during World War II." - from Every Pitcher Tells a Story, by Seth Swirsky

And he was Jewish. Oh yeah, and he played baseball.

You can't get much cooler than that. He is so my hero.

dear chelleybutton and auto,

http://i-am-a-hobbit.blogspot.com/search?q=philology

Thoughts I had on Tolkien's birthday

I was talking with my mother last night, and said something about how fascinating the English language is, and how rich its history is, and all that, and suddenly it hit me: That history is not my mother's history at all! While English is her native language, as only a third generation speaker she has absolutely no connection to the roots of it! What a sad, sad thought. Thank heaven for my British Grandma Brandybuck. It's because of her that I have a connection to England (even if it was around 350 years ago), and thus to my language, and thus can have a full love and appreciation for the philology of it all. It is thanks to her, and her alone, that I can have this connection to Tolkien. Thank you, Grandma!

Where I'm at

[This was supposed to get blogged last week, but didn't.]
At work we have tons of old National Geographics. No one knows what to do with them, so they have just sat around random places in our offices, mostly being used to cover heat vents that only blow cold air.
The other night I dreamt that I was standing outside Half Price Books, looking longingly in the window. As I stood there, the philology-loving librarian walked by, accidentally brushing my leg as he also went to the window to look in longingly. I thought, 'Oh, it's him! This could lead to something. Except not, because I will never get to see him ever again because no one ever gets to do anything ever again for all time.' And then it switched to him working at HPB, and reaching out the door to give me the bag of books I had bought. Apparently they were closing for good, and they had a deal where paperbacks were $1 a piece, but you took whatever they gave you. Thinking this sounded kind of fun, I spent $8 to get 8 books. When I got back to my car, I opened the bag, and they had given me 6 darn old copies of National Geographic and two books (one a Series of Unfortunate Events spin-off, the other I don't know because I was so mad about the blasted National Geographics). Magazines are not books! I totally got ripped off. But in fairness, I had decided to take the risk of not knowing what I was buying.
And that was the whole of it. Pretty sure it takes nothing to figure out what this means. I miss the library, the bookstore, and work. Sounds about right.