And has he lined up a heck of a surprise for the lucky students who take this course. Geeze, I wish I lived near Cambridge, MA. Here is an excerpt from a message Dr. Zender sent me yesterday:

Starting January 27th, 2010, I will be offering ANTH E-164 "Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth" through Harvard's Extension School. On-campus lectures will be held on Wednesday evenings, 5:30-7:30pm EST, but the course will also be videotaped, and the lectures can be accessed by enrolled students from pretty much anywhere with a reasonably fast internet connection. An online forum will also allow students to regularly engage with the teaching staff and one another. As before, the focus is squarely on the role of Tolkien's invented languages in communicating the complex cultures of Middle-earth, but this time I've also managed to attract a couple of guest lecturers I'm sure you've heard about: Dick Plotz and Bob Foster. These grand gents will visit the class on March 31st and share some of their early work on Tolkien's languages, correspondence and meeting with Tolkien, etc. I think it should prove an interesting highlight.

Okay, so I am sure there are still a few people in the Tolkien fan community who remember Dick Plotz and (Robert) Bob Foster. But for those of you who are too young to recognize the names, Robert Foster wrote The Complete Guide To Middle-earth, which served as the definitive glossary for Tolkien's works for about a decades -- and it's still very useful today. Dick Plotz was the seminal Tolkien researcher and scholar in the 1960s and 1970s (and Foster credits him in numerous entries in the original Guide).

All I can say is: WOW.

Dr. Marc Zender is a Research Associate, Peabody Museum, Lecturer on Anthropology, Harvard University. His title is longer than my father's name (sorry, Dad -- no disrespect meant). You may have seen Dr. Zender on an episode of Lost Worlds titled "Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest". I watched the show last evening.

I wrote about Dr. Zender's first Tolkien class back in May.

Here are a couple of links to check out:

Tolkien as Translator: Language, Culture and Society in Middle-Earth

Syllabus (pdf)

Several sites discuss Wheelbarrows at Dawn: The Lost Box of Tolkien Memories but only one seems to have its dates in order (a point I must qualify by saying the writer conceded -- at the time he wrote the announcement -- the book was only partially finished). So, some details were published on ADC Books and Art's site, but they didn't have a date.

They sent a message to TheOneRing.Net but neglected to include a month or year.

By process of elimination, careful deduction, judicious use of a search engine, and the dumb blind luck of finding co-editor Neil Holford's description of the project on his site Tolkien Books, I figured out that the launch will start on Friday, March 26, 2010.

He writes:

The book is based on a box of letters, photographs, cards, paintings, notebooks and other gems that were gathered by Hilary over the course of his long life. The box’s contents have now been made available to tell a tale that begins before Hilary was born in Bloemfontein in 1894, then follows him to Birmingham and Gedling, through his time in the army and onto many years of living and working on his fruit farm in Blackminster, continuing even after his death in 1976.

So, read the whole article on Neil's site and be sure to look at TheOneRing.Net's announcement because they have some details you won't find on the other sites.

It all sounds quite interesting to me. I'll publish more information if/when I get it.

Seems like I just announced Episode 16, doesn't it? Well, Episode 17 is now available for download. By the way -- Hawke has been upgrading the equipment on which the Middle-earth Radio site runs and there may be some occasional disruptions as he moves streams around. Of course, he might have finished all that by the time you read this ....

Download the show here.

Here are some notes Hawke has published about the episode:

Swedish group Ad Dios album cover "A Journey Through Middle-earth"

Opening music:
"Middle-earth" by Ad dios ( www.addios.se ) from their album A Journey Through Middle-earth (included with permission by Mikael)

Topics:

• Streaming servers databases updates nearing completion
• Swedish music group, Ad Dios, sent their 6th album and asked us to play their music
• Vote on your favorite piece(s) from their album
• Suggest music pieces you would like to hear (or contribute) for Middle-earth Radio to select as intro and closing "signature" music
• Send us your Skype contact name to join in conference call to participate in show live: middleearthradio at gmail dot com or via Skype: middleearthradio
• The origin of "Tuesday"
• Tolkien & His Love of Trees and the Environment
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• The Telegraph: J.R.R. Tolkien Trained as British Spy
• Etymology of the word "Hobbit": 1859-ish
• Discussion part 2: "Tales Before Tolkien" by Douglas A Anderson
• Tolkien's Smith of Wootton Major an intentional rewrite of The Golden Key by George MacDonald
• The Ring of Words book
• Michael's thoughts on Hobbits being modeled on badgers
• Possible homage by Tolkien to George MacDonald in Lord of the Rings (Moria fight)
• Tolkien's fondness for pipeweed

Closing music:
"The Shire" by Ad dios ( www.addios.se ) from their album A Journey Through Middle-earth (included with permission by Mikael)

Duration (including music): 42 minutes 58 seconds
Filesize: 59 MB (61,896,922 bytes)
File format: MP3
Sample Rate: 192

So this catches us up, for now. Please let Hawke know what you think of the show. Post in forums or email about your thoughts about this show, past shows, or suggestions/requests for upcoming shows:

http://www.middle-earthradio.com/forum

Email: webmaster at middle-earthradio dot com

Hawke and I were able to get together on September 12 to record Episode 16 of Middle-earth Talk Radio. So, it's not really a "weekly" show but neither is it dead. In fact, just last night we recorded Episode 17 and Hawke is trying to get that edited and ready for download this week (or next week or ....).

September 12 is just prior to the real birthday for Bilbo and Frodo, by the way. Looks like we forgot to mention that in the show....

Topics covered included:

• A dearth of Tolkien-related news
• Tales before Tolkien - The Roots of Modern Fantasy - Classic stories that inspired the author of The Lord of the Rings by Douglas A. Anderson
• The Elves by Ludwig Tieck, Inspired Tolkien's Leaf by Niggle
• Harry Potter and the Emerald Key ;-)
• Even more off topic: A story by Michael Martinez, Fantasy Football leagues Insurance
• Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress by Seattelite & WotC writer Shelly Mazzanoble
• RPG Research Project & related studies on the therapeutic and social impact of RPGs
• MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)
• Pen and Paper RPGs (Role Playing Games)

A message from Hawke: Please feel free to post comments on the show, make requests for topics to be discussed in upcoming shows, or any other comments or questions in the forums:

http://www.middle-earthradio.com/forum

Or via email: webmaster at middle-earthradio dot com

And download all the other shows from the site:
http://www.middle-earthradio.com/

And a little something off-topic. Hawke has been seeking input from MERPCon attendees about where and how to hold Tolkien Moot in Spokane next year. Tolkien Moot is not just a gaming convention. It will be about all things Tolkien (with a big emphasis on gaming, still). If you'd like to participate in the planning and organizing, get in touch with Hawke and pitch your idea to him.

The worst that could happen is it won't happen (at Tolkien Moot). Use the webmaster email address above to reach Hawke.

SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.

You've got a fan site and you just don't find yourself getting much traffic from search engines. Friends, I was once there too. It took me a long time to figure out there was more to being on the Web than just "build it and they will come". That doesn't work, even in today's social media-crazy, RSS feed-driven Web.

Being a Tolkien fan is not nearly as cool as it once was. I am sure that will change as the Guillermo del Toro Hobbit Movies release dates come closer.

There will be line parties. There will be product contests. There will be frenzy. There will be Hobbitmania, Hobbitocity, and Hobbitraciousness galore.

In the meantime, here are a few things you should know:

1. If you have a blog, post to it at least once a week. It doesn't always have to be about Tolkien.
2. If you have a blog, publish only a partial RSS feed. This minimizes the damage that Web spam scraper sites can do to your search visibility.
3. If you have a blog, make sure you ping the blog ping services. That may be as simple as clicking YES on "Make your blog visible to search engines" in your configuration.
4. If you have a blog, use tags and let the search engines crawl the tag pages. Tag pages on Wordpress.com don't have search-friendly links but they do create visibility for you within the Wordpress community.
5. DO NOT run around to blogs and forums and leave comments with links. That is so cheap and sleazy it may get you nailed as a spammer.
6. DO participate in online discussions about Tolkien. Find a blog or forum community where you like the people and join the fun.

If you don't have a blog, don't panic. You can still submit your site to a few Tolkien fan site directories. More importantly, you can always start a blog and follow my advice above.

And there are other things fan sites can do. Write a few paragraphs of text for every page on your site. Don't use the same text over and over again (that is called boilerplate and doesn't help you). Even if you create a photo gallery, include captions in the ALT= text, use every means available to include visible text above, beside, or beneath the pictures.

Prominently use the name of your site in your navigation. Don't use "home" for the anchor text to your main page. Instead, if your site is called "Michael's Cool J.R.R. Tolkien Site", use "Michael's Cool J.R.R. Tolkien Site" or something like that (if you prefer shorter) to help people and search engines see what the page really is.

You can be as simplistic as using "Tolkien Home Page", "Tolkien Images", etc. or as complex as "Michael's Tolkien Home Page", "Michael's Tolkien Images", etc.

If you add a blog to your site, write an article about each of your pages and link directly to the page with the words you would normally use to describe that page. For example, here is a Guillermo del Toro news section on Xenite.Org. Or, here is a Harry Potter Web site in the Xenite network.

Finally, if you're really curious about search engine optimization (which I do professionally), you can check out a Web site I've maintained for several years called SEO Theory. There is an SEO White Papers section where you can download .PDF files to help you get started on fundamental SEO principles.

And for really hard core people, you can check out these three articles about advanced SEO practices:

• Another 20 Hard Core SEO Tips
• 20 More Hard Core SEO Tips
• 20 Hard Core SEO Tips

From Easier.com:

'Ent' Heads
Date: Sunday 15 November
Time: 10.30am – 1pm and 1.30pm – 4pm
Duration: Varies depending on the nature of your creation.
Cost: £2.00
Age: All ages
Meeting place: The Yan, Grizedale Centre
Booking required: Just drop in. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Description: Create your own 'Ent'! Ents are guardians of the trees and protect our ancient lands against dark forces. Materials provided.

Grizedale Forest is overseen by the UK Forestry Commission but I cannot find anything on their site that mentions this event.

There are plenty of other activities mentioned in the press release/story published on Easier.com but this one sounds particularly cool for those of us who love Tolkien's works. It sounds like maybe Ents will work their way into pop culture after all.

I like that.