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:

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