This web site is a resource for a classroom based course offered at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) for the use of fee-paying students. It is a Senior Seminar offered to English majors. What is a Senior Seminar? It is a capstone course which is designed to help students who have specialised in English language and literature to reflect back on and apply what they have studied. Tolkien is a perfect vehicle for this goal, since his work actively engages questions that run the whole chronological and theoretical gamut of English literature. The web site's content is therefore tailored for those who have studied English academically and wish to apply their knowledge and skills to the reading of Tolkien. This is not a fan-based web site.

I have received numerous enquiries about this course on The Lord of the Rings from people outside the university so that it seems fair to address to address some of the questions I frequently receive. I am delighted in how much interest there is in studying Tolkien as an academic subject--even by people who are not currently students or directly connected to academia. I hope that this interest influences people to read further into the study of medieval language and literature, as Tolkien would have wanted. I also hope that the resources on this web site provide useful starting points for people looking for information about Tolkien and his interests or who are looking for intriguing ways to think about The Lord of the Rings.

Unfortunately, I am unable to evaluate writing about Tolkien from non-CSUN students, except submissions for publication in academic journals. You are welcome to e-mail me if you have specific questions about Tolkien, but, due to constraints on my time, I am unable to engage in sustained dialogue or provide teaching services for non-CSUN students. For this, I apologise, and I wish that I could do more.