Watch: Dr Tarnas introduces the course to prospective students
Before Bilbo Baggins and the dragon, before Frodo and the Ring, before the love story of Aragorn and Arwen, Middle-earth had already been the scene of innumerable tales: of Elves and Dwarves, Valar and Maiar, dragons and balrogs, and a struggle against evil that started before the world was even created. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion begins with a cosmogony, and unfolds with an Elvish mythology and history that could rival the great myths and legends of the Norse, Greek, and Celtic traditions.
This course guides the reader through Tolkien’s sweeping saga of the First and Second Ages of Arda. The expansive vision and grand language can make The Silmarillion a more challenging read than The Lord of the Rings, so this course is designed to unpack the philosophical, spiritual, and literary meanings within Tolkien’s text. When Christopher Tolkien published the edited volume of his father’s writings in 1977, The Silmarillion was met with mixed reactions. Audiences had hoped for a book like The Lord of the Rings, but instead received a text that sounded, in the words of one disgruntled reader, like the Old Testament. Yet these stories were Tolkien’s most beloved—narratives that he had been writing and reworking since the First World War until nearly the end of his life. In this course we will view The Silmarillion through the lens of Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation, coming to understand the imagination and creativity that stands behind a full work of mythology written down by one man.
This course guides the reader through Tolkien’s sweeping saga of the First and Second Ages of Arda. The expansive vision and grand language can make The Silmarillion a more challenging read than The Lord of the Rings, so this course is designed to unpack the philosophical, spiritual, and literary meanings within Tolkien’s text. When Christopher Tolkien published the edited volume of his father’s writings in 1977, The Silmarillion was met with mixed reactions. Audiences had hoped for a book like The Lord of the Rings, but instead received a text that sounded, in the words of one disgruntled reader, like the Old Testament. Yet these stories were Tolkien’s most beloved—narratives that he had been writing and reworking since the First World War until nearly the end of his life. In this course we will view The Silmarillion through the lens of Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation, coming to understand the imagination and creativity that stands behind a full work of mythology written down by one man.
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CLASS OUTLINE
6 live classes with lecture and dialogue portions.
(Sessions begin promptly at 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST on Zoom Meetings)
(Sessions begin promptly at 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST on Zoom Meetings)
February 18 • Introduction to the Course
February 25 • The Great Music: Ainulindalë and the Quenta Silmarillion
March 4 • The Noldor and the Silmarils
March 11 • The First Love Story: Of Beren and Lúthien
March 18 • The Great Tragedies: Túrin Turambar, the Ruin of Doriath, and the Fall of Gondolin
March 25 • The Downfall of Númenor
February 25 • The Great Music: Ainulindalë and the Quenta Silmarillion
March 4 • The Noldor and the Silmarils
March 11 • The First Love Story: Of Beren and Lúthien
March 18 • The Great Tragedies: Túrin Turambar, the Ruin of Doriath, and the Fall of Gondolin
March 25 • The Downfall of Númenor
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
• Students will have five weeks to read The Silmarillion, with one 90-minute live lecture and class dialogue per week
• Students will learn about Tolkien’s creative writing process, and the biographical details of how the stories of The Silmarillion first emerged during the crucible of World War I
• Students will engage with philosophical and spiritual inquiry in relation to Tolkien’s cosmogony “The Music of the Ainur,” to see how this creation myth echoes through all the other stories of the Middle-earth legendarium
• Students will come to understand the import and meaning of what Tolkien called the “Great Tales,” the narratives that form the heart of The Silmarillion that he wrote in myriad form throughout his life
• Students will get to connect the threads between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings to see how Tolkien’s magnum opus developed out of his mythology
• Students will engage with Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation and concepts of the imaginal realm, which can be applied to their own creative processes
• Students will learn about Tolkien’s creative writing process, and the biographical details of how the stories of The Silmarillion first emerged during the crucible of World War I
• Students will engage with philosophical and spiritual inquiry in relation to Tolkien’s cosmogony “The Music of the Ainur,” to see how this creation myth echoes through all the other stories of the Middle-earth legendarium
• Students will come to understand the import and meaning of what Tolkien called the “Great Tales,” the narratives that form the heart of The Silmarillion that he wrote in myriad form throughout his life
• Students will get to connect the threads between The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings to see how Tolkien’s magnum opus developed out of his mythology
• Students will engage with Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation and concepts of the imaginal realm, which can be applied to their own creative processes
Assigned Reading
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Silmarillion. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. 2nd edition.
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Becca S. Tarnas, PhD, is a scholar, artist, and editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology. She received her doctorate in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies, with her dissertation titledThe Back of Beyond: The Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien. Becca received her BA from Mount Holyoke College in Environmental Studies and Theatre Arts, and MA in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at CIIS. Her research interests include depth psychology, literature, philosophy, and the ecological imagination. She is currently teaching as an adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and she taught Journey to the Imaginal Realm: Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings with Nura Learning in Fall 2018. Her website is www.BeccaTarnas.com. Portrait by In Her Image Photography.
WHAT STUDENTS RECEIVE
- Six 90 minute live classes with lecture and dialogue portions. Hosted on Zoom Meetings with Dr Tarnas.
- Audio and video recordings of each class. Yours to keep.
- Access to a Class Portal where course recordings and materials are archived.
- A Class Forum, where students can share comments and questions on the reading.
- Community. Join a vibrant, engaged community of fellow readers, artists, and scholars—explorers of Middle Earth and the imaginal realm.
Class Registration: $150.00
Featured artwork by Alan Lee, Anke Eissman