Something old, something(s) new

It's been a while since I've worked a puzzle, so a few days ago I decided to bring out an old favorite. I don't know how many times I've worked this one, and it always makes me want to read Lord of the Rings again.
The picture is an amalgam of the cover art for my first editions of the trilogy, published in 1965, so in addition to being a rather neat (if not exactly authentic—see the comments about it here, under the heading "Ballantine edition") it has a personal nostalgic appeal.

(Note: the small illustrations throughout this post are other examples of Tolkien cover art from the wonderfully-named comprehensive reference site, theonering.com. However, it's not totally comprehensive, since it didn't include Remington's covers in the cover art gallery.)

What's wonderful about LOTR, however, is that there is always new stuff you can discover about it, and with the assistance of technologies Professor Tolkien never imagined. Several months ago a colleague introduced me to the Tolkien Professor website. What a wonderful treasure trove of stimulating, high-level Tolkien geekiness!

I mean, he had me when I first saw the following invitation on the index page: "Click, friend, and enter." [Tolkien nerds will get the coolness of this.] And when I read his first lectures, about the Hobbit....it brought back memories of my best English professors. Really, really interesting, deep readings of the text, eloquently expressed, knowledgeable and erudite, yet totally accessible. The only problem is that Professor Olsen doesn't produce these gems fast enough! Too bad he has to earn a living doing other things like academic publishing and teaching classes in medieval literature.

Thank goodness, he's come up with a way to at least partially satisfy his [I would think] legions of internet fans. This semester, he's also teaching a course in Tolkien this semester and is podcasting his lectures! Not as detailed as the primary lectures, they're still very much worth hearing and, best yet, they cover EVERYTHING Tolkien from The Silmarillion to Leaf by Niggle.

To continue with the old wine in new bottles theme, in anticipation of a drive to Houston last week, I wondered if I could somehow capture a few of these podcasts in a format that would allow me to listen to them while I drove, not owning any kind of advanced audio player. I realize—now—that this little miracle of technology is a trivial matter. My son and daughter-in-law tried not to find my ignorance too laughable and showed me how to put the downloaded files onto CDs for the trip. Ahhh! What an enjoyable drive I had!

And I even forgot, while at work this afternoon, that there was a perfectly good baseball game (spring training, but, still, a baseball game) I could have listened to while doing some work at my desk. I was much too excited about hearing the next Silmarillion class.

I have a feeling I'll be re-reading some Tolkien again really soon.