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Being Scheduled
A Module in Tales from the Perilous Realm
• Non-Sequential Series
Mixed Lecture/Discussion
Medium intensity
← Previous Iteration
(April)
Days and Times
As soon as we obtain enough interest in this class we will be in touch to work out a meeting time that works for the group. Thank you for keeping your June 2027 availability up to date!
This class needs more pre-enrollment by May 1 to get confirmed.
This module is a standing candidate which means it will be ready to launch as soon as it gets enough interest. Token holders can set aside a Token to reserve their seat for class and help it get confirmed.
This four-week hybrid course reads Tolkien's final published fiction as a valedictory work, one whose unusual survival of authorial notes and public critical disagreement make it uniquely suited to close, evidence-based study.
Week One establishes the story's composition history, its origins in a rejected commission to preface George MacDonald's The Golden Key, and its status as an "old man's book" written in Tolkien's mid-seventies.
Week Two turns to the central critical crux of the course, the disagreement between Verlyn Flieger and Tom Shippey over whether Smith should be read as allegory or resists that mode entirely, using Tolkien's own vacillating notes as primary evidence.
Week Three examines the story's singular treatment of Faery as an experienced rather than a described place, testing Croft's concept of "faërian drama" directly against the text.
Week Four closes with character study of Smith, Nokes, and Alf, tracing the theme of renunciation through the story's double structure of succession and drawing the four weeks together into a single account of what this story uniquely attempts.
The module will follow an 8-session structure and is shown by weeks:
Week One establishes the story's composition history, its origins in a rejected commission to preface George MacDonald's The Golden Key, and its status as an "old man's book" written in Tolkien's mid-seventies.
Week Two turns to the central critical crux of the course, the disagreement between Verlyn Flieger and Tom Shippey over whether Smith should be read as allegory or resists that mode entirely, using Tolkien's own vacillating notes as primary evidence.
Week Three examines the story's singular treatment of Faery as an experienced rather than a described place, testing Croft's concept of "faërian drama" directly against the text.
Week Four closes with character study of Smith, Nokes, and Alf, tracing the theme of renunciation through the story's double structure of succession and drawing the four weeks together into a single account of what this story uniquely attempts.
The module will follow an 8-session structure and is shown by weeks:
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Context — The Last Tale |
| Week 2 | Allegory versus Bounce — The Flieger–Shippey Debate |
| Week 3 | Faery and Faërian Drama |
| Week 4 | Characterisation, Craft, and the Passing of the Gift |
Required Texts
J.R.R. Tolkien's Smith of Wootton Major
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