On 7 October 2008 the University of Oxford launched its podcast site and has since then published more than 6,000 podcasts equalling more than 5,000 hours of amazing lectures by over 4,000 speakers from all over the world. If there is a topic you take an interest in you will stand a good chance to find a great talk by a leading Oxford academic – so do visit the site and start listening. 13 of those talks are on J.R.R. Tolkien, his life and works and his inspirations.

Tolkien in Oxford: Books and Beowulf. By Andy Orchard.

A talk by Professor Andy Orchard, given at ‘Tolkien in Oxford’, a day-long symposium that focused on different aspects of JRR Tolkien’s academic and literary work, and his life in Oxford. Orchard is the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, that is, he is one of the successors of J.R.R. Tolkien at this chair at Pembroke College. Beowulf was one of the most important texts for Tolkien’s career as an academic as well as a source of inspiration in his creative ventures.

“Wan, dim, and pale”: the OED and Tolkien. By Edmund Weiner.

A talk by Edmund Weiner, given at ‘Tolkien in Oxford‘, a day-long symposium that focused on different aspects of JRR Tolkien’s academic and literary work, and his life in Oxford. Weiner was co-editor of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and is co-author (with Peter Gilliver and Jeremy Marshall) of one of the best books on J.R.R. Tolkien, about his work on the First Edition, called The Ring of Words. The symposium was held at Merton College.

 The Hobbit at the Bodleian: World Book Day. By Judith Priestman.

Judith Priestman, curator of the Bodleian Library, discusses the World Book Day 2010 exhibition, where a selection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original artwork which was used to illustrate The Hobbit, was on display to the public. Priestman is curator of the Modern Literary Manuscript Collections containing the Tolkien papers.

The podcasts available above have been shared according to CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 UK. Copyright regulations of the University of Oxford Podcasts’ website apply. List of podcasts assembled by choosing ‘Tolkien’ as keyword: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/keywords/tolkien.