J.R.R. Tolkien is known as author of the century. In Middle-earth, he has created a world that fascinates millions of readers. People experience his work as books, movies and video games alike. Luke Shelton is gathering those experiences – in the Tolkien Experience Project.
Luke Shelton, 32, is currently working as an educator and editor in Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America. He studied English literature, Medievalism and Medieval literature with a focus on J.R.R. Tolkien at the University of Glasgow and is contributing to Tolkien studies through various activities. Today, we will be highlighting one of these activities: the Tolkien Experience Project.
The Tolkien Experience Project is an attempt to catalogue the experience of different Tolkien fans and to share them publicly with the aim of growing the community around Tolkien’s works. Read on to find out how exactly this works, how Luke got into Tolkien and how you can contribute!
Teilzeithelden: Hello Luke! Thank you for taking the time to talk to Teilzeithelden about you and the Tolkien Experience Project. Before we talk about the project, please tell us a few words about yourself.
Luke: First, let me just say thanks so much for having me. I always love opportunities to reach out to new parts of the fantasy fan community that I maybe haven’t talked to before! One of my greatest joys is talking to people about their passions and finding areas of connection that bring us all together. I find this kind of work even more rewarding in the current state of the world, in which global sickness is keeping us all physically separated.
Teilzeithelden: Let us start with your own experience of Tolkien. When and how did you encounter Tolkien’s worlds for the first time?
Luke: Unfortunately, I can’t remember when I first experienced Tolkien’s work. My earliest memory is sitting in a classroom in fourth grade listening to a storyteller share chapters from The Hobbit. I must have read the book before that, though, because I remember paying attention closely to make sure he didn’t mess up my favorite parts of the story.
Teilzeithelden: During your studies, including your PhD, you focused on J.R.R. Tolkien and medieval literature. What is it about Tolkien that made you make this choice?
Luke: At first, I resisted studying Tolkien in my academic life. My MA in English Literature focused entirely on Beowulf and only mentioned Tolkien as a scholar. This was largely because I was often told that I would never get a job as a Tolkien and fantasy scholar. After I received my MA, I realized that a scholar of early British literature was not a particularly attractive candidate in the job market either. So, when it came time to decide what I wanted to work on for my PhD, I went back to my favorite books. Tolkien’s writing has always been able to pull me into Middle-earth and experience a different perspective from my own. It is something that I really value about the work and something that I carried with me into the PhD. It was the absolute right decision because I love what I do and I have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, fans, and scholars along the way!
Teilzeithelden: Your research focuses on the ways that young readers understand and respond to The Lord of the Rings. What fascinates you on that specific topic and can you already share some insights from your studies?
Luke: In my personal reading history with The Lord of the Rings, I realize that my views and opinions have changed over time. Since I have this history, I was curious to see if younger readers have some different opinions or beliefs about Tolkien’s works than older readers. Therefore, I designed a study that would ask young readers about several parts of the books. Then I compared the results of the study to scholarly attitudes and opinions in order to see where the participant opinions agreed and disagreed with scholarship. I can tell you that the study participants overwhelmingly agreed with scholarship that nature is important in the work and that some of the central themes are friendship and heroism. One key area where these participants disagree with scholarship is in the classification of the story as a fantasy. Young readers were just as likely to label the story a quest, and neither of these genres received a majority of votes by young readers. Ultimately, it seems that this group prefers to think of the story as containing so many elements that it is difficult to categorize in any genre. This disagrees with a generation of scholars who have, essentially, claimed that The Lord of the Rings is at the very heart of the fantasy genre and that texts should be measured by how well they share features with the book.
Teilzeithelden: After working with young people, you brought the Tolkien Experience Project to life. Please introduce our readers: What exactly is it? How did it start?
Luke: I will get into how the project started in a little bit, but it has always been about building community among Tolkien fans. It seems like the more technology we have, the more we can choose to find very specific groups to belong to. As an example: Before the internet, if I loved board games and I loved the works of Tolkien, I would probably belong to a group that was about Tolkien and a group that was about board games. Maybe one or two people from each group would share both interests with me. Now, I can find the ultimate website for people who love Tolkien board games specifically. It is wonderful that we can all find groups that we identify with more fully. One of the unintended consequences of this, though, is a fracturing of larger fan communities. I wanted a project that could appeal to anyone who has interacted with Tolkien’s work (or even adaptations of his work) at any level. This would allow community building to happen across the lines that are becoming, not on purpose, more rigid as time goes on. The project has really become an activity where anyone can share their personal experience with Tolkien and read about the experiences of others.
Teilzeithelden: If I were to share my own experience, how would that work? Can anyone contribute?
Luke: The Tolkien Experience Project is open to absolutely everyone, and I encourage all of your readers to participate! In order to contribute, all you would need to do is answer the five questions at the heart of the project:
- How were you introduced to Tolkien’s work?
- What is your favorite part of Tolkien’s work?
- What is your fondest experience of Tolkien’s work?
- Has the way you approach Tolkien’s work changed over time?
- Would you ever recommend Tolkien’s work? Why/Why not?
Your answers can be as long or short as you like. Then you can send your answers to me through the contact form on my website, or email them to me directly. Entries have come in from around the world and no two are ever quite the same. I would recommend visiting the site to see some previous entries if you have questions about what other people have written or what the format looks like in the end.
Teilzeithelden: What sparked the idea to connect Tolkien fans by sharing how they experienced Tolkien?
Luke: The project started because when I went out and asked for young participants for my PhD study, I often found older readers who wanted to participate. It made me sad to turn people away, because I felt like I was telling them that their experience wasn’t important. That’s not true and not the message I wanted to send. My desire to include all of the people who wanted to participate led me to create the Tolkien Experience Project so that I could tell them to share their experience in this meaningful way.
Teilzeithelden: The project has been going on for quite some time now. Are there any goals you have set for the project, specific milestones on the way? Is the project designed to end at a specific point?
Luke: The project started in 2018, and has posted a new entry every week since then. We recently celebrated our one-hundredth entry not long ago, and that was just a nice recognition that the project has really established itself and has been adopted by a lot of people as an important part of Tolkien fandom right now. I do not foresee a time when I would want to end the project, and it would be my pleasure to continue posting new entries as long as people are happy to send them in!
Teilzeithelden: Recently, you and Dr. Sara Brown launched the Tolkien Experience Podcast where you or she do interviews with well-known Tolkien scholars on a bi-weekly schedule. Would you share some insights about how this idea became reality and what listeners can expect if they tune in?
Luke: Really, the podcast started because fans of the project wanted a way that they could listen to entries. I talked with my friends Alan and Shawn of the Prancing Pony Podcast, and they walked me through how to set it up and have been instrumental in running the show. I am very fortunate to have met several scholars and fan community organizers by going to events, and I have been reaching out to these people and others for interviews. I have to say that I am always overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity I find when I ask scholars and fan community members for an interview.
Teilzeithelden: Thank you for taking the time for us, Luke! Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Luke: I did want to let your readers know that I have recently been named the editor of Mallorn. This is a peer-reviewed journal for Tolkien scholarship, and I just wanted to recommend it to any readers who are interested in digging further into the scholarship around Tolkien’s work. You can check and see if your local library or university has a subscription, or you can also get your own copies (as well as access to all older issues of the journal) as part of a Tolkien Society membership! I also wanted to thank you again for having me, it has been so much fun talking with you!
Photographs were provided with kind permission
Cover picture: © The Tolkien Experience
Layout and typesetting: Roger Lewin
Proofreading and translation: Alexa Kasparek
