The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

By Oxford UniversityEducation

The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts) episodes

December 03, 2018 Marconi lecture 2018: Imperial Wave: how empire shaped the network of wireless in South Asia at the turn of the twentieth century
Dr Medha Saxena (Delhi, and Byrne Bussey Marconi Fellow), gives the 2018 annual Marconi lecture.
1 hr 3 min
October 31, 2018 Old Norse
Eleanor Parker, Lecturer in Medieval English Literature, Brasenose College, Oxford, gives the fifth and final talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture focuses on Tolkien and old norse. The language and literature of medieval Scandinavia and Iceland had a profound influence on Tolkien's imagination, and this talk will introduce the language through exploring some of the Old Norse sagas, poems and legends which particularly interested Tolkien in his scholarly and creative work.
This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.
42 min
October 31, 2018 Old English
Mark Atherton, Senior Lecturer in English, Regent's Park College, Oxford, gives the fourth talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture focuses on Tolkien and old english. Old English (Anglo-Saxon) is the early form of English which King Alfred spoke and in which Beowulf is written: as Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Tolkien taught this language, and as a writer he used its literature to inspire his fiction, but privately he saw himself as heir to the Old English of Mercia (the modern-day Midlands where he grew up), and he made this the language of the Riders of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings.
This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.
44 min
October 31, 2018 Gothic
Elizabeth Solopova, Lecturer in English Literature, Christ Church, Oxford. Tolkien wrote that he was 'fascinated' with the 'beautiful' Gothic language that he started to study at school, and his literary works attest to this interest. The talk explores the influence of the history of the Goths and Gothic written tradition on Tolkien as a writer and scholar. This is the third talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture focuses on Tolkien and gothic.
This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.
40 min
October 31, 2018 Medieval Welsh
Tolkien once termed Welsh 'the elder language of the men of Britain'; this talk explores how the sounds and grammar of Welsh captured Tolkien's imagination and are reflected in Sindarin, one of the two major Elvish languages which he created. Mark Williams, Fitzjames Research Fellow in Old and Middle English, Merton College, Oxford gives the second talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture focuses on Tolkien and medieval welsh.
This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.
40 min
October 31, 2018 Middle English
This lecture is on Tolkien and middle english. Professor Carolyne Larrington, Tutorial Fellow in English Literature, St John's College, Oxford gives the first talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture series. This lecture is on Tolkien and middle english.
This series, convened by Dr Stuart Lee, presents five Oxford academics who examine the medieval languages that J.R.R. Tolkien studied and taught. Each lecture will present a short introduction to a language and its literature. The lectures will show how Tolkien's linguistic and philological scholarship inspired him to create names for characters and places in his literary works, and to invent the languages of Middle-earth.
34 min
October 22, 2018 Why Read Frankenstein in 2018?
Two hundred years after it was first published, Nick Groom explains the abiding appeal and extraordinary contemporary relevance of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Far from being a supernatural Gothic fiction, he will show how deeply concerned the novel is with the most pressing scientific issues of its time, and how these continue to challenge us today in fields from artificial intelligence to medical ethics, challenging the very definition of what it is to be human.
53 min
September 19, 2018 Tolkien's turning point: Tolkien and the history of tongues
Tom Shippey's lecture will move from the detail to the (eventual) design of Tolkien's languages, and even the philosophical issues embedded in Tolkien's fiction. Professionally speaking, Tolkien was a philologist, interested above all in the history and relationships of languages. Personally speaking, he was a self-declared 'niggler', who took immense pains over details. It was a vital moment when he solved a problem, which would have bothered few authors of fantasy, to do with the history and relationship of the languages of Middle-earth. It was this which opened up The Lord of the Rings to its full scale and sweep.
43 min
June 11, 2018 The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Cultures of collecting in the 17th century'
David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the fifth and final Lyell lecture on 8th May 2018.
52 min
June 11, 2018 The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Books for the common man'
David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the fourth Lyell lecture on 3rd May 2018.
46 min

About The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

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The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. It includes the principal University library - the Bodleian Library - which has been…