Corey Olsen, Ph.D. (born August 16, 1974) is an American Tolkien scholar known as the president of Signum University, an online school offering courses on J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. In 2013, his book Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published, by Houghton Mifflin.
Biography[]
In 1996, Olson earned a B.A. in English and Astrophysics at Williams College in Massachusetts, and, eventually, his doctorate in Medieval literature at Columbia University in New York City, in 2003.
He was an adjunct teacher at Temple University in Philadelphia from 2002 to 2004, and then taught courses on Medieval works as well as on Tolkien at Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, from 2004 to 2013.
After authoring his book exploring The Hobbit, he was a special guest at the Tolkien Society's online gathering for the publication of Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary in 2014.[1]
He is sometimes called Tolkien Professor, after his podcast, The Tolkien Professor, was begun in 2009.
Olsen likely has the greatest online presence of any prominent Tolkien expert. He founded Signum University in 2011, and its free alternative, Mythgard Institute, both through which he gives lectures and leads discussions of Tolkien's works and other speculative literature, as do other Tolkien scholars, such as Verlyn Flieger and Andrew Higgins. He gained recognition from two highly viewed Q&A videos concerning Tolkien's legendarium on WIRED magazine's YouTube channel, one in 2020[2] and another in 2021[3]. Olsen greatly admires and frequently streams The Lord of the Rings Online[4], and lives an hour away from the developers' studio.[5]
He wrote the section on poetry in Stuart D. Lee's extensive guide, A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, published in 2014 and 2022.
Olsen lives in New Hampshire, USA.
Articles on Tolkien[]
- "The Myth of the Ent and the Entwife" in Tolkien Studies, vol. 5 (2008)
- "How to Read Tolkien" in the Festival of the Shire's journal (February, 2010)
External links[]
- LinkedIn profile
- The Tolkien Professor podcast
- Twitter profile
- Interview with Nerd of the Rings, 2022
- Interview on the Amon Sûl podcast, 2021
- Mythgard Academy, a part of Mythgard Institute
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/beowulf-launch-party/
- ↑ "The Lord of the Rings Expert Answers Tolkien Questions From Twitter", Nov. 13, 2020
- ↑ "The Lord of the Rings Expert Answers More Tolkien Questions From Twitter", June 10, 2021
- ↑ https://mythgard.org/lotro/
- ↑ Interview with Nerd of the Rings, 1:28:20