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Anna Smol

~ Department of English, Mount Saint Vincent University

Anna Smol

Tag Archives: Fandom as Classroom Practice

Ironic Silmarillion Collectibles? Adaptation as Analysis, part 2

12 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by Anna Smol in Fan studies, pedagogy, Tolkien

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adaptation as Analysis: Creative Work in an English Classroom, ENGL 4475, Fandom as Classroom Practice, Jordan Audas, Silmarillion collectibles, The Silmarillion

This is the second in a series showcasing student projects in my Tolkien and medievalism course this year. Given the option of producing an adaptation of a medieval text or a work by Tolkien, my students can sometimes surprise me in their creative choices, as did Jordan Audas, who created Silmarillion collectible “toys” — with a touch of humour.

I’ve written about the purpose of these adaptation projects in Katherine Howell’s volume, Fandom as Classroom Practice. Further information and links can be found here.

Jordan wrote an essay on Tolkien fandom and merchandising and then considered themes of evil and death in The Silmarillion as the background for his meticulous workmanship in building his Silmarillion collectibles. Each one of his collectibles deals with an ephemeral, intangible moment in Tolkien’s legends dealing with death. Would you still want to collect them?

With Jordan’s permission, here are his collectibles:

Top row: Glaurung’s Smoke, Beren’s Hand, Morgoth and Ungoliant’s Great Darkness. Bottom row: Fingon’s Dust, Feanor’s Ashes, and the back view of all the boxes. Click on an image for the slideshow. All images copyright of Jordan Audas.

Glaurung's Smoke by Jordan Audas
Beren's Hand by Jordan Audas
Morgoth and Ungoliant's Great Darkness, by Jordan Audas
Fingon's Dust by Jordan Audas
Feanor's Ashes by Jordan Audas
Sil collectibles back view by Jordan Audas
  • Adaptation as Analysis: Student Projects on Tolkien and Medievalism, part one
  • Anna Smol, “Adaptation as Analysis: Creative Work in an English Classroom.” Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide, edited by Katherine Anderson Howell, U of Iowa P, 2018, pp. 17 – 31 and 147-50.
  • English 4475: Studies in Medievalism: Tolkien and Myth-making

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Adaptation as Analysis: Student Projects on Medievalism and Tolkien, part 1

31 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by Anna Smol in Fan studies, Medievalisms, Old Norse, pedagogy, Publications

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Adaptation as Analysis: Creative Work in an English Classroom, Dillon Hughson, ENGL 4475, Fandom as Classroom Practice, Harbard's Song, Poetic Edda

As usual, students in my Studies in Medievalism course have created wonderful projects to demonstrate their engagement with our texts and to experience first-hand the process of adaptation, a main theme in our seminar.

Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide book cover

I’ve written about this type of assignment before in my essay “Adaptation as Analysis: Creative Work in an English Classroom” that is in Katherine Anderson Howell’s volume, Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide (U of Iowa Press, 2018). One of the student projects illustrated and discussed in that essay can be seen here and a review of another year in the course is posted here.

In today’s post I’d like to share, with his permission, Dillon Hughson’s adaptation project, a modernized version of the Old Icelandic poem “Hárbarðsljóð” or “Harbard’s Song” that appears in the Poetic Edda. This is a “flyting” poem — a contest of insults between two people, in this case Thor and Harbard, a ferryman who is usually identified as Odin in disguise. As do all the students in my course, Dillon had to write an analysis of the source text and explain how he adapted it. He researched the elements of a flyting and then tried to reproduce those features by placing Thor and Odin in a modern comedic context.

Enjoy his video! And watch for more student projects posted here in the weeks ahead.

With the permission of Dillon Hughson. Written and directed by Dillon Hughson. Thor: Matthew Hughson. Odin: Brennan Hughson. Copyright Dillon Hughson.

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Dr. Anna Smol

This site includes my blog, "A Single Leaf," and webpages about my research and teaching in Tolkien studies, medievalism, Old English, and higher education pedagogy. Creative Commons License: <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License</a>.

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