Tolkien and Beowulf

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A talk by Dr Laura Varnam on Tolkien's long engagement with the Old English poem 'Beowulf' as part of the Tolkien 50th Commemoration seminar series.

A talk by Dr Laura Varnam, University College, Oxford, on Tolkien's long engagement with the Old English poem 'Beowulf'. Part of the series to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death organised and hosted by Exeter College and the Faculty of English.

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Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature

Date Added: 11/12/2023

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A Heroic History of the Elves: Tolkien’s “lost” Mythology of England?

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Fantasy Literature

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A talk by PhD candidate Grace Khuri, University of Oxford, on Tolkien's Elvish history and English 'mythology', as part of the Tolkien 50th Commemoration seminar series.

A talk by PhD candidate Grace Khuri, University of Oxford, on Tolkien's Elvish history and English 'mythology'.. Part of the series to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death organised and hosted by Exeter College and the Faculty of English.

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Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature

Date Added: 11/12/2023

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Tolkien and the Classics

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Fantasy Literature

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A talk by Professor Giuseppe Pezzini on the influences of Classical Literature on Tolkien. [Audio only]

A talk by Professor Giuseppe Pezzini, Faculty of Classics, Oxford, on the influences of Classical Literature on Tolkien.. Part of the series to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death organised and hosted by Exeter College and the Faculty of English.

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Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature

Date Added: 11/12/2023

Duration: 00:50:59

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Orsolya Ihasz

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Brian Adu Asare

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Peak Middle-earth: Why Mount Doom is not the climax of 'The Lord of the Rings'

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Fantasy Literature

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Audio only recording by Dr Michael Ward, Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford, as part of the Tolkien 50th Commemoration seminar series. [Audio only]

Consideration of the climax to 'The Lord of the Rings' and in particular events at the Field of Cormallen. Part of the series to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death organised and hosted by Exeter College and the Faculty of English.

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Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature

Date Added: 08/12/2023

Duration: 00:43:20

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How to write 'The Lord of the Rings'

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Fantasy Literature

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A lecture by Dr S Lee as part of the Tolkien 50th Commemoration seminar series.

A look at how Tolkien wrote 'The Lord of the Rings' and what lessons can be learnt from this. Part of the series to mark the 50th anniversary of Tolkien's death organised and hosted by Exeter College and the Faculty of English.

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Department: Faculty of English Language and Literature

Date Added: 08/12/2023

Duration: 00:58:41

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Raffaela Taylor-Seymourn

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Ecology - Chapter 10

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Biology: The Whole Story

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Learn the key concepts in ecology and what makes populations change over time, with Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford

Ecology is the study of plants and animals in their environments but what kinds of questions do ecologists try to answer? We begin with a population - a group of organisms belonging to the same species that live in one place. Some populations are stable, while others boom and bust, and we find out why births and deaths are key to understanding stability. We then consider why there are so many species on Earth and in doing so discover the ecological niche that constrains organisms to a specific role. Finally, we take a quick look at humans, who have broken out of their niche and taken control of the planet.

Erratum - Mammal biomass on Earth
The figures given in the video are incorrect. The actual figures are: 34% humans, 62% livestock and 4% wild mammals.
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:20 Titles
00:29 Key ecological questions
01:18 The state of populations: births and deaths
02:58 The rabbit versus the albatross
04:32 Keystone species: the case of the sea otter
06:20 Competition: the ecological niche
08:23 Humans – the ultimate competitor?
11:26 Outro

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Biology: The Whole Story

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Department: Department of Plant Sciences

Date Added: 01/12/2023

Duration: 00:11:56

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Plants - Chapter 9

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Biology: The Whole Story

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Plants are awesome, with photosynthesis being the most disruptive invention ever! Join Professor Lindsay Turnbull from the University of Oxford to understand why

Plants don't have faces, so we don't know what they're thinking, and can even (horror!) write them off as boring. In this video, we examine the evolutionary history of the land plants: from an ancestral alga to the diversity of modern flowering plants that cover our planet today. We will see how plants stole the technology for photosynthesis - undoubtedly the most disruptive invention of all time - and how their activities changed the biosphere forever. Finally, we explore the range of features that allow a large tree in full leaf to suck up a tonne of water every day.

Image Credit:
Many thanks to the Oxford Herbarium for providing the slides and microscope images of the Rhynie Cherts.
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration Graph: NOAA Global Monitoring Lab, https://www.climate.gov/media/15554 (10/11/23)

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Titles
00:29 The Tragedy of Plants
01:13 What Makes a Plant a Plant
03:01 The Greatest Heist of All Time - Photosynthesis
04:13 The Rhynie Cherts - Early Land Plants
06:37 How Plants Regulate Our Climate
07:24 How We Have Broken Our Climate
08:45 Colour and Beauty - The Flowering Plants
09:59 Outro