Oxonmoot 2024

In response to Hayao Miyazaki's interview regarding his distaste for Hollywood and The Lord of the Rings, this synthesis essay aims to compare the works of Hayao Miyazaki with J.R.R. Tolkien’s to ascertain that the two are more alike than one would think. Although, they share different viewpoints their central focus is on nature. This essay will dissect how themes of environmentalism and the devastation of war are similar. Therefore, if possible, my essay will attempt to bring these two greats together.

Tolkien was, as we know, an avid, one might even say passionate, pipe smoker. Pipe smoking was also an ingrained part of Hobbit culture and the source of some pride for them, as “Hobbits first put it into pipes”. From the Hobbits, the art (as they preferred to call it) spread to various other folk, to Dwarves and Dúnedain, Bree-dwellers and Wizards. Some of Tolkien’s readers feel uncomfortable with this, as pipe smoking is definitely not in vogue in today’s society. – This non-judgmental paper will explore both Tolkien’s own attachment to the pipe smoking art, and the role  it plays in his books.

Technical break - 10 mins

Tolkien's self-declared love of nature (Letters: 165) is well-known and forms a thread that runs through all his work, to the point that Brian Rosebury (2003) posits that 'Middle-earth, rather than any of the characters, is the hero of The Lord of the Rings'. John Garth (2020) points out various links between the nature of The Shire and other Middle-earth locations and England, taken, as Tolkien wrote, from 'such life as I know' (Letters: 181). However, visual adaptations of Tolkien's work by Peter Jackson and Amazon have used locations in Aotearoa (New Zealand), to play the 'character' of Middle-earth on screen. These locations have their own plant species and ecologies that are often visually distinct from those found in Europe, particularly England. This paper explores the significance and possibilities of transposing Middle-earth into the ecology and landscapes of Aotearoa, the conjuration of a “new” Middle-earth, and how (if) it changes our own imaginations of Tolkien’s world.

This paper delves into J.R.R. Tolkien's lesser-known poem "The Fall of Arthur" to unravel its mythic significance within the broader context of Arthurian literature. This research aims to elucidate Tolkien's unique mythopoeic techniques and their transformative impact on the portrayal of the Arthurian legend. By analysing the interplay between myth and history in Tolkien's construction of the Arthurian narrative, this paper sheds light on the possibility of a modern legacy, despite its unfinished state, in "The Fall of Arthur". This investigation not only enriches our understanding of Tolkien's creative genius but also highlights the profound influence of his mythic vision on Arthurian literature. By uncovering the mythopoeic elements in "The Fall of Arthur" and tracing their reverberations throughout Arthurian literary tradition, this paper offers fresh insights into the enduring allure of the Arthurian legend and its significance within the broader landscape of cultural mythology.

The many parallels between Tolkien's Rohirrim and the Anglo-Saxons, and particularly Mercians, are well-established as they are well-known. This essay follows this strain and, drawing on a number of Old English, Medieval Welsh and Latin texts, as well as Tolkien’s work as a medievalist, aims to demonstrate some key parallels instead between the Dunlendings and Brittonic-speaking peoples. A significant part of what rendered the kingdom of Mercia (deriving from 'Mierce', which may be glossed as 'the people of the borderlands') and Riddermark alike, 'border-lands', was the presence of their displaced neighbours, the Welsh and the Dunlendings respectively. This essay examines in what ways the depiction of the Welsh Other, particularly in Anglo-Saxon sources, as well as certain ideas and trends in academia concerning the history of Early Medieval Britain, now superseded and amended to varying degrees, may throw light on our understanding of the Dunlendings in the Legendarium.

This essay investigates the ‘shamanic’ nature of Tom Bombadil, examining his role in the legendarium, the ecocentric values he embodies, and potential resonances with the eternal bard Väinämöinen from The Kalevala. While the influence of this Finnish/Karelian mythic corpus on Tolkien’s First Age materials (particularly the tale of Túrin) is well attested, the Bombadil affair arguably better reflects the elements of The Kalevala that Tolkien found most enchanting: namely the folkloric and animistic spirit of the work, the ennoblement of simple things, and the magic of song. As an indigenous or (in Tolkien’s own words) ‘aboriginal’ figure, Bombadil serves as an important foil for the relative modernity of the hobbits, equipping them with the skills to metabolise their fears and confront the high strangeness of the wild world. He is, much like Väinämöinen, a distinctly shamanic figure, initiating both the hobbits and the reader into the Perilous Realm of myth and natural magic.

Technical break - 10 mins

"The basis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s worldbuilding lies in the prime magic of languages and music (Fimi and Higgins, 2016 ; Flieger, 2020). Their evolution and transmission through ages and between species take many forms, depending on the literary genre adapted by Tolkien (myths, legends, folktales); and depending on the beings who share those songs in the fiction (spirit or corporeal, good or evil) (Fimi, 2008 ; Carruthers, 2016). In the ever-threatened world of faërie, defending or longing for homelands are building motives. From the Songs of Power preserved in ancient Elvish lays, to the folkloric Hobbit-rhymes, homelands are often referred to, either loosely evoked or directly invoked. Calling upon selected songs from the legendarium, this paper explores the different genres and effects of the musical conjurations of land and home in Tolkien’s writings.

In the “Ainulindalë”, divine spirits sing the universe and beings into existence, while the world is threatened and reshaped by the songs of evil forces at work. On the other hand, the Second Song at the end of time comes with a re-categorization of species, especially marginalized people, and thus tackles the question of minorities and beings in Tolkien’s fantasy system.
In the legendarium, home-related songs can affect both the elements and the audience. They fuel characters with courage or despair, by way of simple reminiscences, or through effective visions occurring in key moments of the narrative.
Those songs conjure ancient, foundered homelands (Rhymes of Lore), current households (Bath Songs), or cozy homes to return to (Walking songs). Other declinations of home-related songs convey an imminent menace, whether the antagonist’s household is threatening (“Clap! Snap! The black crack!” In The Hobbit) or being threatened (“The Ent's Marching Song” in The Lord of the Rings). Quite often, the endangered or long-lost homeland is used as a weapon during epic battles, bordering on the enchantment (the duel between Finrod and Sauron, The Silmarillion), or used as an empowering incantation (Lúthien’s lament before Mandos, Beren and Lúthien). Finally, conjuring home creates a sense of belonging that is shared between Peoples, whether one shares the beauty of their homeland (Finrod’s encounter with Men, The Silmarillion), or pays homage to their foreign friends (Bilbo’s Song of Eärendil, The Lord of the Rings).
By invoking ancient or distant lands, Home Songs transgress every border: they conjure the almost forgotten into the present, transmute the foreign into the familiar, and alter the dialectics of the high and the low."

Tolkien fans are famous for annually re-reading The Lord of the Rings. What are we seeking when we re-immerse ourselves in LotR, and what do we find? From 25 December 2023 to 25 March 2024 I re-read LotR through an autoethnographic lens, placing personal experience into conversation with existing Tolkien scholarship and theories of narrative identity. Taking extensive field notes on my reading process, I reflexively documented my responses to the text and the memories it evokes. I thereby identified five core themes that keep me coming back to LotR: imaginative co-creation; emotional catharsis; nostalgia; the hard necessity of letting go; and what Verlyn Flieger has called double exposure, as LotR has ceased to be merely a story to read and enjoy and become a narrative framework by which I make sense of my life. I conclude, not by making claims to generalizability, but by offering my experience as an invitation for others to tell their own stories of what Middle-earth means to them.

Technical break - 10 mins

Depictions of Beasties in the Tolkien Landscape. Lots of pretty pictures and some griping about AI.

Technical break - 10 mins

2022 has brought new depictions of an area of Middle-earth that had not been the focus of adaptations so far—Númenor. Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power took its spectators to a reimagined Second Age much indebted visually to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies, while Alan Lee continued his exploration of Arda with accompanying illustrations to The Fall of Númenor edited by Brian Sibley. The two entirely different and unrelated projects brought this pseudo-Atlantis to the foreground, and steeped its iconography in Antiquity, with surprisingly similar sources of inspiration for surprisingly dissimilar results. In this paper I offer to compare and contrast those depictions, shedding light on the way artists read the Akallabêth and how they interpret it.

Technical break - 10 mins

John Howe's Illustrations of the Three Ages of Middle-earth.

A Powerpoint presentation on with specific reference to (but far wider-ranging than) Brian Sibley's collaborations with John Howe on the newly revised and re-illustrated edition of 'J.R.R.Tolkien - The Maps of Middle-earth' (published by HarperCollins, April 2024) and 'The Tolkien Calendar 2025' (containing an essay on Howe's cover illustrations for volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 'The History of Middle-earth'), published July 2024.

Brian's talk will be relayed into the second lecture theatre when space in the MOLT runs out