Oxonmoot 2024

Translations of Tolkiens works to Finnish have a rich and interesting history. This talk summarizes the process as well as gives the audience a crash course in Finnish grammar.

"Most of Tolkien's works have been translated into Spanish starting in 1978. Their Spanish publisher, Ediciones Minotauro, decided two years ago to undergo a humongous project: to revise, edit and correct all the Spanish translations of Tolkien's works published several decades ago. The first book to be revised was ""The Silmarillion"", and this task continues up to this year, when the first volumes of ""The History of Middle-Earth"" will be released.
In this presentation, I will uncover some bizarre, curious, funny and even absurd examples from these translations that millions of Spanish-speaking people have read for generations (and, literally thousands of revised terms after, have become a new and surprising text to rediscover).
Come with me to this Unexpected Reunion where we will try to read the Ring inscription upside down, Galadriel dies in Middle-Earth, we find red willows and porcupines and lobsters, the Moon rises in the West and we hear the call of Helm Ironhand's horn..."

In this paper I will revisit, respond to and expand upon Professor Dimitra Fimi’s suggestion in her seminal work of Tolkien scholarship Tolkien Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits that in Tolkien’s earliest Elvish language invention, as found in such key works as the Qenya Lexicon, Tolkien might have considered Qenya to be a mystic language that included words that are overtly religious and specifically point to Christianity (as evidenced by such early Elvish words as anatarwesta ‘crucifixion’ and evandl ‘Christian Missionary’ as well as one of the few Qenya phrases we have which is about martyrdom).  I will explore the potential motivations and plans that Tolkien may have had for inclusion of these words and others in his earliest Elvish language invention and how this shows evidence that Tolkien for a time thought of his nascent Qenya language as a mystic language that the Elves would go out to teach Men song and holiness.

The Wizards are some of the most noteworthy magical practitioners in the Legendarium. The three Wizards described in the Lord of the Rings are each different in the sort of magic they practise; for example Radagast is described as “a master of shapes”, while Saruman’s fascination is with “technology” and “industry”, and Gandalf is the only Wizard we see actually casting spells as well as having expertise with runes. As the historian Ronald Hutton (2016) points out, Tolkien tends to “draw...on other traditions, more favourable to magic than the established Christian one”. This paper delves into those traditions, looking at each of the Wizards and tracing their particular magical talents in the Legendarium back to some of the primary world magical archetypes that occur in folklore and history such as druids, witches and alchemists.

Debates about the nature of Sam and Frodo’s relationship have been varied and contentious. Is their relationship romantic or one of deep friendship? Can it be interpreted as sexual, or it is merely platonic? Is it strictly akin to relationships between batmen and officers during the First World War, or is that paradigm itself complicated by the nature of ambiguous affection in the trenches? These questions cannot be answered simply, and this paper aims to look at their relationship from a different perspective. By reading Sam and Frodo’s relationship through the eight forms of love known as the “Greek Loves”, we can perhaps gain a deeper understanding of their relationship. By reading Sam and Frodo through the Greek Loves we can see how, throughout the Lord of the Rings, they exhibit flavours of all eight forms of love, not as distinct from one another, but as an overlapping and continuous spectrum of love.

"The love between Éowyn and Faramir is one of the most engaging love stories in The Lord of the Rings as the reader is witness to their first encounter, and observes them growing closer. Nonetheless, the relationship is sometimes misunderstood as a rushed taming of Éowyn, and not all readers are able to appreciate the deep beauty behind Tolkien’s description of this budding love.
Key to unlocking the depth and beauty of their encounter is Tolkien’s usage of “looking”. Tolkien’s text had almost always positioned Éowyn as the unilateral object of others’ gazes. With Faramir, she is set free to look for herself. Inviting her gaze to stray where it longs, and eventually joining her, Faramir learns to look at the world together with Éowyn. With him, for the first time in the text, Éowyn is free to look where her heart longs, and her heart begins to long for the experience of looking out at the world together, as she emerges from under the shadow."

In Tolkien's Middle Earth, intimacy extends beyond romantic love to encompass friendship, familial bonds, camaraderie and much more. This presentation delves into the intricacies of these intimate interactions, exploring how Tolkien's masterful crafting of relationships enriches his secondary world and dives into the complex art of connection.

A meander through the audio adaptations of The Hobbit - including readings of the text, dramatizations and even some television. We'll take a look at some of the wonderful artists and beautiful artwork that make up these recordings and you should be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale.

In March of 2004, Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King won the Academy Award for Best Picture, becoming the first fantasy film to do so.  While Viggo Mortenson did not take home an Oscar for either best actor or best supporting actor, his portrayal of Aragorn was nonetheless key to the success of the Lord of the Rings movie franchise. Mortenson’s performance was defined by new scenes, written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, that made him appear as a diffident candidate for kingship and a reluctant lover.  These scenes are worthy of study in their own right, but they also serve to highlight the radically different Aragorn found in Tolkien’s original book series. This presentation will deploy the movie Aragorn as a foil to the literary Aragorn, differentiating between the contrasting models of heroism and leadership upon which they are based.

Tolkien’s legendarium features numerous over-sized creatures (trolls, dragons, stone-giants, ents, eagles). Precedence can be found in the folklore, medieval literature, and paleontology with which Tolkien was familiar, as well as the popular media of his time, including H.G. Wells’ The Food of the Gods (1904) and King Kong (1933). Publication of LOTR (1954-5) coincided with the start of the kaijū movement in popular culture, featuring giant, sentient creatures demonstrating agency and intention, rather than being merely mindless brutes. Starting with the re-release of King Kong in 1952 and the original Godzilla (1954), kaijū films continue to dominate a portion of the popular culture market and impact audience expectations for the depictions of giant creatures. In light of the June 2024 limited re-release of Jackson's remastered film adaptations, I examine Jackson's Shelob, Balrog, and Watcher in the Water, alongside their representions in the novel, through the lens of kaijū theory

Technical break - 10 mins

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy brought a new generation of fans to Middle-earth, and is undoubtedly one of the greatest cinematic achievements of the 21st century. However, more than 20 years on, the films’ depiction of Middle-earth still dominates fans’ perception of Tolkien’s world, despite the many significant differences with Tolkien’s own imagination.

The ArdaCraft team is made up of people who almost exclusively discovered Tolkien’s world through Peter Jackson’s films, but who are now collectively discovering a new vision of Middle-earth. In order to do this, they are drawing on Tolkien’s writings and sketches, but also their own research into botany, geology, topography, historical architecture, farming methods, ancient ways of life, and more. By working in a heavily modified version of Minecraft, they hope to achieve the most detailed version of Middle-earth that has ever been made.

This talk will be a whistle-stop tour through our work over the last ten years.

Technical break - 10 mins

Few dimensions within the material world have a greater impact on culture and cultural identity than the production and consumption of food. In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, there are clear connections that can be made between cultural identity, the choices people make regarding food (and the corresponding bodily experience), and the ideologies surrounding food and its consumption that are based on culture. By reading The Lord of the Rings through the works of theorists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Julia Kristeva, this paper delves into the cultural significance of food and how it can also serve as an indicator of the tension between what is natural – pure, clean, and in accordance with Nature – and what is unnatural.

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