Oxonmoot 2024

This paper considers relationships between the body’s autonomy and the intervention in bodies through the lens of environmental bioethics. The Legendarium considers bodily transformations of characters from humans to animals, humans to mythical animals, humans to monsters, each involving a suggestion of linking between the physical transformation or physical appearance as reflective of their internal morality. Often the bodily transformation ignores the being’s autonomy and is done without their consent and as a punishment. These tropes of corporeality are embedded with ideologies pertaining to genetically related ideas. For example, the transformed body of Sméagol into Gollum is reflective of the trope of morality being reflected in the body of the being. Frequently physical transformation, violence, or change is tied back to the land or environment; for example, when Saruman engineers Uruk-Hai, Isengard’s landscape and ecosystem are degraded.