Ozmoot 2024 – Day 1

Note: These are my notes from the conference. Will contain poor spelling etc. Also my Elder Days knowledge is a little rough.

Greetings and Opening Remarks – Corey Olsen

  • 3 types of attendees. Onsite, remote and recorded. So must be disciplined with microphone usage
  • Use Microphones. Don’t forget they are always on.
  • Acknowledgement of country by Ilana
  • Around 70 attendees, including around 27 in person
  • If you are remote then please interact

Nothing is Evil in the Beginning – Panel Discussion with Corey Olen, Ilana Mushkin, Phil Menzines


  • This is a fairly central part of the legenderium.
  • See the Silm Film podcast. Who to do everything
    • Isn’t this just fan fiction?
    • Kinda of, but Tolkien sort of did the same thing. Eg addressing text from Beowulf via Hama in the LOTR
    • Sauron is kind of the protagonist
    • s1 – Valar
    • s2 – awakening of the Elves , arrival in Valinor
    • s3 – Fenor’s speech, kinslaying, rising of the Sun
    • s4 – Rescue of Midros
    • s5 – Arrival of Men
    • s6 – Beren , Sauron stiring up trouble in pre-Bree
    • Music being composed for it.
    • Castings including notifying actors they are cast
  • Why did Melkcor go bad?
    • Tolkien doesn’t really duplicate
    • Jilted lover an drawn towards the Simirils
    • Tried to duplicate with a bit of subtlety
    • Love something and desire to possess it is usually seen as bad
    • What Trajectory should we give to Melkor to show his journey
    • Going off on your own is often seen as a sign of going bad in Tolkien. Morgoth ticked that box too
    • Needs some more backstory than what we see in the book. Can’t make him evil right away, it must evolve
    • Halls of Mandos not very visual either.
    • Midpoint of season 1 is the destruction of the lamps. Melkor not being given enough credit for their creation
    • Story has to be parallel to what the music duplicates
    • Creating lamps and wating credit = Has own themes of the music and wants to manage them
    • Backstory of the Balrogs. Started with Glorious Angelic Wings. Melkor gets them to destroy the lamps and their wings get burt off. Now they only have shadow wings
    • “The Mythic Story of How Balrogs lost their Wings” is a highlight of Season 1
    • Melkor’s relationship with Sauron
    • Later we will echo Melkor’s fall with those the fall of other characters
      • What he tells himself vs what he tells other people.
    • Melkor Actor is Michael Fassbender. Has to be Hot
    • Mairon/Sauron is Simon Woods ( red hair is important)
  • Why did Mairon/Sauron go bad?
    • A Keen Student
    • When things get to a crisis in late Season 1 when wanted Manwai and Melkor’s split to feel big
    • Now Mairon has to cross a boundry to talk to Malkor, he has to really choose sides
    • Melkor understands and recruits him. Aula doesn’t see the problem
    • Early version when Ussay(s) goes over
  • Music by Phil Menzies
    • Themes for a “Fall”
    • Need themes for characters an also for things that would happen multiple times in the story. Used a little in the Oath of Feanor
    • Common in Tolkien: Someone thinks they are doing something that is good, but in reality is doing the opposite and are doing evil
    • Melkor Theme. Various versions as his character progresses
    • Corey says Phil’s music elevated Simfilm up a level and made it a bigger project
    • Mairon/Sauron theme is used for the Exploring the Rings podcast theme. Variation of Howard Shore’s Ring theme
  • Long time before the Valar work out the war needs to happen
  • “The War to Begin all Wars” episode title
  • Working through “how would we duplicate this” pushes us to answer a lot of the questions about what Tolkien sort of meant by things
  • “It is challenging casting mortal characters for a 20 year show”
  • Question. The show is a modern way of telling a story vs tolkien told the story in an old fashion way
    • There are a whole bunch of expectation on how modern miniseries work. Have been tempted to resist these expectations
    • Book of lost tales difference is even more. It is not something written by someone just like you
    • Tried to stay true to the essence of the story (although borrowed other versions of some parts that Tolkien wrote).
    • You couldn’t make a TV show is exactly the same as it’s is written. But making it work is part of the fun
  • Question: Is Melkors goal to create things fundimantally wrong?
    • The impulse to create is not evil in itself
    • Feanor is a good example (well at the start anyway)
    • Vardar’s rejection of Malkor. Duplicate as not liking his character (narcasis, bad vibes) not rejected due to fortelling
  • Question: Is redemption a thing?
    • Yes, some examples. Eg Boromir and Gandalf has hope for Saruman (he was in the first draft of LOTR). Ossay, Galadriel in some versions
  • Question: Character’s motivations fore they became evil. Is “Wants to make things easier, impatience” a thing. Other examples might be Gollum
    • Irony of that sort corruption. The thing they want isn’t a bad thing usually. But to get past obstacles in the say they do bad things and then fail to get their goal anyway.
    • Sharkey’s rule over the Shire has little order or even sold “rule”
    • Person who wants to be lord of light become lord of darkness
  • Question: Interaction between Gandalf’s ring Naria and the One ring
    • Going to be hard to do.
    • Elrond gets very defense that Sauron never touched them. But doesn’t mean they were a good idea
  • 12 season to get to the War of Wrath
  • One 3rd age problem to avoid. No palanteri
  • Question: Lots of feedback about Rings of Power. Has anthing in the rings of power inspired you vs those that you havn’t liked.
    • Obviously they stole from us. eg PTSD Galadriel
    • Must have Blood Splashed on her due the kinslaying
    • Various plans for Galadried in the future. He veres Saron but “No Rafts”
    • Can understand time compress and chronolgy shifting. Especially short-lived humans

Tengwar Calligraphy by Jenni Aldred

  • Much of LOTR writings are just english written in a different writing form. Transliterated not translated
  • Tengwar are based on phonetics doesn’t fit 100% with English. Can go either with pronunciation or actual spelling when you write them
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of each.
  • Workshop will use Orthographic or spelling mode
  • Table for characters
    • Lots of detail here that is too much to type. Explaining the tables of characters
    • Sindarin mode, Quenya mode or full mode. Exactly where Vowels are put
    • Sindarin mode works best for English
    • Examples to translate
    • “When you start being a tolkien expert, you get people emailing you for advice about their tattoos”
    • List of useful Tengwar resources
    • www.tecendil.com is a free online tool

Nature Relations of the Legendarium with Muhammed Alpaslan Tandirci

  • This area Heavily analysied in this past by other researchers
  • Wrote Masters Thesis (in Turkish) on this
  • Pre-history:
    • Divine intervention, Geological Transformation, Ecology of War
    • Melkor makes war on Nature as well as beings
  • Second Age
    • Deforestation and Ecology of Imperialism
    • Deforestation of Numenor reduced it’s power
  • The 3rd Age
    • Price of Enrichment and crafts – Dwarfs. Punished for disrupting the balance
    • The Great Plague and The Long Winter – Broke the power
    • Changes in Forests, Uncanny in the Waters
      • Both places are now associated with evil and Danger
      • In previous ages they were associated with Good
  • Conclusion
  • As the ages have progressed the impact on Nature has decreased
    • The laws of middle earth are less magical and more mortal as ages progress
  • Question – How would it work in the 4th age
    • A: Should improve due to Aragorn’s good policies. But things are less magical and getting close to our current world
  • Question: How are spiders represent
    • Answer: Spiders and wolves are seen as always
  • Question: How does forests being maintained vs natural affect things?
    • Answer: In most cases felling of trees does result in replanting.
  • Question: How popular is Tolkien in Turkey
    • Answer: Disappointed since the books nowhere near as popular as Harry Potter. Middle Earth seen as boring in comparison. People into history often like it. A very Niche interest.
    • Author is in Birmingham but hasn’t found as much Tolkien-related stuff as he had expect.
Share