OzMoot 2025 – Day 2 – Afternoon

Presentation: Cassidy Winter – Invertebrates in the Works of Tolkien and the Societal Impact of Those Portrayals

  • Hypotheses
    • Shelob = Hobbit
    • If Invertebrates written as evil by Tolkien
  • What is an Invertebrate?
  • Ungoliant
    • Takes the form of a Spider
  • Beorn’s Giant Bees
  • Mirkwood Spiders
  • Were-worms
  • Shortcut to mushroom: Spider, Centipede, Earthworms
  • Neekerbreekers
  • Morgul Flowers and Flies(?)
  • Sheblob – Spider
  • Butterflies
  • Gwaihir’s Moth pal – Film only
  • Ants, Glowworms, snails
  • Compiled list of all animal entries in Tolkien
  • Invertebrate by clade and alignment
  • Spiders mostly bad, butterflies mostly good
  • Stats
    • Horses good
    • Reptiles evil
    • invertebrates up in air
  • Horses have a capacity for evil matched only by Humans in my opinion

Presentation: Ilana Mushin – Pride and Prejudice

  • What does Tolkien mean by Pride / Proud?
    • “proud and fair” in the dead marshes
    • “pride and dispair” Gandalf to Denothor
  • Pride is French word with positives connotations
    • Once in Old English it started to become negative (haughty, overbearing)
    • Middle-English – Gets back some positive meanings
  • The Grammar of Pride / Proud
    • To complex for me to summarize
  • Around 30% uses were positive
  • Negative 37%
  • 33% not clear if it positive or negative
  • Who is proud?
    • Saruman
    • Individual Elves (but sometimes Noldor)
    • Denethor
    • Folk of Gondor
    • Shadowfax
    • Turin
  • Sauron and Morgoth are not described has having pride
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