From Friday 24th January to Sunday 26th January 2025 I attended the OzMoot 2025 conference in Melbourne.
OzMoot is a small conference centered around the works of J.R.R Tolkien and related topics. It is run by Hern Ennorath (The Australian Tolkien fan organisation) in partnership with Signum University who do various activities including running similar events around the world.
Overview
Around 30 people attended in person with a similar number online. The venue was a community hall. Cost was $US 100 per person for the two and a half days of the conference.
The programme mostly consisted of talks on various topics ( Scroll down here to see the schedule ) with coffee/biscuits for morning and afternoon tea and a break for lunch which most people took at the nearby cafes (or brought food back to the venue). In the evening there were two dinners (one at a restaurant and another at the home of an attendee) plus there was an ad-hoc dinner on the last day some attended.
When I saw the “mostly talks” there were several events that were not straight presentations. They included several talks that included music (as per the theme of the conference) plus straight musical performances, a costume parade, Tolkien readings and a trivia competition.
The Hall also had tables setup. One with books (and other items) for sale, a second with collectables displayed and a 3rd with a jigsaw puzzle (which we collectively did not finish)
The event was Hybrid with streaming via Zoom and an active Slack for the duration of the event.
Items for sale
Collectables Display
Impressions
The conference was described as “In the grey area between fan convention and academic conference” which is pretty accurate. Many of the talks are quite academic although by no means all of them and the talks are mostly accessible even if you are only a casual fan (or been dragged along by your Mum in two cases this year).
You note that not all the talks are directly Tolkien related. eg the Keynote was analyzing Rap/HipHop Music.
“Tolkien Professor” Corey Olsen analyzing Rhyming in Rap Music
This conference was the third I’ve attended. I went to 2023 online and attended OzMoot 2024 in Sydney in person.
The whole event is great and the people are very welcoming. The attendees are a wide range of ages and have lots of interests and skills outside the world of Tolkien.
I would recommend the conference if you are interested in Tolkien and in Australia or New Zealand. If you want to start off slow I’d suggest attended one of the Moots online. They mostly last a day and cost around $US25. Signum also does several free weekly streams/podcasts and paid online courses.
Next year’s OzMoot is planned for late-January 2026 in Canberra and there are tentative plans for 2027 to be held in Wellington. I hope to attended both events.
First Poem – Athelas When the black breath blows and death’s shadow grows and all lights pass, come athelas! come athelas! Life to the dying In the king’s hand lying!
When the moon was new and the sun young of silver and gold the gods sung: in the green grass they silver spilled, and the white waters they with gold filled. Ere the pit was dug or Hell yawned, ere dwarf was bred or dragon spawned, there were Elves of old, and strong spells under green hills in hollow dells they sang as they wrought many fair things, and the bright crowns of the Elf-kings. But their doom fell, and their song waned, by iron hewn and by steel chained. Greed that sang not, nor with mouth smiled, in dark holes their wealth piled, graven silver and carven gold: over Elvenhome the shadow rolled.
Presentation: Jordan Rannells – Exploring the Legendarium in 3D Audio
Created a 3D Audio experience for the Lord of the rings. Ambient sounds and music lines of the the Williams and Serkis audiobooks of the Lord of The Rings
Demo with Farmer Maggot and the Hobbits riding in his cart. Showing the way different channels are used
Demo from start of the Hobbit
People who know the stories can just listen to the soundscape and if the know the story well they can guess where they are without the actual audiobook words
So Far Hobbit, LoTR, First Happy Potter and Wheel of Time
Working on the Silmarillion. This is got a lot more music since Ambient is not so useful since words don’t usually directly describe things happening in real time.
Also working on more Wheel of Time and Tolkien “The Three Great Tales”
Origin of project
Started exclusively listening to audiobooks
Heard the Phil Dragash version
Listened to Star Wars versions but though they didn’t do as much music as liked
Heard some dramatizations and wanted to do with the full full text
Technology improved so multi-channels via headphones worked
Most of the Ambient sounds came from libraries but created some himself
Presentation: Julian Barr – World Breaker
Reading from his new Epic Fantasy Novel
Inspired by Aus bushfires and Covid lockdowns
Got comfort from old Fantasy Books
“Heroes still exist and bad times don’t last forever”
Rediscovered like of fairy-tales
Mashing fairy-tales with high-fantasy
Julian did a longing reading from the book
Maps? – Country fairly small but quite detailed
Languages? – No constructed languages in book
Please expand on Origins
Inspired by Australian communities surviving wildfires
21st century seems to require a lot of resilience
Worried especially younger people despairing about the future
But people are more adaptable than many give credit for
Series says ordinary heroes still exist and can overcome
Planned for 3+ in series . But working on other projects too
Presentation: Stephen Vrettos – The Sound of Silver
Sliver is a motif in Legendarium
The sound of the word works will in hhrase
Sounds of silver: Soft tone
Movement of water
Gold in middle earth is often associated with evil
Water in a spring is described as “falling silver”
“murmuring of a silver stream”
“sheer, heart-piercing silver, rang her voice”
Brighter high-pitched sound than gold
Lots and lots of examples. I wasn’t able to keep up.
Goldberry – name is Gold, associated with Silver?
But her name mostly comes from Water Lilies
Probably the colour of the rushes
Also the Gold-Substance is partially seperate from Gold-Colour
Some discussion on the sound of Mithril
silver is bells, mithril is Tubular Bells
Additional question for morning Speakers
Some more discussion about Silver and other metals
Julian talked a lot about apples trees in the extract he read and how apples trees are big in mythology
Discussion Panel: Anthony Lawther, Phillip Menzies and Elizabeth (Dizzy) Rodrigues-Schifter – Exploring Espressione in “Exploring the Lord of the Rings”
Panel Discussion
Posted version of the Exploring the Lord of the Rings theme
Outlines who they started joining listening to the podcast
Gave an overview of the podcast and what it is about
“My Wife says: Can you put Corey on when we are in Bed so she can fall asleep”
Talks above favorite bits of the podcast. eg exactly where Frodo was stabbed, the Wargs
Poems each liked
Dizzy – Road goes ever on
Phil – I sit beside the Fire
Anthony – Gimli’s song about Durin
Giant Spreadsheet, showing stresses of words etc
Questions about listening to the podcast, how much is about the book and how much other stuff.
