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.
Can have significant grounding and fact, analysis and reason
Take Glorfindel rather than Pippin in fellowship
Estel
Elrond talking this up during council
Trust this is the right thing to do
“faith” is sometimes used but Corey is going to avoid using it. Has too many associations and different meanings.
“trust” might be a better word
Estel = Trust
Stubbon Hope – Sam’s song in the tower. “In western lands..”
“I will not say the day is done, or bid the stars farewell”
The “Stars Forever Dwell” .. “Sam saw a while star twinkle for a while”
It doesn’t matter if we both dies, the shadow can’t reach the high beauty so the shadow will eventually lose
Trust in the Really big picture
Concerning Heroes – On the stair – “But so our path is laid”
Sam previously believed Heroes in stories were the kind of people who went out looking for them. Now understands they found themselves on a path that was chosen for them.
“But the people in it don’t know”
If they had turned back they would have been forgotten. Implies there were many others that had
The Unknown – on Stair after the above passage
Frodo opines that the people in a story don’t and shouldn’t know that what sort of the story he’s in.
It will change the story if the protagonist if the hero knew who it will turn out when they made choices.
Hope dies in Sam – Star of Mt Doom chapter – “But even as hope died in Sam”
Sam picks up he is in a sad story, from which he won’t come back
Doesn’t really fully accept that, thinks of the Shire and how he wants to see them. But his Amdir dies and he no longer hopes he will see them
But his Estel remains. He is walking the path because it is the path that has been laid for him.
Trust, what should be, shall be
Gandalf has a Suggestion – Shadow of the Past – Gandalf tells Frodo about the Ring
“There is only one way…”
How do you move the Ring from the Shire to Mordor?
“My only candidate for Ringbearer has failed to throw the ring into a fire” … “under the most optimal circumstances possible”
Gandalf knows that Frodo will fail – Amdir is low
Encouragement – Shadow of the past – There was more than one power at work
“Bilbo was meant to find the ring, and not by it’s maker”
Gandalf tests Frodo to see how affected he is by the Ring. Results not encouraging
Follows Estel
Bedrock – “Shall prove but mine instrument”
You can choose what you role is in the story
Questions
Q: Hope vs Despair
A: Despair is for those who see the future 100% . But you can lose all your Amdir but still keep you Estel . But Denethor lost both while Sam above kept Estel
Q: Is Gandalf’s selection of Mary & Pippin in Fellowship same as selecting Frodo to take ring?
A: Yes. The signs have provided two candidates. “That probably is the path”
Missed a couple of questions cause I was googling for a comic someone mentioned.
Q: Tolkien is the master of Mindfulness
Q: The whole book we has readers we have to have hope all the way through
A: Trudi gave up FoTR because Gandalf died and not much book left. Didn’t want to read “That kind of book”. She had a failure of Hope.
“Is this a kissing book?”
“She was not conquered”: Morwen and Motherhood in Middle-earth with Ilana Mushin
Revisit 16-year old essay on Woemen in Tolkien
Mother of Turin, wife of Hurin, Daughter of Baragund
Sends Son Turin to Doriath but decides not to to accompany him
Long road, she is pregnant and safer with few in group
Hope Husband still alive
Would not take charity
Mother in Anguish, fingers bleeding as Turin leaves ( “Sorrows of Turin”)
Other scholars have noted that some of the problems of Turin are blamed on her
Often scholars are negative towards her
Tolkien and mothers
Tolkien lost mother early, often much read into this
Most left out of the story
Sometimes just genealogical
When acting as mothers sometimes they are sacrificing themselves
Later stories (and versions of stories) by Tolkien tend to have more women or expanded roles (eg Galadriel)
Morwen
She is present in the 1920 version, so not a product of later writing
Pride
More maternal desperation
Words and deeds rather than he imputed thoughts should be looked at.
To Enter the Perilous Realm or Not to Enter? That is the Question with Trudy Shannon
Our Tolkien heroes are always given hard choices and usually choose them
Aldarion and Erendis
Tolkien most explicit about Faery in “Smith of Wooten Major”
Aldarion
Think of Numenor has the land of humans and middle Earth as the Land of Faery
Aldarion goes to middle earth
After Aldarion returns he has grown in statue and his eyes look far away (similar to Smith). He cannot explain exactly what he saw (like Smith)
He keeps going back (Like Smith) and becomes a great fiend of the Faery King
Does not pass on his “passport” to faery directly
Erendis
Invited to middle Earth by Aldarion
She rejects the invitation immediately
Not open to possibility of adventure. No way she can walk this road
Remember Tolkien always gives his characters choices
Says she loves the Woods of Numenor. But late grows to hate their sight
Diamond
Given by Aldarion to Erendis
Taken as her Bethrothal gift
Not 100% obvious if it is magical
Not a happy ending
Withdraws from Kings count, moves away from trees, Stops wearing diamond
Unrecognised by other people
May have tried to reconcile with Aldaron or perhaps voyage to Middle Earth
Neither has a Fairy Story ending
Conclusion
Us here at Ozmoot may already be partially in Faery
Q: How does the star on the brown connect to Aragorn?
A: The Hobbits have a vision when they are with TomB, but it is a tradition that goes back to this story, but Tolkien is interested in how stories replay though the generations
Q: How autobiographical? Separate interests between Tolkien and his wife
A: More communication than seperate interests
Q: Are there more parallels to Aragon the Star wearer?
Corey’s Fun and Spontaneous Textual Discussion Exercise with Corey Olsen
Do a close comparison of some passages
Passages picked at random
Random 1/4 chance
theme, character, language usage, special topic
Review a LOTR Passage
Choose a LOTR passe – D20
roll 6 = Book 2
10 Chapters in Book 2
Chapter 3 The Ring goes South
Paragraph 36
” The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil. With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labours. “
Elrond starts with the number, but only has 7 mapped out
Emphasis on Gandalf,
Shall, Shall, But Gandalf gets a “will”
2 have chosen to go with you from the start. One is Faithful Servant Sam and the second is Gandalf who has been working on this great task for a long time
Gandalf is going in service
Speaking in a register
Not symmetrical description of the two groups
Walkers not riders
But still paired
“The Nine walkers” is not an epic name
“The end of his Labours” will go over Sam’s head, but links things to the longer story.
Callback to the Labours of Hercules and similar myths
“set against” but not a symmetrical group
Company vs Fellowship. The Fellowship bit evolves during Book 2.
“Faithful servant” rather then just servant. Lots of recent betrayals
Now compare two passages
Book 6, Chapter 5, Paragraph 12
“In this house, lady. He was sorely hurt, but is now set again on the way to health. But I do not know–“
Spoken by the Warden of the House of Healing to Eowyn
An unexpected turn for Eowyn. She is trying to get out of the house and going over the head of the Warden
He is pushing back and saying Faramir might not be available. She cuts right though that and demands to see him
He is unlikely to really not know his condition
She is using her ( foreigner, royalty, female) position to intimidate him and cut him off.
Passage 2 from the hobbit, chapter 18
“No!” said Thorin. “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell!”
Thorin is living Eowyn’s dream
Thorin has gone back on his earlier bad actions. He knocks down the wall he has created and directly rallys his former enemies
It’s interesting that Eowyn is forbade a heroic death in the text where Theoden, Thorin, etc are granted it. Especially when so many of those seem redemptionary (theoden feels guilt for inaction under Wormtongue, Thorin for his greed in betreyal of the lake men)
“I honestly don’t think that we can really criticise her for being so reckless when Rohan and even broader society holds the heroic sacrifice to high in respect” – Cassidy Winter
The Battle has just been won, Bilbo did not participate in it. But Thorin is what you are has lasting and meaningful value
Eowyn is about to have a similar conversion after he conversation with Faramir
She embraces life and see a new way to make a contribution
Need to remember both are members of collectivist cultures. Less individualistic that modern western culture
“I think the big difference is that they had achieved their redemption and their death appears to be a reward of some kind. Her death is what she’s seeking as escape, rather than redemption”
Thorin’s death is part of he redemption arc, but if he had lived he would still have been redeemed. Although probably screwed up later
Contrast Boromir’s death is a important component of his arc
Thoeden’s death is at the end of his road, he would have died soon anyway. this is the death he would have chosen
Eowyn is still restless, whereas Thorin is at peace and has accepted what he has accomplished. But has moved away from what he originally wanted.
“Child of the kindly West” would not make any sense to original Hobbit readers
Exclamation mark at the end of “Farewell!” by Thorin could be read comically.
A benediction of a King on his deathbed
Especially since Bilbo had kinda Betrayed him just recently
Looking at the characters rather than the specific passages, both characters have long been pursuing a specific goal, and only find peace when they turn away from that goal. or rather, starting a new trajectory along the way that is very different to what they thought they wanted in the beginning
A Tolkien passage and compare to a non Tolkien passage
Leaf by Niggle
Passage about visitors and other duties preventing Niggle working hard enough his painting. Many Responsibilities that he must not neglect. eg his Garden
Tenson with all his friends and relatives coming to visit. Although he visited them during the Winter so it is reaonabily fair.
But he meets all his obligations. The Dilemma is all internal
All his friends see him as a good person (except maybe the garden) they don’t see that in his heart he just wants to do painting.
“Passages” is an interesting turn of phrase when describing a picture. It’s more typical for text.
Neglected Garden = Great Scholarship of Germanic Philology . Painting = LOTR
2nd Passage is from Dune
Fewer people have read Dune than LEaf by Niggle, comparatively few rooms in which that would be true.
Scene at the end of the Feyd-Rautha’s fight in the Arena
He has arranged for a great spectacle but this didn’t happen because slave’s death was clean
Contrast been the attitude of Feyd and his opponent. The Atredies only has a single minimal chance to do something. Feyd doesn’t care about this person it’s just his small part of his plan
Social responsibility
Contrast Wants and desires
Parallel is between Niggle’s paining and Feyd’s ambition for brutal supremacy over the universe
Parallel they are both wasting time on fun projects rather than what they should be doing
The Little People and the Horn-Cry of Buckland with Lauren Brand
Dedicated this talk to her father
Climate change is not a comfortable topic
The Hobbits in LOTR is just getting on with their lives. But their world is in threat of change. And not in a good way. Lots of bad reports just in the Shire
Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief approach to seeing people’s “Climate Grief”
In the first Chapters of The Lord of the Rings
Denial
Sam and Ted’s discussion in the Green Dragon
“I won’t take Dragons now”
Anger
Frodo and Gandalf talk about the ring
I would have done away with it
Bargaining
Will you not take the Ring
Depression and Fear
This Ring, How on earth did it come to me
Acceptance
I cannot keep the right and stay here.
I should like to save the Ring if I could
as long as the Shire lies begind safe and comfortable
When the Hobbits get back to the Shire
Denial
Cottons hiding away
Hob Hayward going along with it
Anger
Criticise the system
Hob Hayward anger at the sneaks in the ranks
Bargaining
Robin Smallburrow tries to explain why he is a Shirrif
No way to resign position
Depression
Sam breaks down and cries at the sight of Hobbiton
Acceptance and Empowerment
Tooks shut off their borders and did Guerilla actions
Fredagar Bolgar join band of rebels
Will Whitford, Lobelia,
4 Companions. Lots of things
Lessons from the Hobbits
Ignore they Nay sayers
Seek out information fom relaiable sources
Join with others
Share the burdon
Blow the horn and get angry
Recommended reading and viewing
The Lord of the Rings
The Big Switch by Saul Griffiths
The Fully Charged Show
Questions etc
” Lobelia Sackville-Baggins as Gina Rineheart was not a comparison i expected to hear today “
Can grief make you stronger not weaker?
Nienna’s grieving
Peaceful vs Violent actions
Lamentations in a Troubled World with Trevor Bowen
The song of the Ents and Entwives
Growing apart by separate interests
Sadness for a lost relationship
Loss and separation without hope of reconciliation
The Lament for Boromir
People at movie screen booed at his first appearance
The heroic character is undone by his virtues
He escaped in the end in death. Died in state of grace
Aragorn composes a poem for him at the end
Technical details of Laments
Galadriel’s Lament corresponds to Catholic Lament
The Lament of the Roharim
Inspired by the “Lament of the Wanderer”
Theoden speaks some of the lines in the Movie. Contrasts himself with his great ancestor
Courage to do what is right even against unbeatable odds
Frodo’s Lament for Gandalf
an emotion mechanism to manage grief
A way to move forward and accept new challenges and responsibilities
List of various other Laments in Tolkien
Songs do lots within Tolkiens writing give the world a depth and history
List of Tolkien’s joys and sadness
Throughout the LOTR a profound melancholy pervades
Everything is worse than what came before
Lamenting the diminishment of the glorious past
The Long Defeat
How does Lament have meaning in our own lives?
Pandemic, Wars, instability, inflation, etc
Media brings it from places of war into our daily lives
Samwise “There is still some good in this world and it is worth fighting”
Question: What hope is there for Frodo and War Veterans?
Answer: Frodo had vision from the start (in house of Tom B) that he wouldn’t make it back fully.
Trust is Unbroken/Broken: A Troubador Struggle with Ilana Mushin and Phil Menzies
The Lay of Leithian
Finrod vs Sauron in songs of power
Just describes the song battle but doesn’t have any lyrics
Inspiration
Les Miserables – The confrontation
Pocahontas – Mine, Mine, Mine and Savages
Stray Gods (Role playing Musical)
Structure
Rythm 6/8 vs 4/4
Where to start/end
Mapping the songs
F# major vs G# minor
ebb and flow / tuf-o-war
Finrod – woodwinds
Sauron – brass and electric guitars
Listen for character themes and fall theme discussed yesterday
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”
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.
