Taking Craft Seriously: Tolkien (and You!) as Maker
Signum University invites you to join us on Saturday, 29 August in Portland, OR, USA, for Cascade Moot. For our return to Portland, we will be gathering at Portland State University at Cramer Hall. Our theme this year revolves around a Portland tradition: crafting. Come to Cascade Moot and enjoy Taking Craft Seriously: Tolkien (and You!) as Maker.
Register Here for Cascade Moot!
Price: $50.00 USD (~ $68.00 CAD) for in-person attendance, $25.00 USD (~ $34.00 CAD) for remote attendance
J.R.R. Tolkien took craft seriously. As a writer, he labored over prose style and narrative structure with philological precision. As a world-builder, he filled Middle-earth with makers: smiths forging Silmarils and blades, gardeners tending the Shire, weavers creating tapestries that held the history of nations. And as a person, he was himself a maker. He was a painter of illustrations, a creator of maps, a world-class inventor of languages, and a creator of elaborate jokes and poems he shared with his friends.
Cascade Moot invites you to come and share your crafts with the community in whatever form they take. We welcome traditional academic papers on:
The Writer’s Craft: Tolkien’s prose techniques, narrative architecture, and theories of subcreation.
The Ethical Craft: The moral weight of making in Middle-earth; what distinguishes Aulë from Saruman, for example?
The Worldbuilder’s Craft: Language invention, mapmaking, and the construction of legendary histories.
The Literature’s Craft: The symbolic and narrative roles of objects made by hand, from lembas to the Argonath to the Silmarils.
Additionally, we encourage proposals for creative or hands-on sessions that engage with the practices of making. Do you paint? Create with Legos? Make music? Does your crafting involve the written word with poetry or story? Do you use 3-D printers to create? Or something else entirely? If you have an idea for a workshop, demonstration, interactive presentation, or just want to show to a welcoming community your contribution that connects to craft in your own creative life, in Tolkien’s legendarium, or in any other fictional universe you enjoy and want to share, we would be honored to have you share it with us.
We’re also happy to announce that Miriam Ellis, recent winner of the 2026 Tolkien Society Award for Best Artwork, will be giving a remote presentation and talk at Cascade Moot about our theme!
Following the Moot, there will be an informal, unofficial dinner at a local restaurant with Corey Olsen and the Cascade Moot team. This is not included in the registration fee and will be at your own additional cost.
Please read our Regional Moot Recording and Privacy Notice. You will be required to agree to its contents in our registration system before completing your ticket purchase.
Schedule of Events – All Time Local to Portland (Pacific Daylight Time)
View the full schedule with abstracts by clicking this link!
9:00 – 9:25am: Greetings and Introductions w/Corey Olsen
9:25 – 10:05am: Jay, George & Harris, to Say Nothing of the Dog: A Hobbit’s Tale, Being Readings from Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat through the lens of “Concerning Hobbits” with Selections from “The Grey Havens” as related in the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien w/ April Hayward
10:05 – 10:45am: Fantasy Map Making Hands-on Mini Class w/Michelle Quinn
10:45 – 11:05am: Elevenses – Morning Break
11:05 – 11:45am: Tolkien-Inspired Music w/Jack Schabert
11:45am – 12:25pm: “They have a good bass section, but no top tenors that’s for sure”: The Bardic Traditions of Rankin-Bass’s Singing Orcs w/Adam Beaton
12:25 – 1:40pm: Lunch Break
1:40 – 2:20pm: Making in a World Without Them: Craft, Objects, and Power in Tolkien’s Legendarium w/Jackie Sheppard
2:20 – 3:00pm: And Long was the Making: Weaving, Witchcraft, and Women’s Work w/Katie Hardman
3:00 – 3:20pm: Afternoon Tea – Afternoon Break
3:20 – 4:00pm: Tolkien As Sub-Creator: Giving His Best w/Miriam Ellis
4:00 – 4:40pm: “Hillmen and Herd-folk”: Constructing Alterity in Lord of the Rings and its Adaptations w/Marguerite Lamy
4:40 – 5:00pm: Spinning the “Wheel of ‘What If…?’ Scenarios” in Middle-earth and Beyond w/Adam Beaton, Corey Olsen, and YOU!
