The Music of Words: Language, Poetry, and Music in Tolkien’s Works
Signum University and the Mythgard Institute, in partnership with Hern Ennorath, invite you to join us in Melbourne for OzMoot 2025. For our first trip to Melbourne and third trip to Australia, we invite you to contemplate The Music of Words: Language, Poetry, and Music in Tolkien’s Works.
When: 24-26, January 2025
Where: Studio 1 Community Hub at Richmond Neighbourhood Centre
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Price: $100.00 USD for in-person adult attendance, $45.00 USD for in-person student attendance, $35.00 USD for remote attendance
“At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven words in elven-tongues, even though he understood them little, held him in a spell…” – The Lord of the Rings, Book 2, Chapter 2.
Tolkien’s love for language greatly influenced his storytelling, giving Middle-earth a rich linguistic variety and sense of history. But the power of his languages goes further than this, with the flowing phonetics of Elvish tongues bringing a musical quality to his poetry and prose. Tolkien claimed that, from a young age, any musical knowledge or talent was “transformed into linguistic terms,” giving his language creation and his writings in English a uniquely musical flow.
He also had an academic interest in song-literature and the transmission of culture through the oral traditions of story, song, and verse, with his love of classical literature and the Norse sagas. To Tolkien the philologist and historian, it would have been natural that story and song blend so well together in giving meaning to his created universe. Even the creation of Arda by Ilúvatar involved taking the beauty of music and giving it a physical form upon which his mythology could play out.
At OzMoot 2025 we seek to explore how music, poetry, and language shape and enrich Tolkien’s works, and the many resulting adaptations in film, theatre, and song. We also encourage exploration of how music, language, and stories demonstrate diversity of cultures, both in Middle-earth and in the primary world, as well as how music and stories are universal and bring many cultures and languages together with no barriers.
Our guest of honour is Professor Corey Olsen.
As the president of Signum University, Corey is the inspiring force behind a team of planners, educators, and visionaries who are revolutionizing education for the third millennium. In addition to teaching classes on J.R.R. Tolkien, Chaucer, and modern fantasy literature for Signum, Dr. Olsen has extended the concept of the digital classroom to include non-traditional outlets. Through the Mythgard Academy, he offers free weekly lectures on works of speculative fiction chosen by Signum University supporters, and he has embraced the “new literature” of cinema and video game adaptations through interactive programs such as The Silmarillion Film Project and in-game discussions of Lord of the Rings Online.
OzMoot is proudly supported by Hern Ennorath: the Australian Tolkien Fellowship and smial of the Tolkien Society. A tight-knit community of Tolkien lovers from Australia, New Zealand, and now across the southern hemisphere, we look forward to welcoming all with open arms to our local moot. Over the past few years, OzMoot has proved to be a uniquely important event in forming and enriching our community, which keeps in touch via Zoom meetings throughout the year, and providing us with an opportunity to visit different parts of our large country.
Schedule of Events (All Times Local to Melbourne)
FRIDAY, 24 JANUARY
12 noon – 1pm Lunch, Meet & Greet (Zoom open for online folks, in-person gathering at venue)
1:00 – 1:15pm Opening Remarks & Readings
1:15 – 1:45pm Presentation: Louise Mathieson – Cover Versions: Exploring Adaptation Through Concepts of Legendarium Resonance
1:45 – 2:15pm Presentation: Andrew Johnson – John Sangster: Australian Jazz Composer and Lord of the Rings
2:15 – 3:00pm Presentation: Phillip Menzies – The Words and Magic of Music in Rings of Power
3:00 – 3:15pm Additional Questions and Discussion
3:15 – 3:45pm Afternoon Tea Break
3:45 – 5:15pm Musical Performances
5:15pm End of Friday program
SATURDAY, 25 JANUARY
9:00 – 9:30am Presentation: Jordan Rannells – Exploring the Legendarium in 3D Audio
9:30 – 10am Presentation: Julian Barr – World Breaker
10:00 – 10:30am Presentation: Stephen Vrettos – The Sound of Silver
10:30 – 10:45am Additional Questions and Discussion
10:45 – 11:15am Morning Tea Break
11:15am – 12:45pm Discussion Panel: Anthony Lawther, Phillip Menzies and Elizabeth (Dizzy) Rodrigues-Schifter – Exploring Espressione in “Exploring the Lord of the Rings”
12:45 – 1:45pm Lunch Break – Corey Olsen Lunch with Remote Attendees
1:45 – 2:15pm Presentation: Cassidy Winter – Invertebrates in the Works of Tolkien and the Societal Impact of Those Portrayals
2:15 – 2:45pm Presentation: Ilana Mushin – Pride and Prejudice
2:45 – 3:15pm Tengwar Mini-Workshop
3:15 – 3:30pm Additional Questions and Discussion
3:30 – 4:30pm OzMoot Costume Parade
4:30 – 6:30pm Trivia & Afternoon tea
6:30pm End of Saturday program
SUNDAY, 26 JANUARY
9:00 – 10:30am Corey Olsen Keynote Address
10:30 – 11am Questions and discussion
11:00 – 11:30am Morning Tea Break
11:30 – 12:00 noon Presentation: Sam Lewis – The Elves and the Celts: Elvish Poetry in ‘The Hobbit’
12:00 noon – 12:30pm Presentation: Lauren Brand – The Music of Nimrodel
12:30 – 12:45pm Additional Questions and Discussion
12:45 – 1:45pm Lunch Break – Drop-in With Remote attendees
1:45 – 3:15pm Corey’s Poetry Dice-Roll Activity
3:15 – 4:15pm OzMoot Reading Circle
4:15 – 4:30pm Closing Statements
4:30pm End of Sunday program
