Facing the Darkness: Hope and Courage Against Overwhelming Odds
Signum University invites you to join us on Saturday, 23 May for Willow Moot 2026. This English-language hybrid event will occur at the Collegium Veteranorum at Maria Theresa College in Leuven, Belgium. For our return to Belgium, we invite you to contemplate Facing the Darkness: Hope and Courage Against Overwhelming Odds.
Register Here for Willow Moot!
Price: $50.00 USD (~ €43.00) for in-person attendance, $25.00 USD (~ €23.50) for remote attendance
From Beowulf to Tolkien, C.S. Lewis to Terry Pratchett, Star Wars to Marvel, the stories that stay with us, that matter, have our heroes facing overwhelming odds and continuing on, finding hope and courage to face the darkness. What is it about these heroes that makes them continue on even when they have a chance of turning back? And what can we learn from these stories, these heroes, to help us navigate the world today?
During Willow Moot 2026 we want to inspire hope and help people find the courage to bring light into the world and face the darkness. We are looking for Tolkien and non-Tolkien related papers that:
- Analyse hope and courage when it comes to facing overwhelming odds in fiction.
- Make a connection between principles for facing the darkness that an author presents in fiction, and how these may be applied in the real world.
- Use fiction to inspire hope/courage in the listener.
- Offer any interpretation of our theme, be it Tolkien or non-Tolkien based.
We’re also excited to announce two of our presenters, Dr. Sara Brown and musician Dave Brons!
Sara Brown PhD MSc(Econ) serves Signum University as Language & Literature Department Chair and Thesis Coordinator for the MA Program. She is a Lecturer and Preceptor within the Language and Literature faculty and has served as an Elected Faculty Member on the Board. Sara also teaches on the Signum Path Program.
Dr. Brown lives in North Wales, UK. She was an English teacher, teaching ungrateful teenagers, for over twenty-five years but recently gave this up to work full time for Signum University. She has been with Signum since 2012, working on courses that have included ‘Modern Fantasy’ with Corey Olsen, ‘Tolkien’s World of Middle-earth’ with Verlyn Flieger, ‘Roots of the Mountain’ with Doug Anderson, ‘Cultural Studies and Audience Reception of The Lord of the Rings’ with Robin Reid and ‘Celtic Myth in Children’s Fantasy’ with Dimitra Fimi. In 2017 Sara presented her own 12-week lecture series entitled ‘Tolkien in Context: Middle-earth as a Roadmap to Twentieth-Century Anxieties’, which explored Tolkien’s writing as a response to modernity.
Besides her BA (Hons) in English and History, Sara has an MSc in International History, Politics & Economics from the London School of Economics, for which she wrote a thesis on The Problem of the Gold Standard in International Politics and Economics in the Nineteenth Century. She completed her Ph.D. in Literature at Salford University in 2013.
Dr. Brown is the winner of the 2023 Tolkien Society Award for Best Article for her article “All that glisters is not gold” Mallorn 63, Winter 22. She is also co-presenter on the Tolkien Society Award-winning podcast, The Tolkien Experience, and more recently joined the Prancing Pony Podcast spinoff, The Rings of Power Wrap-Up.
Dave Brons, is a British guitarist who specialises in writing Prog Rock with a Celtic Symphonic twist.
In 2021 Brons placed in the Top 10 in PROG, the worlds most prestigious Prog Rock Magazine in the Unsigned Artist category (for independent/non record label musicians) He quit his regular job in 2015 to go into composing and performing full time.
After placing in the Top 16 in the world in the Guitar Idol competition, he released his debut album Based on a True Story which was produced and mixed by Dave Bainbridge, founder of Celtic Prog super Group IONA, and featured guest appearances from Troy Donockley (Nightwish), Paul Bielatowicz (Neal Morse, Carl Palmer Band), and Tom Quayle (Ibanez Artist).
That album sold well but it was his next 2 albums, the Lord of the Rings inspired Not all Those Who Wander are Lost and Return to Arda that really caught the attention of the prog world and recieved incredible reviews from the US, Holland, Japan, France, UK and more. In 2024 Brons released a Live album called Brons: Live in the Shire and he just completed his next Lord of the Rings inspired album called The Fellowship, which just came out in March 2026.
Schedule of Events
All Times Local to Leuven (Central European Summer Time)
9:00-9:15am: Greetings and Introductions w/Corey Olsen
9:15-9:55am: From the Summa to the Shire: The Influence of Aquinas’s Moral Theology on Tolkien’s Triad of Hope, Courage, and Despair w/Adam Day
9:55-10:35am: “Oh you’re hopeless”: When Those With Power Leave Us Without Hope w/Karen Pollack
10:35-10:55am: Morning Break
10:55-11:35am: Pulchras Terras Facies: Out of Darkness into the Light of Rome w/Sam Lewis
11:35am-12:15pm: Courage and Ofermod in Tolkien’s Works w/Martina Juričková
12:15-1:30pm: Lunch Break
1:30-2:10pm: Light and Darkness (as in Hope and Despair) w/Hedwig Slembrouck
2:10-2:20pm: Tech Break
2:20-3:00pm: From the Shire to the Stage: Tolkien’s Hope and Healing Through Music w/Dave Brons
3:00-3:20pm: Afternoon Break
3:20-4:00pm: Endings and Eucatastrophes: Reframing the Apocalypse as Hope in Middle-earth w/Hayden Bilbrey
4:00-5:00pm: Light in the Darkness; Hope Amidst Despair: Frodo and Sam’s Journey at the Crossroads w/Sara Brown
5:00-6:00pm: Willow Moot Pub Trivia Quiz
6:00-6:15pm: Goodbye and Farewell w/Corey Olsen
Willow Moot logo created by Reinier van Riezen.
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Additionally, during the event photographs and/or audio-visual recordings may be taken by the Land of Willow’s Smial for the purposes of sharing event highlights on social media, or for promotional use for future events. As these materials may be made available online, they may be subject to international data transfers. In order to be able to do this, we will need your consent on the registration form.
