Tolkien Seminar

The Tolkien Society & the Australian Smial, Tol Harndor, presents:

Call for Papers:

“You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - Frodo quoting Bilbo in “The Lord of the Rings”

This significant annual event in the Tolkien calendar is being held in Australia for the second time. The Tolkien Seminar will be held in Melbourne just before Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention (2nd to 6th September).

We invite people from Australia and abroad with an interest in Tolkien to submit a paper for consideration.

The theme of odysseys is wide-ranging in scope and can cover not only various aspects of odysseys in the works of Tolkien but also the trials and tribulations of Tolkien's own life in his quest to produce his own 'British' mythology.

Some potential topics for consideration might be:

• The odysseys or journeys of individual characters (e.g. Bilbo, Frodo, Turin or Beren) and groups (e.g. The Fellowship)
• The physical and spiritual development of characters from all of Tolkien's works
• Plot development in The Lord of The Rings
• The use of 'journey' as a plot device
• Change for good, evil or both
• Odyssey - predestination and the influences on choice
• J.R.R. Tolkien' own personal odyssey in regards to not only the development of his stories, but also his life, particularly the influence of war
• Homer's Odyssey - the parallels

Papers should be either 20 or 45 minutes long to fit into half-hour or hour slots with time for questions/discussion. There may also be scope to accommodate a number of short 10 minute presentations. Please send the title, a short summary/abstract and the intended length to the Seminar organiser, Michael Kennedy,  mlk at activ8.net.au (replace the "at').