Fun

Euromoot 2026

During the weekend of 2-4th October, Euromoot conference took place in Prague. Here are some pictures from the event. The talks and group photos: My talk on the comparison of Feanor and Melkor: On Saturday night, we went for a walk across the town, which ended in a restaurant. Sunday morning belonged to various funny activities, including a game of Tic-Tac-Dough. The moot attendees were divided into two teams competing against each other in 2 games. Our team won one of them.

Oct 4

Oxonmoot - part 3

The closing evening event was great, from a costume competition to all the amazing performances. Here you can see the Oxonmoot choir, Varda, Galadriel, Radagast, Éowyn, Mayor of Laketown’s wife, Hobbit Barbie, She-Orc, all crotchet dwarf, the Polar Bear and Father Christmas, Tar-Palantír and Elendil with the white tree, Sauron and his Nazgúl, and two Nazgúls’ wives. And here is the closing visit to Wolvercote cemetery And also my own obligatory visit at the Hollywell cemetery

Sep 13

Oxonmoot 2026 - part 2

Now pictures from the lectures. The first two are from Michael Drout’s talk. Some pictures from a table talk with Sarah Brown, a debate on "Why Fëanor was wrong", and from a game of Middle-earth pictionary. We also had a chance to watch a part of a new documentary about Verlyn Flieger, that people from Signum University prepared, and you can already preorder. #jrrtolkien #middleearth #oxonmoot #oxonmoot2026 #oxford #tolkienscholars #tolkiensociety

Sep 12

Oxonmoot 2026 - part 1

Again I got to come to and present at Oxonmoot this year. So here are the obligatory reports from the event :) Let’s start with the overview of the grounds, again at St Anne’s College. The art room and my artistic creations from there. The artists’ room The sellers’ room One of these rooms also included a diorama of the battle of Helm’s Deep And this hand-stitched Tree of Amalion flag. It’s maker had also a unique selfmade T-shirt. And another visitor had this lovely bag. A

Sep 12

Tam a zase spátky

This weekend I attended a fantasy festival Tam a zase spátky, organised by Elaris, that took place in Czech Republic at Ptení castle. I presented there my book Cardinal vices in Middle-earth in conversation with a Czech Tolkien propagator Starý Bral. The Ptení castle served as a nice, authentic background that helped the visitors feel like in they indeed travelled back in time as it featured some historical furniture. In one room, there was even a display of paper models of o

Jun 22

Oxonmoot 2025 (part 3 - all the rest)

The Oxonmoot also has a room for artists to show and sell their work, another one for buying books, and one where you can create your own art. This is how it looks: Selling all the copies of my book I had with me, naturally I spent all the money on buying some other books. Here is my haul: And I painted this thing, featuring Bilbo hiding from Lobelia. In the little free time I had, I stopped by the Weston Library and their shop, which also offers a wide selection of Tolkien-t

Sep 9, 2025

Oxonmoot 2025 (part 2 - events)

Friday and Saturday were full of interesting lectures... ...including my own book presentation on Saturday morning... Besides academic talks, there were also many opportunities for socialisation and meeting new people, such as the first timers reception and speed-moot. The entertainment strain of Oxonmoot consisted of a 1 Minute game, in which 4 leading figures of Tolkien scholarship and artistry - Dimitra Fimi, Sarah Brown, Brian Sibley, and Jay Johnstone - had to speak for

Sep 9, 2025