I wrote a little diary of my Oxford journey on Instagram and figured I might as well share it here, even though it’s less academic-leaning and more of a personal take.
My friend and I arrived in Oxford in the middle of the afternoon of Wednesday 3 September. We dropped our luggage and went back out as soon as possible for a first walk taking us to our favourite locations—mainly the Bodleian. We were distracted by countless cute shop windows on the way. We got some groceries because we were planning to cook our own meals to save money, and got back during golden hour. We might have been too excited to go to sleep if we hadn’t been wiped by the 8-hour journey (and that was just for me. My friend had been travelling for almost 12 hours).
In the morning, knowing that the convention started in the afternoon, we met with another French friend and had another walk around the centre of town. It was her first time so I made sure to include as many of the sights as possible, but again, we were interrupted by cute shops. The first books were bought (along with socks). In the early afternoon, it was time to collect our name tags to access Oxonmoot, on the way of which we were reunited with more friends and met new ones. Oxonmoot was starting at last.

It started slow on Thursday afternoon, with registration and the first-timers’ walk. Things really kicked off on Friday morning. I was delighted to be speaking then because that meant I’d spent the rest of the event with that delightful feeling of Work Done.
My friend J was speaking just before me and was in such a state of stress that I focused entirely on her, tried to get her to calm down, and in the process completely forgot to stress about my own presentation. I’ve never been so chill during a talk. After that we went outside to chat with other attendees, because sitting still while riding the wave of excitement from being done with a conference can be hard. I had the pleasure of chatting with Brian Sibley and his husband, who are both a delight and enjoy my work ?!?
As a post-conference treat, I bought a book in the dealer’s room before heading back to the main lecture theatre to hear my beloved Mercury Natis talk about Sauron in Rings of Power. Each one of their talks is a joy, and this time I didn’t cry! (For context, last year they talked about the love between Frodo and Sam and tears were shed.)
I dashed outside with new friends for a smoothie (for them) and another book (for me), went back on campus and sat outside to enjoy the company. By this point it was late afternoon and I was feeling weak, so I headed back to my AirBnb for a lie-down and dinner before the evening events, being a Tolkien version of Just a Minute, and then a pub quiz.
It was basically the same on Saturday, minus the paper-presenting. I didn’t try to attend all of the talks, like I usually do, but rather to spend time with people, and it was really lovely.

I did sit in the conference room for most of the afternoon talks because you can’t say no to Sara Brown, Dimitra Fimi or Brian Sibley. And that’s where I discovered that Brian Sibley quoted me in his talk and put my name in the acknowledgments because of my work on the Queen of Denmark and Eric Fraser’s illustrations. I very nearly melted into my seat from emotion, and my friends had to scoop me up. Saturday night was the Ents, short for Entertainments, in which we enjoyed a costume contest, live music and a bit of stand-up comedy. The evening ended with the whole room banging on the tables and bellowing Middle-earth versions of sea shanties.
This year is probably the edition that has gone the fastest in my mind. I blinked, and it was over, whereas in previous years I enjoyed a sense of being entirely out of time.
On Sunday, we took a coach to the cemetery and had a ceremony by Tolkien’s grave. The CEO of the Tolkien Society read a passage and we remembered friends who were no longer with us. The rest of the afternoon was spent in a daze, with another walk around Oxford and a last stop on campus to chat with friends who hadn’t already gone home. I think Hobbits would appreciate us sitting under a tree and sharing stories & snacks.
On Monday, my friend J and I took the train(s) home, not without stopping one last time by a bookshop for some last-minute book-buying (I hadn’t set foot in the SFFF section of Blackwell’s yet, so there was no stopping me). We arrived home in time for PODS to kick in. That’s Post-Oxonmoot Depression Syndrome, and yes, it’s a thing. Denial (fueled by watching the replay videos of all the talks I didn’t attend) only worked for a while, and after a while I couldn’t escape the fact that the next Oxonmoot will be a year from now.
But enough moping, I have lots of Tolkien fun to look forward to! After all, I’m going to another, though quite different convention later this month so I count myself incredibly lucky.

OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie Bretagnolle (15 septembre 2025). Oxonmoot diary – 2025. Tolkien & illustration. Consulté le 16 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/14nye
