Welcome to the straight dope message board, fellow Tolkien fan.
For those of you who are interested in joining a society of people interested in Tolkien and his works, I recommend either the Mythopoeic Society (which I’ve belonged to since 1972) or the Tolkien Society (which I’ve belonged to since 1987). The Mythopoeic Society is based in the U.S. and has had most of its annual conventions there. The Tolkien Society is based in the U.K. and has all of its annual conventions in Oxford. Here are their websites:
There are Tolkien-related societies in other countries too.
Welcome, Vambrace!
Yes, but a living tree also has a “meeting of the roots” and “bottom of the stem”, but you would never describe that part of a living tree as a “stump”.
Right, but given that the same author (Barnes) defines “moot” this way in two different locations, in one of which he explicitly states that it pertains to a felled tree, I maintain that what he’s referring to is in fact a stump.
And for what it’s worth, Wiktionary agrees, with an etymological note that this sense of “moot” comes from a Dutch word meaning “piece”. Yes, folks, I think we’re talking here about a tree that has been taken apart.