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Ep 33-What's A Hobbit Without Flaws?
21 Plays3 months ago
All good things must come to an end, a last stage, if you will. Join us as we discuss the very end of Return of the King, prison abolition, authoritarianism, Sam Gamgee's knowledge of buns, hobbit reproduction, and our feelings here at the end of this stage of our wonderful journey!
Covers Return of the King Book VI, Chapter VIII: The Scouring of the Shire (Part B) and Chapter IX: The Grey Havens
Some reading/watching/listening from our discussion this week-
Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra Podcast (2023-2024)
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America by Sarah Kendzior (2020)
They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent by Sarah Kendzior (2022)
No One Is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition video series by Reina Gossett, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector (2014)
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (2003)
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire by Angela Y. Davis (2005)
They Can't Kill Us All by Apes of The State (2023)
Recommended
Transcript
Challenges with Audiobooks
00:00:00
Speaker
I was going to read this other Anthony Bourdain memoir because I've read two of his memoirs this month, but they were both read by him. And this one was published after his death.
00:00:12
Speaker
And so they have a different voice actor reading his quotes. And then the, ah the ah like underwriter ghostwriter is reading the rest of the book.
00:00:25
Speaker
Mm But I don't like the guy they got to read his quotes. e So I'm kind of struggling with it and we'll see if I decide to stick with it or if I decide to like try and find an ebook version and slowly work my way through the text.
00:00:42
Speaker
I feel like multiple narrators on audiobooks are very hit or miss for me. I have a strong preference for just one narrator. Our book club book this month, which I think will be divisive for discussion, has multiple narrators.
00:00:58
Speaker
It's written by two authors, so both the authors read it. And then also spliced in quotes from... various people reading in their own words, which is a cool concept for a podcast. And these authors do have a podcast, but for an audiobook, I feel like it really doesn't work.
00:01:13
Speaker
Even when I started the pairing and Casey McQuiston does the little introductory food bits for each chapter, it really just takes me out of it. I need one person crafting a consistent audio experience if it is a book.
00:01:27
Speaker
Which, how do you feel about like romances that have multiple perspectives and have different authors reading those chapters? I don't love, but at least each chapter is only one voice. So it's not going back and forth in the same section.
00:01:44
Speaker
Because usually what I find with the multiple POV romance narrators is the woman is usually fine. And then the man is just weird. More often than not, I don't like the man's voice.
00:01:58
Speaker
and But at least each chapter has its own narrator so I can live with that. But if it's just going back and forth unexpectedly, i don't like it being a surprise.
00:02:09
Speaker
That's fair. Yeah. That's what I've been struggling with, with this memoir. Yeah. Maybe I'll seek out the text. i I have a goal of reading more text, more printed textbooks, whether whether that's ebook or physical books this year. You know, I have a lot of issues with text and it takes me a lot longer to get through books, but I do think that for some reads it might be better both for the book and for like my understanding to take it slow know not everything can be read at the pace and depth that we have spent on this trilogy but I do think some things deserve perhaps like close the the closer level of focus that's required for me to get through books like that I think
00:03:04
Speaker
I think the pairing might have been one of my favorite books of last year, in part because I read it as text first. Yeah, I put the text, the physical copy on hold with my library, and I think it's actually ready, so I'll get it on Monday.
00:03:16
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's kind of hard to describe, but some books I feel like really do work better for me in print.
00:03:26
Speaker
I will have to consider that as we go through this year. I do have a like specific number of pages goal in addition to my number of books goal and my specific hours goal on Storygraph.
00:03:39
Speaker
So that like I do have a goal of actually reading physical books for the year. Speaking of physical books. Speaking of physical books and are definitely 100% legal PDF versions of them.
00:03:59
Speaker
Let's ah finish this out, i guess.
Introduction to Lord of the Rings Discussion
00:04:03
Speaker
Hello, everyone.
00:04:20
Speaker
hello everyone And welcome back to what should be the final episode of our coverage of the Lord of the Rings books.
00:04:36
Speaker
Of the the the main plot. Anyway, hi, I'm Rin. I read Lord of the Rings as a kid. It was hugely influential on me and how I interact with the world and my love of fantasy.
00:04:48
Speaker
And so I started sharing that with my best friend, Sam. Hello, I'm Sam. I'm the other one. You should know that at this point. I am fucking chomping at the bit to just get back into the book.
00:05:00
Speaker
Sorry, I know it's been time for the listener. It's been some amount of time for the listener. It's been five minutes for us. So let's get back into it, Sammy. Yes. Okay. Hit it. So Saruman did his evil monologue. Whatever. He's stupid. He's annoying. Frodo doesn't want to kill him.
00:05:16
Speaker
Sam does. This is what Frodo has to say. No, Sam, said Frodo, do not kill him even now, for he has not hurt me. And in any case, I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood.
00:05:28
Speaker
He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He has fallen and his cure is beyond us, but I would still spare him in the hope that he may find it. This was interesting to me. The he was great once, of a noble kind.
00:05:45
Speaker
So was Sauron. They're the same type of creature. And this is interesting, because we know hobbits have a problem with authority. We've established that, that they don't have a lot of respect for authority.
00:05:57
Speaker
But there's still, you know, even though the hobbits are willing and able to rise up, there's still this entrenched... religious or like class structure placed here where, you know, some creatures, however fallen, are still inherently above or better than others.
00:06:19
Speaker
And it's really interesting to see that viewpoint still expressed here, even in the midst of a rebellion against that character's rule. Yeah, and we talked about this with elves and with Legolas recognizing some elf blood in Aragorn and with the Numenoreans being the great men and this idea that some people are just inherently great and worth preserving.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, and it's interesting to have this applied to Sauron when we know that Sauron is also
Frodo's Moral Choices
00:06:53
Speaker
Maiar. Mm-hmm. And while Sauron, you know, served a different Valar and sort of rather than taking on a more physical form, took on, became sort of an embodiment of darkness and evil.
00:07:11
Speaker
It's interesting that I guess this greatness is applied only to when they're standing directly in front of you. Yeah, I wonder if just because it's less abstract, because he is there as a physical body that they can look at, if that just makes it harder to...
00:07:30
Speaker
The other thing that this is making me think of now is the line in the Sorcerer's Stone movie. ah Mr. Ollivander, when Harry goes to get a wand from him, goes, think it is clear we can expect great things from you.
00:07:48
Speaker
After all, he who must not be named did great things. Terrible, yes, but great. What is what is greatness? ah is it Is it, you know, it's clearly not inherent goodness, but it's inherent superiority as applied here?
00:08:11
Speaker
Anyway, that was just an interesting little piece that struck me. Yeah. Yeah. Saruman is like, well, fuck, I owe you a life debt now, which, you know, a lot of fantasy stories is powerful magic.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, he's not thrilled about the pity. He leaves with some words about how Frodo will have neither health nor a long life and saying, this isn't a curse. It's just a fact.
00:08:34
Speaker
So bye. And Frodo tries to spare Wormtongue even after all of that. He offers to have Wormtongue stay behind and stay in the Shire until he's strong enough to go on his own.
00:08:49
Speaker
And Saruman is not having this. He doesn't want anybody getting off easy saying, if I'm going down, fucking Wormtongue's going with me. And he tells them that Wormtongue killed Lotho at his bidding.
00:09:03
Speaker
which is unfortunate. And then they sort of slink off together. i had, so I had a couple of thoughts from this one paragraph. Yes.
00:09:14
Speaker
Which you know, like Frodo tells Wormtongue he can stay. He's not evil. But Saruman is like, ha, you know, he killed Lotho. He's definitely evil. And also insinuates that not only did he kill Lotho, but ate him too.
00:09:30
Speaker
Oh, I missed that. Buried him, I hope, though Worm has been very hungry lately. No, Worm is not really nice. You had better leave him to me.
00:09:41
Speaker
A look of wild hatred came into Wormtongue's red eyes. You told me to You made me do it, he hissed. Saruman laughed. You do what Sharky says always, don't you, Worm? Well, now he says, follow.
00:09:56
Speaker
So, couple of things. The text says Wormtongue has red eyes. And my question was immediately, are his irises red or hass are his eyes just like super fucking bloodshot from all of the abuse that he's been through?
00:10:11
Speaker
And I think that's probably the case because, you know, for all of his flaws and probably some minor magics that he's picked up from his warlock patron, Saruman, he's still human.
00:10:22
Speaker
And it sounds as if, like, he's from Rohan, so he's not even a, you know, greater man like the Numenorean. And humans are, at their core, fragile creatures.
00:10:34
Speaker
you know, he has been shattered by this. I think Saruman had perhaps two goals left. in this ah attempt to denigrate Wormtongue.
00:10:50
Speaker
And they were sort of mutually exclusive, but he was looking to either, you know make the hobbits hate Wormtongue and kill him so that they are disposing of the tool that is no longer of use to Saruman and will only be a hindrance on the road.
00:11:09
Speaker
The second possibility is to try and make the hobbits hate Wormtongue and cast him out for his crimes so that Saruman can continue to wield this little tool because he doesn't do his own dirty work. He needs another set of hands to do most of it.
00:11:24
Speaker
And so he's ensuring that he still has these hands. The other piece from this paragraph that I took away was Wormtongue saying that Saruman made him kill Lotho.
00:11:37
Speaker
so To what extent is Wormtongue operating under his own free will?
Impact of Saruman on the Shire
00:11:41
Speaker
We know that Wormtongue was able to impose his will on Theoden, and we know that that's a power that he inherited from Saruman or was taught by Saruman.
00:11:52
Speaker
And that Saruman's voice still has the power to beguile and charm and cajole. And so to what extent is Wormtongue under Saruman's thumb and subject to his control?
00:12:05
Speaker
Mm hmm. Or is he, you know, simply just following orders, quote unquote, and perfectly willing to enact violence so long as he can throw the blame on somebody else later, just to bring it back to modern authoritarianism?
00:12:21
Speaker
Because again, we're going to be discussing this. If you haven't listened to our previous episode, I would go back and do that. That sort of starts the discussion that we're currently having. Bringing it back to modern authoritarianism, that sort of just following orders defense, you know, you told me to do this, you made me do it, it doesn't fly.
00:12:38
Speaker
right? We have a responsibility to obstruct, deny, and otherwise make life fucking miserable for the state and its agents when they ask us to do harm.
00:12:50
Speaker
And that doesn't have to be like direct harm. It's, you know, sort of Asimov's first law of robotics, you know, do not harm a human or through an action, allow another human to come to harm. So Wormtongue saying, yeah, I did this bad thing, but it was at Saruman's bidding, if we're staring down magic as the culprit here, that's sort of one thing.
00:13:17
Speaker
Was he magically coerced? Versus is he a willing tool of Saruman slash so beaten down that he can't conceive of standing up to him?
00:13:30
Speaker
And so, you know, just follows Saruman's will. Because, you know, then on the one hand, yeah, Saruman is still at fault ultimately.
00:13:41
Speaker
But Wormtongue still has to accept some responsibility for his actions then. Yeah. Yeah. And this ties into thoughts that I had initially thought we would talk about at the end of the last episode, but then I made the artistic choice to cut it off at a different point.
00:13:55
Speaker
But this ties into the various pins that I had been sticking into our discussions about hobbits and authority and authoritarianism. Because in this chapter, we're really seeing another side of hobbits in general, because up until now, any flaws with their culture at large were have been kind of quaint, sort of small town bickering and reputations being harmed by going on adventures and some have more money than others and but it's all sort of fine and chill and there's no real serious consequences for anything that the hobbits do.
00:14:31
Speaker
But now we're seeing how their attitudes are allow them to be taken advantage of and made complicit in evil. And, you know, like Frodo says, Lotho's an asshole, but he on his own would never have intended for things to go this far.
00:14:48
Speaker
And there are the hobbits who stood up to Lotho and ended up getting taken away and imprisoned. And then the hobbits who are left behind, who had to make the choice of, do i openly defy Lotho and Sharky?
00:15:05
Speaker
Or do I try to play along as best I can so that I can stay with my family and in my home? You know, they're being put in this complicated position that, like we talked about last time, they don't really have a recent cultural precedent for. And because they're not used to dealing with really heavy-handed authority figures, they're not used to resisting them or even thinking that it's possible.
00:15:32
Speaker
So like to what degree do we have to hold the hobbits responsible for all of this? To what degree is this just Saruman swooping in and exacting revenge on an easy target? I don't know. I don't have a good answer. But I really like that our perception of hobbits is complicated in this chapter and that they're not one-dimensional.
00:15:55
Speaker
Well, and then you know as we go forward into rebuilding... How will Hobbit society, we don't get this information, but how will Hobbit society treat those who collaborated with the ruffians?
00:16:11
Speaker
How will Hobbit society recover from this? Because, you know, clearly some of the Hobbits want to take a retributive justice pathway. And some are much more focused on restorative justice and the option to make amends without seeking revenge.
00:16:35
Speaker
You know, it's again, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. ah Just another another pin for the very, very, very end of all of this after I'm done crying. Thinking about who's in charge at the end of this story, who's in charge of the Shire, who has risen to that position by the end of this may speak to some of the same Hobbit values of greatness and inherent worth and authority being carried over, but also may speak to some things changing.
00:17:05
Speaker
We'll talk about it later, but that's more neurons connecting in my brain. ah We will. Anyway, after this exchange, Saruman commands Wormtongue to follow him.
00:17:16
Speaker
Also, right having having this exchange, I realized again to connect this back to
Literary Parallels and Influences
00:17:25
Speaker
J.K. Rowling for a moment, I was like, oh, this is just Voldemort and Wormtail.
00:17:30
Speaker
like that This is that exact dynamic. Oh my god, yeah, you're right. And, you know, I will, we we have an episode planned where we talk about the effects of Tolkien on popular culture.
00:17:44
Speaker
And I will absolutely be talking about how much J.K. Rowling directly lifted from Tolkien in that episode. If we are um allowing ourselves to reference that woman and her works, when there was all of like the posted rules everywhere that reminded, was it the fifth book where Ubridge takes over?
00:18:05
Speaker
yes And there's like rules everywhere. That immediately came into my mind. Yeah, we can we can talk about that more length, but yes. Yeah, we've been we've been sort of alluding to those books throughout this series. I think it's i think you know it's worthwhile for us to bring them up.
00:18:23
Speaker
it Because we all grew up with them. And they had a outsized effect on popular culture. And so if we're thinking about Tolkien's effect on popular culture, I think it's sort of disingenuous to ignore them completely.
00:18:39
Speaker
And I think if anyone has gotten to episode 33 of the main content of The Phantom Apprentice, I think our values and our stance are pretty clear.
00:18:51
Speaker
i I'm not really worried about anyone being concerned that we are giving Joanne cultural relevance. i nothing that were I think we're good. I think she deserves to fall into obscurity.
00:19:04
Speaker
Also, like, I'm i'm trans. I don't know, really? I don't know if if that's been obvious from all the times I've said it on the podcast.
00:19:16
Speaker
You may have subtly hinted. Once or twice in episode. Yeah, just do with that one what you will.
00:19:27
Speaker
Anyway, Sauron kicks Wormtongue and Wormtongue snaps and fucking kills him um and then immediately gets shot by three hobbits and killed himself.
00:19:44
Speaker
And then Saruman's spirit kind of like comes out of his body in a gray mist because he's a Maiar and he can't truly die. And like Sauron being reduced to almost nothing, but you can't truly kill the concept of evil or Gandalf dying and being sent back.
00:20:02
Speaker
Like he can't truly die, but his physical form dissolves basically. and his spirit is blown away into nothing visible any anymore.
00:20:14
Speaker
Frodo looked down at the body with pity and horror, for as he looked, it seemed that long years of death were suddenly revealed in it, and it shrank, and the shriveled face became rags of skin upon a hideous skull.
00:20:28
Speaker
Lifting up the skirt of the dirty cloak that sprawled beside it, he covered it over and turned away. It's very Gollum and the Ring, very pity this miserable evil wretch.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, Merry hopes this is the last of the capital W war. And Frodo said that it's sad that it fell at the door of Bag End. I think it was always going to.
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah? Yeah. There was simply no way around this. um In the allegory applicability category, thinking about Tolkien's military service and his experience returning home to an England that was forever changed alongside a bunch of soldiers that were forever changed.
War's Impact on the Shire
00:21:13
Speaker
you know PTSD was not well understood, but the idea of bringing the war home with you was a concept that he would be familiar with. And so I think the fact that the adventure started out from the door on the road, and we get that narrated through the road's poem, I think it was impossible to not end that same journey at the same door on the same road.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you got a point. I think i was holding out the very naive hope that the Shire just wouldn't be touched and that it could somehow be immune from all of this. But obviously that was not going to happen.
00:21:58
Speaker
But that's the that's the naive hope of a first time reader. This is our Frodo-Sam dynamic. Which is Sam... Which one of us is Frodo? Which one of us is Sam? Yeah.
00:22:09
Speaker
You're Sam, obviously. But Sam frequently has a little more hope. And you could say a little more naivete, but he he holds on to the hope that good things will happen.
00:22:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. We saw this in Mordor when sort of he hadn't realized that they weren't making it home. Mm-hmm. And, you know, when he wanted to, when he, you know, saw the visions in the mirror of Galadriel and wanted to flee home, but then didn't and was hoping that those visions would not come to pass.
00:22:48
Speaker
That's, it's just sort of his, one of his central character traits is, is a little more hope than Frodo has. This is the end of the chapter. And I have some thoughts before we go on, but I also wanted to see if you had thoughts.
00:23:02
Speaker
No, I think my main thoughts were just the ones about Hobbit society and sort of tying up those loose ends from before. So by all means. So continuing on with Frodo's, or not Frodo, Tolkien's military history.
00:23:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I have a point for the feels. Tolkien had a group of school friends that we've discussed before, the Tea Club and Barovian Society. There were four major members and five other friends that eventually joined for a total of nine, which just let that one hit for a minute.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yep, it's hitting. Yep. And I think it's really telling that in a world where Tolkien and his friends go off to war and only three of them come back and only two of the original four, including Tolkien, I think it's really telling of his psyche that he writes a story where four friends go off to a war that they don't fully understand and witness horrors beyond their comprehension and still all four of them get to come home.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, not much you can add to that. No.
00:24:06
Speaker
Also, one more piece on timing. They ran into Saruman and Wormtongue in Dunland at the end of August. And we're here in early November, which is not a lot of time for Saruman to cause as many problems as he has.
00:24:18
Speaker
And Lotho had less than a year to fuck everything up. And a piece of this is the fact that Lotho was also being influenced by Saruman. And Saruman had his agents abroad in the land Before the hobbits started out.
Authoritarianism and Community Resistance
00:24:34
Speaker
You know, they encountered them in Bree. So it is you know, not out of the question that, and particularly once the Grey Company, the rangers, left to go south and the Shire was undefended, it's it makes sense that things sort of got out of hand very quickly.
00:24:54
Speaker
A piece of that is... how we can assume that authoritarianism rose in the Shire and how we see it rise in our world. With the Rangers gone and, you know, quote unquote, queer folk on the roads and dangers and the horn call of Buckland going up for the first time in a century, Lotho harnessing people's fear and that sense of the loss of security, that's a very common tactic that authoritarian leaders use to then remove people's freedoms.
00:25:27
Speaker
By claiming it's for the common defense. And that, you know, again, slippery slope, one little change leads to another little change. Until so many hobbits had succumbed to propaganda.
00:25:41
Speaker
We are all of us, not immune to propaganda. We are all of us capable of doing harm and perpetuating harm and committing evil, violent acts.
00:25:55
Speaker
It is incumbent on all of us entering this second Trump era with the rise of authoritarianism and ultra right-wing movements around the world.
00:26:07
Speaker
It is incumbent on all of us to be acutely aware
00:26:14
Speaker
of these tactics and of the necessity of speaking up, the necessity of banding together with your community. ah This chapter is a really important look at the power of community and how easily a community once divided can slip into darkness.
00:26:34
Speaker
you know It takes us all consciously coming together and continuing to do that in the face of danger for us to not fall into that and follow that fall. I was reading a lot of books on this towards the end of last year.
00:26:49
Speaker
i really, really highly recommend Rachel Maddow's Ultra podcast. um I also really highly recommend ah Sarah Kensior's books, particularly Hiding in Plain Sight, the Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America.
00:27:08
Speaker
And they knew how a culture of conspiracy keeps America complacent. They are not easy reads. And you know for those of us that fall more into the leftist side of things, Sarah Kensior Definitely has a more liberal bent at times, but she is a she's journalist and researcher who did her PhD on authoritarianism in post-Soviet Central Asia and and is banned from Uzbekistan for calling to light ah government abuses in Uzbekistan following the fall of the Soviet Union.
00:27:51
Speaker
So, you know, she's been studying authoritarian regimes for her entire career and and brings that to the table in her books. And I i highly recommend those. I'll put the the links or or titles in the show description.
00:28:05
Speaker
Definitely worth the read. um And just, you know, we can't know the horrors that we are that have occurred between when we recorded this, and when this was released. And just to mention, again, we're recording this the day before Trump's inauguration.
00:28:22
Speaker
So, yeah. Yeah, I was just going to say to add to that before we wrap up this section, ah my recommended reading. I remember reading this as an article in college, but now that I'm Googling it, it seems to be a series of videos. So I don't know.
00:28:37
Speaker
But in the last episode, I was talking about my seminar on prison abolition that I was at. And I don't remember if I named it specifically, but No One is Disposable, Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition by Raina Gossett, Dean Spade, and Hope Dechter is a four-part video series basically about prison abolition and the idea that you can't just remove a person from their community without rippling consequences. And I think especially within leftist spaces and the queer community, this is also relevant to some discussions and situations that friends have found themselves in recently.
00:29:16
Speaker
we cannot spend our energy policing each other and alienating each other and picking each other apart. There is a difference between Holding people in your community accountable and holding yourself accountable for your actions and their impact on others.
00:29:31
Speaker
And sowing divisiveness when we need to use that energy to stand up to actual threats. Besides somebody using a slightly outdated version of a term or expressing themselves in a way that you don't like.
00:29:47
Speaker
you know I think that we have to be very aware of how we're treating the people that we're supposed to be in coalitions and communities with because the state, especially the authoritarian state, has a vested interest in us doing their work for them and alienating ourselves and separating ourselves from
Shire's Recovery and Prosperity
00:30:08
Speaker
each other. And that can be difficult and delicate, um but it is very much worth thinking about, especially heading into this season in the U.S. There's a ah song by Apes of the State called They Can't Kill Us All.
00:30:27
Speaker
And one of the... that lyrics and the ending couple of verses is because if we hate cops, we can't act like them. You know, and if you fuck up, I'll still be your friend. We used to be outlaws.
00:30:40
Speaker
What's a human without flaws. We can handle our business without their bullshit. We need all of us to fight all of them. know, their system is dependent on complacency, consumption and unmet needs.
00:30:54
Speaker
They use the police to do their bidding to keep us divided and keep us from seeing that freedom in the streets starts with unity and not needing police starts with you and me. Hell yeah.
00:31:06
Speaker
So I highly recommend that. I highly recommend, um again, some other thoughts on Prison Abolition. um Angela Davis has a lot of books on that. I still have to read ah couple of her stuff on her books on prison abolition.
00:31:19
Speaker
Maybe we can put a reading list in the show notes. Absolutely. I don't even think we've started talking about the Grey Havens yet. No, we haven't, but I don't...
00:31:32
Speaker
her Yeah, just as we as we finish up this chapter, just take care of each other and yourselves. um And let's not have to get to a point where we are scouring the Shire.
00:31:49
Speaker
Work with your communities. Be in your communities when you can be.
00:32:03
Speaker
They can't kill all. Can't kill us all. Anyway, the Grey Havens. Buckle up, kids. Oh, boy. So, i don't even... Let's just go through the plot.
00:32:19
Speaker
Keep it together, Sam. We can do this. So, everybody gets to work clearing up the Shire, freeing the prisoners from the lock holes, including Lobelia, who has a shockingly warm reception. She's never been popular before.
00:32:31
Speaker
We... Popular...
00:32:35
Speaker
She was heartbroken when she found out about Lotho. She gives Bag End back to Frodo so that she can go live with the Bracegirdles. And she dies a year later and surprisingly leaves all of her possessions and Lothos to Frodo.
00:32:49
Speaker
for the aid of hobbits left homeless in the Troubles. So the feud was ended, which is kind of nice. Glad to see some growth from Lobelia. i did see the the line, the feud was ended, and I said in two ways.
00:33:03
Speaker
One, because she did good things at the end of her life, and that ended the bad feelings between Frodo and the Sackville Bagginses. And two, because that's the end of the Sackville Bagginses.
00:33:16
Speaker
This is true. And they set the old mayor free. he is not up to resuming his duties. So Frodo becomes his deputy, which mainly consists of reducing the sheriffs to their proper functions and numbers, which is nice.
00:33:32
Speaker
That was interesting. Yeah, Frodo ends up with some fairly powerful magic at the end of all of this. You think that's magic? Well, yeah, he turned pigs back into hobbits.
00:33:42
Speaker
yeah
00:33:48
Speaker
That was a good one. You're very clever. Merry and Pippin hunt down the last of the ruffians. By the time ewell runs around, they have taken down everything that was built by Sharky and his men, and the bricks from those structures are used to repair the old hobbit holes and make them livable, I thought was really nice.
00:34:07
Speaker
They find the stores of beer and food that had been hidden away. Bag End and Bagshot Row are restored. And speaking of names of cities and names of towns, there's a lot of discussion about what to name the new row that they build.
00:34:23
Speaker
And there's a couple options thrown out, but in sensible Hobbit fashion, they just call it new row, which I like. And also in the grand tradition of hobbits being stone fucking cold, it's also referred to as Sharky's End.
00:34:40
Speaker
And I'm just sort of breezing through all these points because the narrative breezes through them. And we get back into more detailed events with Sam, was very upset about the trees, which...
00:34:51
Speaker
Saruman had commanded they all be cut down because of course he did. We know how he feels about trees. I would love for Treebeard to catch wind of this. See if he has any feelings on the matter.
00:35:04
Speaker
um But Sam is being sad about the trees, understandably. And he remembers Galadriel's gift. And so he plants saplings everywhere. And, you know, if he pays a little special attention to his neighborhood, you know, nobody blames him.
00:35:17
Speaker
And he gives each tree a little grain of the soil from the box And it also turns out that there's a little silver nut in there, which I don't know if we had known previously, but Sam plants it with the last of the soil where the party tree had once been.
00:35:32
Speaker
And it's a mallorn, which I originally thought was maybe one of the white Gondor trees, but that's a different thing. We talked about them before, though. What was it? Yes. The mallorn are the the famous trees of Lothlorien, the silver bark with the golden leaves. Oh, okay.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He also, you know, he buried this, he buried the silver nut in the party field and cast a bunch of the dust over at the three farthing stones. So it went where in the shire it would.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yeah. was very sweet. Apparently 1420, as the year changes in the Shire, was a glorious year. And 1420 becomes shorthand for good beer.
00:36:15
Speaker
and You know, that was a proper 1420 it was, apparently for like a really good drink. But apparently all the children born or begotten that year were strong and had rich golden hair that had before been rare among hobbits.
00:36:34
Speaker
Couple of things that that made me think of. I know I'm like harping in on like singular sentences here. That's fine. Go for it. This is our victory lap for this book. We're, well, the victory lap will be the next episode we do, but it's fine.
00:36:47
Speaker
It's the last stage of our journey. Go for it.
00:36:51
Speaker
Thing one, we haven't had too many descriptions of elf hair, but we have had like blonde or silver mentioned, and they're often portrayed in art with light hair.
00:37:02
Speaker
So my question is, is that not genetics? Is that the result of literally something in the water? What elf magic is making Hobbit kids blonde? Chemicals in the water.
00:37:13
Speaker
Two, ah the story tells us that a lot of kids that year were born. There were a lot of kids born that year, which makes sense. They're basically the boomers of the Shire. um Hobbits happy that the troubles are over and now finally eating properly and just fucking nonstop.
00:37:31
Speaker
I love that for them. Thing three, which relates. The line is born or begotten. um And I was like, wait a minute. It's not the same thing.
00:37:43
Speaker
you know Begotten means, quote, to bring a child into existence by the process of reproduction. So I can understand this as born or conceived that year, which is interesting. At what point in pregnancy does the elf magic of the soil affect the fetus?
00:37:59
Speaker
Because if there were hobbits pregnant with children during the Troubles, but those children were born in 1420 and were still as hale and blonde as those that were conceived in 1420.
00:38:09
Speaker
Also, how long is hobbit gestation? How far does this trend go into 1421? If it's a nine month gestation period, like in humans, nine 10 months, it's Is it like, do you end up having babies in September of 1421 that are still like blonde and super healthy? I have questions.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's all good fucking points. I also was like, wait, born or begotten. Is there a separate he path to existence for hobbits that does not include being born? you know, are they created out of earth or something like a golem?
00:38:45
Speaker
i was thinking about like the Cabbage Patch Kids and that they just kind of sprout up from a garden. Yeah, that too. The line that I had written in my notes was 1420 in the Shire is an incredible year.
00:38:57
Speaker
All the children are beautiful. Harvests are plentiful. No one gets sick. The weed fucking rips and the ale is amazing. Yeah. 1420 plays it. Also, yeah, Tolkien says the yield of, quote, leaf, unquote, was astonishing.
00:39:11
Speaker
And to our modern usage of quotations to describe innuendo or sarcasm or metaphor, it looks as if he's just being like, it's weed, guys. It's weed. Come on, we all know it's weed.
00:39:24
Speaker
But he's using it to refer to like shorthand for pipe. Sam ends up living at the Cottons with Frodo. isn he This is where the polyamorous relationship we'll discuss later is established.
00:39:37
Speaker
Yes. And then goes to live at number three, New Row, with the gaffer, while also traveling around, doing forestry work.
Frodo's Departure and Legacy
00:39:45
Speaker
He misses Frodo being ill in March, and Frodo doesn't tell him about it.
00:39:50
Speaker
Which makes sense, though. It's the one year anniversary of the destruction of the ring. Bag End eventually gets restored and asks Sam to move in with him. Sam is hesitant and Frodo says, like, you don't have to.
00:40:04
Speaker
It's okay. But if you're worried about your dad, he's got a lady friend. He'll be well looked after by Widow Rumble. Oh, I missed that. Good for you, Gaffer Gamgee.
00:40:15
Speaker
get it. Let's go. Rumble. Something's rumbling. All right.
00:40:20
Speaker
But Sam is like, no, it's not that. It's I want to get married to Rosie. um She's getting impatient with me, basically. isn And Frodo's like, ah sweet, get married, move in.
00:40:35
Speaker
Quote, there's room enough in Bag End for as big a family as you could wish for. and There is no non-polyamorous explanation for this. Uh-huh.
00:40:47
Speaker
Uh-huh. And he's just totally chill. He says, but my dear Sam, how easy? Get married as soon as you can and then move in with Rosie. Like, obviously. And well, and they'd previously, all three of them had been living together at the Cotton's.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah, so they had already sort of tried this dynamic out. They've, you know, established whatever works for them. So it's good now they just all get to move into their own place. Yeah, and you know, Sam's got both of his partners there and everything's good.
00:41:15
Speaker
They're not, you know, down the hall from Rosie's parents. They can get as freaky as they want. Exactly. Especially because, as we know, with all of the good food and the good booze and the good ah good cheer, everyone wants to be fucking nonstop.
00:41:33
Speaker
And um while they're doing that, Merry and Pippin live in Crick Hollow. They travel a lot. They impress everyone with how cool and lordly they are. And they're big and strong and magnificent. But they're also just happy and joyful. And everyone really enjoys seeing them thrive. Because despite everything that they've been through and how much they've changed, it's clear that they're still the same Merry and Pippin. And they're just doing well. And people like to see that. and It's nice.
00:42:02
Speaker
Merry and Pippin are kind of constantly wearing their like regalia and their um you know armor and swords and shields. But Frodo and Sam go back to ordinary Hobbit clothes, except for the Lorian cloaks.
00:42:14
Speaker
And Frodo also has the file of Galadriel on always. Frodo's again sick in October at the two-year anniversary of the fight at Weathertop, where he was stabbed and ill again in the March of 1421.
00:42:30
Speaker
But he concealed it because Sam and Rosie's first baby was born in March. Yeah... And they have this lovely little discussion about what to name the child because Sam was like, I wanted to name the baby Frodo if it was a boy, but it's a girl and we weren't planning on that.
00:42:49
Speaker
And Frodo's like, well, tradition is flower names. And I was like, wait a minute. flat Like, how many female Hobbit names do we know? What about Lobelia?
00:43:01
Speaker
Lobelia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Campanils and I. It's a physically variable genus, but they all tend to have flowers with five petals or lobes. ah The other ones that we know are Belladonna took and Primula brandybuck, which Primula is another word for primrose.
00:43:22
Speaker
Well, there you go. There we go. And Sam wants to make sure that if they're going to do that, which she's open to, it needs to be an extremely beautiful name because he thinks his baby is very beautiful.
00:43:35
Speaker
And Frodo suggests that they name her Eleanor after the sun star, which is a little golden flower that grows in La Florian. It's so sweet and so wonderful. And of course they're making this decision as a family about what to name the baby. Of course, Frodo is going to be involved.
00:43:51
Speaker
And it was just really nice. It was really sweet. I'm still annoyed that Rosie was not mentioned until almost the end of this book, but I don't hate her.
00:44:01
Speaker
existence I think that it's very sweet. I just wish that she'd been mentioned earlier. No hating her guts will leave the um anything to do with guts and rearranging them to um so Sam.
00:44:15
Speaker
Yeah. As we approach September, we get to towards Bilbo's birthday where he'll pass the old took and be 131. And Frodo goes, you know, I want to take a little trip.
00:44:28
Speaker
You should talk to Rose about it. um And Sam thinks Frodo's going to Rivendell to see Bilbo. And Sam is like, I would like to go all the way there with you, but I also want to be here.
00:44:41
Speaker
you know, I feel like I'm torn in two. Do you want to read your little quote? Poor Sam, it will feel like that, I'm afraid, said Frodo. But you will be healed. You were meant to be solid and whole, and you will be.
00:44:54
Speaker
And Frodo's like, don't worry, you won't be torn into two minds much longer, which is ominous. he And even more ominously, he turns over all his papers and writings and keys to Sam as if he's not planning on coming back.
00:45:09
Speaker
Also a small note that I don't want to um go too far past is just kind of related to Frodo's state of mind. So Merry and Pippin and Sam too, although he's more humble about it, are really the ones who are being recognized as heroes in the Shire.
00:45:25
Speaker
No one seems to know or care about what Frodo specifically experienced. No one's asking him about it. He's not telling anyone about it. So all of this suffering and angst that he's going through he's going through alone he's not getting any glory he's not really getting anything positive out of this so he's really very adrift and having a lot of existential crisis and suffering that is very contained within his own mind and i think that that's also i don't think that he would have wanted lots of fame and praise and glory
00:46:01
Speaker
But that also kind of just contextualizes his state of mind a little bit as we're going into this emo moment. Frodo also turns over the Red Book, which has some pieces written by Bilbo and then Frodo and then some empty pages. And it says, the title page had many titles on it, crossed out one after another.
00:46:25
Speaker
So... My diary. My unexpected journey. There and back again, and what happened after. Adventures of Five Hobbits. The tale of the Great Ring compiled by Bilbo Baggins from his own observations and the accounts of his friends.
00:46:40
Speaker
What we did in the War of the Ring. Here Bilbo's hand ended, and Frodo had written, The downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the return of the King. as seen by the little people being the memoirs of Bilbo and Frodo of the Shire, supplemented by the accounts of their friends and the learning of the wise, together with extracts from books of lore translated by Bilbo in Rivendell, which is a colossally long title.
00:47:05
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And I'd like to read just a couple of other titles for a moment. Travels into several remote nations of the world in four parts by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon and then a captain of several ships.
00:47:16
Speaker
Or Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The life and strange surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York Mariner, who lived eight and twenty years all alone on an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river of Oronoke, having been cast on shore by shipwreck wherein all the men perished but himself,
00:47:34
Speaker
with an account of how he was, at last, as strangely delivered by pirates, written by himself, by Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. Common sense addressed to the inhabitants of America on the following interesting subjects. One, of the origin and design of government in general, with concise remarks on the English Constitution.
00:47:50
Speaker
Two, of monarchy and hereditary succession. Three, thoughts on the present state of American affairs. Four, that of the present ability of America with some mis miscellaneous reflections by Thomas Paine, common sense, a modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people from being a burden to their parents or country and for making them beneficial to the public, a modest proposal by Jonathan Swift.
00:48:13
Speaker
So this is very 1700s book title. You know, we have shorter version, The Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. But they all have subtitles that are more or less descriptive of what the story includes.
00:48:29
Speaker
And so seeing this very, very long title, or you have a long but shorter title that you can shorten it to. And then your subtitle, which basically is your book jacket description, keeps with Tolkien's sort of display of hobbits that are more or less 17th and 18th century English peasantry.
00:48:52
Speaker
So I thought that was a fun vibe. Yeah. Anyway, Sam is like, you've almost finished the book. And Frodo goes, I am finished. The last pages are for you.
00:49:03
Speaker
This was around the point where Podcast Sam had to take a break writing my notes because I was not ready to look at the end of this book again. and I was texting you about it and crying real... My laptop was closed. I was crying real actual tears just thinking about this part. And we haven't even gotten to the actually sad stuff yet.
00:49:23
Speaker
So this is where ah my emotions just get real, ah real fucky. But I cope with humor. Yeah. On September 21st, which is the day before Frodo and Bilbo's birthday, and therefore almost two years exactly to the day where they set out on the adventure, they set out heading east towards Rivendell.
00:49:49
Speaker
And Sam points out the tree that Frodo hid behind when the Black Rider showed up. And Frodo is singing to himself another verse of Rhodes. Still round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate.
00:50:04
Speaker
And though I have off passed them by, a day will come at last when I shall take the hidden paths that run west of the moon, east of the sun. And as they sing this one, we have an answering song from the elves.
00:50:27
Speaker
we still remember we who dwell in this farland beneath the trees ah starlight on the western seas And Gildor, the elf they met way back in the beginning when they set out, is back with Elrond and Galadriel, who both have elf rings, Vilya and Nenya.
00:50:49
Speaker
And I had to pose the question of why did they not reveal that they had rings before, that they were wielders of rings? Yeah.
00:50:59
Speaker
Didn't we talk about Nenya before? Maybe, but it was Nenya business. Anyway, Bilbo's also there napping on his pony. And then wakes up and basically goes, I'm old, motherfuckers. I did it. am older than the old took.
00:51:16
Speaker
Hell yeah. And now I think I am quite ready to go on another journey. Are you coming? And Frodo says, yes. Sam didn't quite realize that Frodo was leaving.
00:51:31
Speaker
Again, he had hope. He, you know, it's like, I thought you were going to stay and enjoy the Shire. And the unspoken bit here is with me. I thought you were going to stay and enjoy it with me.
00:51:45
Speaker
And Frodo is like, the PTSD is too bad. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger.
00:51:58
Speaker
Someone one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them. But you are my heir. All that I had and might have had, I leave to you. And Frodo prophesies some of ah Sam's kids' names and prophecies that Sam will also be mayor.
00:52:16
Speaker
And the appendixes talk about what happens after. But Frodo prophesies is one, two, three, four, five names past Eleanor for six kids total.
00:52:27
Speaker
Sam and Rosie, in total, have 13 children. Woof, Rosie's a champ. By the names of... Eleanor, Frodo, Rose, Mary, Pippin, Goldilocks, Hamfast, Daisy, Primrose, Bilbo, Ruby, Robin, and Tolman.
00:52:42
Speaker
Goldilocks will marry Faramir Took, Pippin's son. Oh, oh my god. Will Sam name his kids that because of Frodo's prophecy or in spite of Frodo's prophecy? Who knows?
00:52:58
Speaker
Anyway, after the prophecy, he basically says that, like, not not only is Sam his heir to his physical fortune and to Bag End, but he is also heir to the telling of the story.
00:53:15
Speaker
And it's it's mentioned earlier that Sam is kind of upset that Frodo is not getting the recognition that he thinks he deserves. Yeah. and And I think Frodo sort of acknowledges here that it is important for Sam to record and spread the story so that this is not forgotten, that the sacrifices that were made are not forgotten.
00:53:40
Speaker
Anyway, they change directions and ride west to the havens. And I had a line from that that they were filled with a sadness that was yet blessed and without bitterness.
00:53:52
Speaker
which was heartbreaking and sad, but also, especially the without bitterness, I'd be pretty fucking bitter in that situation. So good for them. I'm glad that they're able to be mature about it because that's a big bomb to drop.
00:54:10
Speaker
They're met at the Haydens by Sir Dan the Shipwright. Which I, this whole time, had been thinking of as Sir Dan, like S-I-R Dan, the human name, because I hadn't really seen it written out before this point. I know we talked about Sir Dan the Shipwright, but I think that was something you had brought up.
00:54:28
Speaker
ah But yeah, I was wrong. It's C-I-R-D-A-N, which makes sense. That's an elf name. Yes. With the rest of the legendarium in mind, this is again another instance of being like, oh, fuck, there's a god on our page.
00:54:42
Speaker
This is another like, and then King Arthur was there and suddenly Hercules showed up. It's subito Zeus. He is the oldest elf in Middle Earth and a former wielder of the elf ring Narya, which is currently wielded by Gandalf, who is also there.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's time for Gandalf to enjoy his retirement. Mm hmm. And then Merry and Pippin ride up because Gandalf fucking told them that Frodo was fleeing again. Yeah, they tease Frodo and says that he tried to give them the slip once before and it didn't work.
00:55:18
Speaker
And this time it wasn't Sam who gave him up, but it was Gandalf. Because Gandalf didn't want Sam to have to ride home alone. Yeah. And he says, well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth.
00:55:35
Speaker
Go in peace. I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. And then after that, he kisses each of them and sails off. And we don't see if there are any last words exchanged between Sam and Frodo specifically after that. We just get sort of this...
00:55:54
Speaker
we get We get sort of this, I mean, it the reason i'm I'm making this face is because separately it says, then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all, Sam.
00:56:05
Speaker
And with my brain being the way it is and how we've read this, this separation of Sam implies that it was a different type of kiss than like the forehead or cheek kiss that Frodo gives his cousins.
00:56:17
Speaker
Oh, there needs to be like a full dip. Like this has to be dramatic with like the sunset and the ocean. Like, oh yeah, this is a make out with tongue with boyfriend.
00:56:31
Speaker
Anyway. i was trying to have a serious moment and then you interrupted me. I'm sorry, but I did tell you I was coping with humor. I'm grimacing listeners.
00:56:42
Speaker
I love you. love you too. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that we don't see if there's any words exchanged between salmon and fruit. Fluids exchanged? Sure.
Conclusion and Reflections
00:56:58
Speaker
But I'm trying to serious moment. Yeah, I like listeners. I am fully weeping on the podcast. I guess it's my turn.
00:57:09
Speaker
Ryn's had her turn. Now it's my turn. So it's only fair. But Yeah, like, is there anything you can say in that moment? Like, I kind of want there to be something like, you know, in a movie when it like cuts away and you can't see what two characters are saying to each other. And it makes it that more impactful because it's only for them to know.
00:57:28
Speaker
I kind of want there to have been that. I feel like Sam deserved more in this moment. But also like, i don't know, maybe there's nothing you can say.
00:57:41
Speaker
Big shrug. yeah but traveling to the gray havens is or and and traveling to the uttermost west is a death metaphor it's you know yes it's traveling to a heaven-like realm of eternal peace But it is still, you know, not simply giving them up to travel to another continent in the days when you likely would never see them again. It's giving them up to what amounts to interdimensional travel, to to moving to an afterlife.
00:58:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, i don't I don't know that there is more to say about, like, that that you can exchange between them, but in some ways it is nice that we don't know if there was or wasn't, like you're saying.
00:58:33
Speaker
um There's some description of Frodo when as they sail away, passing through the night through a rainstorm that parts like a curtain of glass, and he beheld white shores and beyond them A far green country under a swift sunrise.
00:58:54
Speaker
But Sam and Merry and Pippin don't see this. They watch until the ship disappears. And then they return to the Shire with Merry and Pippin continuing on into Buckland.
00:59:08
Speaker
And they don't speak until they're in the Shire. and And, you know, I think, what can you say as youre so as as you said? Like... How do you talk about your friend disappearing from the land of the living and not being dead, but gone nonetheless?
00:59:29
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Your friend, your lover, the, not just the end of the quest, but the end of ah fellowship, which I feel like has always had kind of an intense context as a word. Mm-hmm.
00:59:45
Speaker
You know, to be in fellowship with another person is... God damn it, listeners, I'm now crying on the pod. I always think of fellowship as being like a church word because we had our coffee hour was in the fellowship hall. But it has this sort of serious connotation.
01:00:08
Speaker
it's It's got kind of a formality. It does. It does. By the time they make it back to the Shire, Merry and Pippin are back to their old jovial selves and singing. And I do have to wonder, because it's been emphasized, like how much that they are talking and living their lives to the fullest.
01:00:27
Speaker
How much of that is masking pain and memories and shoving that back to try and be happy in the present? Because they experienced some horrors as well.
01:00:39
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's it is a different way of coping than Frodo or Sam's methods, but it is still a method of coping. But Merry and Pippin ride on, continuing to Buckland.
01:00:53
Speaker
But Sam turned to bywater and so came back up the hill as day was ending once more. And he went on and there was yellow light and fire within. And the evening meal was ready.
01:01:04
Speaker
And he was expected. Do you want to finish it out? Yeah. And Rose drew him in and set him in his chair. Fuck.
01:01:14
Speaker
And put little Eleanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. Well, I'm back, he said. And that's the end. Of Return to the King.
01:01:25
Speaker
My one other piece of commentary is that Sam's character in a nutshell. Yeah. He comes back. Always. That concludes our reading of the Lord of the Rings saga and fuck me.
01:01:39
Speaker
um Yeah, our vision logistically because... You know, Mary and Pippin cope with humor. Frodo copes with emo existential crises. We cope with logistics. It's who we are.
01:01:51
Speaker
And also humor. Yeah, that too. Humorous logistics. Anyway, we... are going to take some time to gather ourselves emotionally after this back-to-back recording.
01:02:04
Speaker
Our next episode is going to be a general retrospective on all three of the books, some big questions that we still have, some thematic reflections and musings, and then we are going to move on to some other content. So if you're thinking, but what about all the big questions now that it's done?
01:02:22
Speaker
we'll get to them but i think we're gonna end on this note for the main books yes we are not going anywhere unlike frodo unlike frodo we will stay for now on this side of the sea Somewhere beyond the sea.
01:02:47
Speaker
But thank you so much for listening. And thanks, Bestie. This has been really, really fun. Yeah. I say weeping.
01:02:59
Speaker
But we we started this in the depths of lockdown, having not seen each other in a long time, reading The Hobbit over the phone to each other.
01:03:11
Speaker
Or I read it over the phone to Sam. And finishing that and going, well, I guess we're going to keep going. Yeah. You're on the hook. as After the first couple of pages, I was like, oh, no, no, you don't you don't get to stop doing this. You actually have to continue.
01:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, because it was the last, at the end of The Hobbit, there was like the first chapter, An Unexpected Party. And I read some of that. And Sam was like, I'm sorry, you're stopping?
01:03:41
Speaker
Well, no, because after that, because you had read me all of The Hobbit and my compromise, which I so generously offered without alternatives. So it's really more like an ultimatum, was that I would not make you read me the whole book, but the first and last chapters of all of them, yes.
01:03:59
Speaker
And we chose to record it for all of y'all. And I'm so thrilled that we have people that have enjoyed coming along with us on this journey through all of the last stages.
01:04:15
Speaker
i will not let that go. No, that's add to our imaginary merch shop something with the last stage of the journey. it Print that on booty shorts. Yeah.
01:04:31
Speaker
The start of a new journey, if you're lucky. The last stage of your journey, you enter here. And as we rapidly deteriorate in coherence, I think it's time for our sign off. Thank you all so much.
01:04:46
Speaker
This shit means a lot to us. um And like we said, we're not going anywhere. There will be more episodes, but this is the end of... a big, big part of this project. And I am very proud of us.
01:04:59
Speaker
It's been a real, real special thing. Yeah, this is simply one journey that we plan to take together, and we will be taking many, many more with all of you in tow. And if you'd like to come along on all of our future journeys, ah you can subscribe to our podcast wherever you're listening.
01:05:18
Speaker
If you have enjoyed listening, please leave us a five-star review, ah comment, a written review, whatever the platform you're on allows.
01:05:31
Speaker
You can also follow us on our social media. Whatever ones exist by the time you're listening to this at time of recording. That's Instagram, Blue Sky X Tumblr.
01:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah. There's also email. the There's also email. The fandomapprentice at gmail.com. Did we check that email? When was last time we checked that email?
01:05:57
Speaker
It's on my phone, so I scroll through it occasionally. Okay, good. Because I'm not watching that. No, don't worry. And you can come back in two weeks for our next episode, which Sam talked about.
01:06:10
Speaker
So go back two minutes to hear that. We are very excited to finish out this journey and start on our next ones. And we will see you all, be it in Middle Earth or elsewhere, next time.
01:06:24
Speaker
See you next time. Bye. The Phantom Apprentice is produced and edited by Rin and Sam. Our music was composed and performed by James, and our art is by Casey Turgeon.
01:06:36
Speaker
This podcast is created for non-commercial entertainment purposes.
01:06:45
Speaker
The content discussed is the property of the Tolkien Estate and is used here under fair use.