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Ep 31- The Calm Before The End
20 Plays4 months ago
Another travel episode! Ryn and Sam talk about their book club, immortality, what Legolas and Gimli get up to in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, and compulsory heterosexuality! Join us for the last stage of the journey (again)!
Covers Return of the King Book VI Chapter VI Many Partings and Chapter VII Homeward Bound
Recommended
Transcript
Reflecting on 2024's Challenges
00:00:00
Speaker
Maybe at some point I'll go back and look at your notes from earlier episodes so I can just see what your process is like, because I have never looked at them. But I know that you look at my notes so that you can see what the apprentice is up to.
00:00:15
Speaker
It's good to know, like when you have specific questions, I'm like, oh, good, I can answer those. So we are recording this towards the end of 2024. twenty twenty four Yay. What a year.
00:00:31
Speaker
a wonderful year. um it has been a year. And that is fact. We have not recorded in several weeks due to a combination of horrors, including but not limited to me getting very sick and losing my voice. Which was great fun.
00:00:53
Speaker
But one of my favorite end of the year
End-of-Year Traditions and Reading Achievements
00:00:56
Speaker
traditions is our annual book club reading wrap up. Yes. And we have to give credit, i think, at least partially to Kate for the format that this has taken.
00:01:09
Speaker
yeah In the PowerPoints. But I assume you'll get to that. I just want to make sure that we credit our friend because she has inspired heavily the way that we now do this every year.
00:01:21
Speaker
Well, specifically her and and our other friend, um the will definitely be someday famous author Clarissa Marquez,
00:01:33
Speaker
who they, the two of them have been exchanging these PowerPoints for many years, but then they shared this with us. And so now we all have PowerPoint wrap ups and the form differs slightly from person to person.
00:01:47
Speaker
But I spent six hours the other day working on mine. Because how many books did you read, Bestie? Well, it's not the end of the year yet, but so far, 153.
00:01:59
Speaker
I will give our listeners a moment for stunned silence. That's extremely impressive. i I was like, wow, I'm not going to remember a lot of these. and then i was like, wow, I actually remember way too much of these.
00:02:11
Speaker
And then there's, you know, the mindless like smut that I was reading, which was purposefully meant to not be remembered. hmm. Still counts. My goal this year was 60 and I've read 62 so far.
00:02:25
Speaker
I have two books checked out, including The Lotus Empire, which I really, really want to read. But the seasonal depression has me in a chokehold. So I don't know if I'm going to get to it.
00:02:36
Speaker
I have Love Letters to a Serial Killer checked out. And then I have to read our book club book for the month. So theoretically, three books in December, maybe. But we'll see. But I still read 62, so I exceeded my goal.
00:02:50
Speaker
And I think this is the most I've read in any year ever. So that's a win for me. I am extremely happy with the amount that I read this year.
00:03:01
Speaker
And I think my PowerPoint turned out very cute. It's very solid, yeah. I've got a couple more things to add to my PowerPoint, and I'm waiting until like the last week of the year to do like my stats and the author breakdowns and... like I did my month-by-month breakdown.
00:03:18
Speaker
First of all, i just want to say that the the title of the PowerPoint is It All Comes Back to Beowulf, subtitled An Examination Rin's Obsession with Fantasy and Also Smut, which has nothing to do with Beowulf.
00:03:34
Speaker
And I do reference the podcast in slide two. ah Amazing. I don't reference mine until the
Managing Time and Returning to Recording
00:03:40
Speaker
end. So... but lets Slide two reads the Phantom Apprentice rules of fantasy rule number four. It all comes back to Beowulf.
00:03:47
Speaker
Very true. Very true. And I just have some fun little highlights of like my I i review each individual book that I read. And so for one of them that I had in January, had two back to back very bad books that I read.
00:04:03
Speaker
was question. Are straight people? Okay. Two stars. Answer. 2.75 stars.
00:04:12
Speaker
i I tend to not review every single book that I read, not just for the end of year wrap up, but just in general on my story graph. I don't always give them a rating because I don't feel like it.
00:04:24
Speaker
But my format is I'll have each month has a slide and then it'll have the cover art from each book with no other text. And then i do my this year I added my DNFs because I actually tracked my DNFs this year and I had a couple just real stinkers that I wanted to make fun of so those I did break down individually why I didn't like them and then was my top 10 for the year with why I did like them and then for Beowulf the mere wife and the two towers i just wrote listen to our podcast we're funny with a link to our Spotify so mine is a lot more concise
00:05:03
Speaker
Currently, mine stands at 40 slides. Amazing. Just for the listeners, the the six hours that I spent on this would have been much better spent on my ah grad school applications that are due this weekend.
00:05:20
Speaker
You know, you have one wild and precious life. Why not spend it making fun PowerPoints? Yeah, so it does mean tomorrow night I'm going to need to like buckle down and just sit with that.
00:05:32
Speaker
I probably should have done it today, but that's fine. We're fine. Like we said, it's been a minute since we recorded. So if we're a little rougher around the edges, please forgive us.
00:05:45
Speaker
Yeah, we're we're doing our goddamn best. But these are some fairly chill chapters, all things considered. So it should be a gentle re-entry into
Podcast Introduction and 'Lord of the Rings' Connection
00:05:55
Speaker
the story.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, i am going to bring a specific energy, though. That's all right. That's fine. It's also pouring rain here, like high winds, pouring rain, and rain pounding against the windows.
00:06:07
Speaker
So if you hear any of that, enjoy the ambiance. Yeah, it's just vibe. Same here. So we'll see how much comes through. So do we want to get into today's journey?
00:06:21
Speaker
The last stage of the journey? Of their journey? Yes. Yeah, let's do it.
Discussing 'Return of the King' Chapters 6 & 7
00:06:45
Speaker
welcome back to our latest episode of the pho apprentice My name is Rin. I'm one of your hosts. I read Lord of the Rings as a kid, and it was deeply formative to my love of fantasy, the way that I run D&D games, the rest of my life in general.
00:07:06
Speaker
And so on this podcast, I am sharing it with my lovely co-host, Sam. Hello, I'm Sam. I'm the other one. I did not grow up with Lord of the Rings. So now we are giving this as a gift to my inner child and my present adult self.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, we are definitely putting an adult spin on these books. Yeah. But we are almost all the way through the books. we're We're getting there. Yeah, I've said this many times before, but I don't want them to be over. But, you know, we have this and then how many more episodes worth of chapters do we have?
00:07:42
Speaker
One, two? One to two, depending on how in-depth we feel like going on the next two chapters. Damn. Mm-hmm. Today, we're covering Chapter 6, Many Partings, and Chapter 7, Homeward Bound, of Return of the King, Book 6, which is the final book of The Lord of the Rings.
00:08:08
Speaker
My first note for Many Partings was, I'm already sad. no one should part. Everyone stay right here. i i don't want our group to break up. And I know that they all have their own things they need to do. They all have their own individual lives, whatever. But this contrasted against many meetings earlier. It's just it already from the title already had me.
00:08:28
Speaker
Tolkien's very good at those complimentary titles. So he had like in The Hobbit, the first chapter is an unexpected party. And Lord of the Rings, the first chapter is a long expected party.
00:08:40
Speaker
There's one or two other chapters, I think, within the book too, where or there's the black gate is closed and the black gate opens. h Just ways of mirroring parts of the journey.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, and there's a lot of mirroring in just the narrative of these parts as well, because we're doing the journey in reverse as we go back to the Shire and then re-encountering some people that we met along
Arwen's Sacrifice and Bilbo's Absence
00:09:04
Speaker
the way. But we'll get there one thing at a time.
00:09:07
Speaker
So Frodo starts the chapter by going to see Arwen and Aragorn. And as a reminder, they got married at the end of last chapter. Yeah, they did. And it was really cute.
00:09:18
Speaker
So Aragorn is now King Elessar I, Gondor, and the realm of Arnor. And Arwen is Queen Arwen Evenstar. And it notes that Arwen is singing of Valinor, which just sets this tone being really, really sad out the gate.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah. Because that's where she can never go. And she confesses that she'll never be able to travel there ah few chapters or a few paragraphs from now.
00:09:49
Speaker
But then it's also contrasted against the little bit of hope because it's, you know, the future that she has given up, but now the future that she's chosen. Because if we remember the little tree sapling that Aragorn very, very gently scooped up and brought home, they're sitting in front of that sapling and it's growing and they're literally and figuratively growing and building their new life together. So it's very poetic. It really worked.
00:10:14
Speaker
It is. it is. But also, you know, you got to think there's she's made this choice for the man that she loves. And also, I'm sure there's there's sadness um about her family leaving like.
00:10:32
Speaker
My family lives outside of the U.S. um We're dual citizens. And and when my when my parents moved across to has an ocean, there was sadness and apprehension. And I can go visit them whenever I have the vacation time and spare income. Mm-hmm.
00:10:47
Speaker
You know, yeah you're you're married if your entire blood family was moving to a settlement on Alpha Centauri, you know, but you and Froggy were staying here like that. You'd feel some sadness, but also a little bit of hope. It's it's ah it's a weird bit of conflict, conflicting feelings.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, because, you know, sometimes things that are the right choice can still be sad and can still be
Frodo's Gift and Journey Reflections
00:11:15
Speaker
complicated. And it doesn't mean they're not the right choice, but you are allowed to hold those things simultaneously.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah. Frodo tells Aragorn and Arwen that he's sad that Bilbo didn't come down with the rest of Elrond's household for the wedding. And Arwen's response is kind of like, he's old and destroying the ring basically put him in hospice.
00:11:39
Speaker
That's interesting. I didn't interpret what she said that way. But now that you've said it, that makes sense. Because what she said. It was her trying to sort of gently be like, you know, you did the right thing, but that right thing was keeping him alive.
00:11:55
Speaker
Mm hmm. Because specifically what she says is she's sort of gently leading him to think about, you know, how destroying the ring might affect Bilbo. And she says that he is ancient in years now, according to his kind, and he awaits you for he will not again make any long journey save one.
00:12:14
Speaker
So that i didn't fully make the connection between that and him not coming to the wedding when I first read it. But yeah, he just doesn't have the strength to do that much traveling anymore.
00:12:26
Speaker
That phrasing irked me a little bit. it It felt really cold, like very much the immortal being that has lived for multiple millennia. Being like, your lives are so short and of little consequence.
00:12:40
Speaker
Oh, really I didn't interpret it that way at all. I thought that she was trying to be diplomatic. Yeah, I don't think it was like rude necessarily, but it struck me as a little bit cold.
00:12:55
Speaker
Even when immortals are trying to relate and be kind, there's still a level of disconnect from those people who fear death.
00:13:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think ah we might just have to settle on having different reads on that one because I just accepted that as sure, she's immortal. This is just how she talks. But I think the ancient in years now, according to his kind, that's acknowledgement that she is coming from a different place, a different frame of reference for what constitutes a long time. But she's not invalidating that he's old or seeming to not care about it. But but it's open to being read many ways.
00:13:36
Speaker
I did sort of see like when she was talking about her, her choice of mortality was a little, when compared with her statement previously about Bilbo's old age and references to the mortality of hobbits, it was a little like, I have lowered myself to your level because the sword that has been forged anew is um really damn good. Yeah.
00:14:05
Speaker
Listen, there are some swords that have always been working just fine.
Ceremonies at Edoras and Fellowship Partings
00:14:09
Speaker
And i am sure that she can vouch for that. But yeah, speaking of, Aragorn says that he will go with Frodo and the others all the way back to Rohan because he's going to escort Theoden's body.
00:14:25
Speaker
And he wants to give them all the gifts they could want, but in classic Hobbit fashion, they don't want a bunch of gifts. And Arwen says that she will give them a gift because she is not going to the Grey Havens.
00:14:40
Speaker
Quote, for mine is the choice of Luthien, unquote. Did we know that Luthien had given up immortality? Is that something we talked about before or had it just been so long that I forgot?
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a big piece of the story that by falling in love with a mortal, she chose to give up her immortality for him. And so Arwen is a half elf. She's of the line of Beren and Luthien.
00:15:09
Speaker
And when we sit when we say half elf in Lord of the Rings, that doesn't mean that like they have one parent who is elf and el one parent who's a human. Because as we know, her mother was also an elf. Her mother was Galadriel and Celeborn's daughter.
00:15:27
Speaker
But Elrond is considered half-elf because his parents were of the line of Beren and Luthien. And his parents were considered half-elves, again, because they had, quote, half-elven parents.
00:15:42
Speaker
And only then do we get to Beren and Luthien. So it's like the trait of half elvenness is passed down generations and each successive generation can make the choice to either live as a mortal among humans or to live as an immortal among elves in Valinor.
00:16:03
Speaker
And she ah somehow has the ability to give Frodo the ability to go to Valinor because she's saying when you get old, if you want, you can go there.
00:16:18
Speaker
And how the fuck does that work? How is she able to wave her magic wand and say, okay, Frodo, you can go. We'll just do a little tradesies. That seems impossible.
00:16:30
Speaker
You'll see. Okay. She also gives him a shiny necklace. So that's great. hmm. Also, Aragorn is like, we're not going to go for a week yet. We'll we'll get going. Frodo's like, I gotta go. I gotta go see my uncle.
00:16:46
Speaker
And Aragorn's like, well, we'll get there. yeah Calm down. And I feel like now urgency has become a foreign concept now that the war is not there. Because just as a as ah time check, this chapter spans like six months.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah. This chapter spans longer than the entire rest of the series. Oh, shit. When you put it like that, that's a lot. It's because they set out from Bag End on September 21st.
Friendship and Transformation in Middle-Earth
00:17:23
Speaker
Then they made it to Rivendell and they left Rivendell on December 25th. The ring was destroyed on March 25th of the following year. Supposedly.
00:17:34
Speaker
because that's the new Gondorian New Year. Yes. Yeah. And so by by the end of this chapter, we've reached September again.
00:17:48
Speaker
So from March 25th, when they destroy the ring, to September again is another six months. Damn. Yeah.
00:17:59
Speaker
And then it's not until mid-October, late October, that they finally make it back to the Shire at the end of these two chapters. So they've been gone for a year and a month, which is not that much time.
00:18:13
Speaker
And also is a lot of time. We'll see that things have changed, and we'll go through that, obviously, not to get ahead of ourselves. And also, partially in Aragorn's defense, he is waiting for Eomer to come back.
00:18:25
Speaker
This is true. Go with Thaden's body. So that and then, you know, giving him a few days to rest and then set out and prepare the body. That's a reasonable time frame. I think it's just it's just interesting.
00:18:39
Speaker
This this change of amounts of time that we're seeing is I'll note it a couple of times more when they mention it later in the chapter. I have had a few other points that stood out to me.
00:18:51
Speaker
And speaking of Amr, he comes back and he immediately challenges Gimli to throw down about Galadriel. He tells him to go, no, I think he asks him if he has his axe and Gimli goes, no, but I can get it. Why?
00:19:09
Speaker
and then he says, there are certain rash words concerning the lady in the golden wood that lie still between us. And now I have seen her with my eyes. Yeah. And so they have this really funny back and forth where Aemir basically says, okay, so I saw Galadriel and I don't think she's the fairest lady that lives. And Ghibli goes, what?
00:19:28
Speaker
And then Aemir goes, it's because Arwen is the most beautiful lady that lives. And Ghibli goes, fine, I respect that. He says, nay, you are excused for my part, Lord, he said. You have chosen the evening, but my love is given to the morning and my heart forbodes that soon it will pass away for forever.
00:19:46
Speaker
And so it gets kind of sad there towards the end, thinking about the elves going to Valinor. But there's the there's the mutual understanding that they have each chosen their hot elf lady to be loyal to.
00:20:00
Speaker
it's just so fucking funny. See, it's it's doubly funny to me because Arwen is Galadriel's granddaughter, so you have to imagine there's probably some family resemblance there. And Gimli is a MILFs-only kind of guy.
00:20:15
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. So, you know, Aemir's like, well, obviously, i only go for young women of 2,000 years. Robbing the cradle there, Aemir.
00:20:28
Speaker
I know. The other thing that came in on Aemur's entrance was a note that he arrived with an Aeorid of the Fairest Knights of the Mark.
00:20:39
Speaker
And I want to know how you get chosen as a Fairest Knight of the Mark. It's like everyone's standing at attention and someone's going down the line. Like who decides who's hot enough to ride with the king? Like, all right, you. And are they standing at Not you. Definitely not you. Yeah.
00:20:57
Speaker
You could have been fine, but then you had to go and do your makeup like that. That scene in The Emperor's New Groove where he goes, I'm sure you have a great personality. Exactly. Yes.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah. it's that It's that or it's like a RuPaul's Drag Race competition for them to do. end up in the king's arid and then there's a comment in one of the other lines that like they're they're feasting and says aemir beholds all the pretty ladies and is filled with wonder it's like are the are the hot men that you're surrounded by constantly not enough for you clearly i forget that people are straight so like well he could be have you not been filled with wonder looking at beautiful ladies
00:21:41
Speaker
Well, yeah, obviously. feeling wonder right now and we're on a little video call. So, like, you know, it doesn't take much.
00:21:50
Speaker
It's true. No.
00:21:53
Speaker
girl no
00:21:56
Speaker
Anyway, so, yeah. They all, so after the resolving of the differences,
Rivendell Reflections and Legacy Themes
00:22:05
Speaker
they all ride north and they have the one line that Legolas and Gimli, as ever, rode together upon Arad.
00:22:13
Speaker
And my brain went, what kind of rod are they riding together? What Gondorian soldier did they rope in as a third here? i mean, good for them, honestly. am shocked that I missed that. I just noted that they do specify who's on what pony and all the details of everyone's pretty ponies.
00:22:32
Speaker
And that Legolas and Gimli are, of course, on the same horse. But yeah, somehow, Herod. Damn, that went right over my head. Yeah. And I noticed, too, one of the pieces that makes this chapter stand out is the way everyone has gotten much more formal with each other again.
00:22:51
Speaker
Oh, interesting. I didn't pick up on that. In their language, in their bearing, in the way that they comport themselves. Now everyone is... is Standing on ceremony again.
00:23:04
Speaker
They're you know referring to each other as King Elessar and as Lord and riding in positions of honor as if they didn't all shit in the same hole in the dirt while hiking through the backcountry.
00:23:20
Speaker
isn't it's it's it stands out. Yeah, and think that's a good point. They ride up to the forest of Druidane, and Aragorn's stewards call out that the forest belongs to Ganborigan and his folk forevermore, and no one may enter without their leave.
00:23:40
Speaker
And it says they can hear the drums in the forest, but no one is visible. And it says at the at that proclamation, the drums rolled loudly and were silent.
00:23:52
Speaker
Which to me was very much an acknowledgement of, like... Cool. Thanks. It already was ours. Yeah. We'll help you in your war that ultimately would have come to our destruction as well.
00:24:04
Speaker
But we don't bow to you. We're not yours. Yeah. this proclamation does not really affect us, but thanks, I guess. Yeah, we'll take the official acknowledgement. ah Fuck off and leave us alone.
00:24:16
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Another piece of time. It notes that it takes them 15 days of journey to reach Edoras.
Journeys' End and New Beginnings
00:24:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Shadowfax recently did that in four.
00:24:27
Speaker
Oh, shit. Yeah. And Theoden and the Riders of Rohan did it in a week. Like, I'm glad they're taking their time now, but again, there's no sense of urgency. Mm-hmm. And they get back to Edoras and they bury Theoden in his own burial mound and the riders ride around and sing songs about him and how great he was and my Beowulf senses for tingling. Oh, yeah. Because it all comes back to Beowulf, of course. And I noticed something.
00:24:56
Speaker
So all of the other riders are off doing their morning rituals as they want to do. And Mary is standing at the foot of the mound and weeping. And it's not mentioning any of the other riders doing that, just him.
00:25:13
Speaker
And then there's a paragraph break. And it talks about when the burial was over and the weeping of the women was stilled. So the weeping is also clearly gendered among the Rohirrim. And clearly the men are supposed to be riding and singing and doing this ritual. And the women are supposed to stand there and weep.
00:25:36
Speaker
And I don't know if I have much more to say about that, but it's just hobbits not fitting neatly into gendered social roles. And I liked it and I noticed it. I like that one too.
00:25:47
Speaker
So your Beowulf senses were not just tingling here though. Because i would like to read a line from here. Then the riders of the king's house upon white horses rode around the barrow and sang together a song of Theoden Thengel's son that Glewine his minstrel made and he made no other song after.
00:26:08
Speaker
And invoking rule number four, twelve thanes, battle-tested sons of worthy men, took themselves to horseback and coursed around the tomb, weeping, ringing the old songs from their tongues, dirge chanting, telling the legend of Beowulf, their king.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's the same fucking thing. it's It's exactly the same thing. And ah I didn't bother writing down all of the passages, but there's passages in the description of Theoden's burial where they talk about Theoden specifically being buried with his arms and with treasures.
00:26:42
Speaker
and it's exactly And then there's exactly the same, like almost shot for shot in Beowulf. The only difference is Beowulf is cremated before he goes into the tomb. I also noticed that, you know, after the burial, they have a huge feast and Eowyn is there and she's got her cup.
00:26:59
Speaker
And that reminds me of what's her face, the queen from Beowulf doing the exact same thing. The name is not coming to me, which is very sad for a Beowulf enthusiast, but forgive us, audience.
00:27:12
Speaker
But so they're having this big feast. Eomer announces Eowyn and Faramir's engagement, which is really sweet. And Aragorn says that no one can accuse Eomer of being stingy because he's giving away the fairest thing in his realm to Gondor.
00:27:27
Speaker
And he and Eowyn have this really, really cute little exchange where she does a cute little like, wish me luck. But specifically what she says is wish me joy.
00:27:38
Speaker
And he answered, I have wished thee joy ever since I first saw thee. It heals my heart to see thee now in bliss. really it was just so sweet. And it was a nice little conclusion to their whole weird one-sided flirtation slash power games dynamic. you know she's For all the things that I have to say about her and Faramir that I said last time, I am glad that she's happy. And I'm glad that she and Aragorn got to have that little moment. I really liked it.
00:28:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm. That was another piece of the formality level being amped up one, I felt like. Not that Eowyn and Aragorn have ever interacted outside of this weirdly stilted formality, in part because they're both royalty.
00:28:32
Speaker
And so they are interacting with each other as royalty. But for Aragorn to suddenly be throwing around the Vs... That was a shift.
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah. And it still kind of maintains some elements of the dynamic that they've always had. Because despite how formal they're being in this being a very public setting, there's a little bit of cheekiness in her wish me joy. She's acknowledging their whole weird dynamic that they've had up to this point.
00:29:04
Speaker
And he is still very firmly... Holding the line of boundaries and saying, yeah, you have come to the conclusion of acknowledging that I have never been into you. And so, yeah, good for you.
00:29:21
Speaker
Still into you. ah should be So he's participating in this little back and forth with her, but you know he's not quite at her level of cheekiness because he's not going to be that overly familiar with her. But there are still layers and subtleties that can be communicated despite the formality, which I think is fun. The only cheeks that Aragorn will be involved with there are Arwen's.
00:29:50
Speaker
No notes. Anyways. I guess I'll just delete the rest of the show notes then I guess. No, we need those. After the feast, Elrond and Arwen go to have a private farewell of some sort.
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah. So Elrond was also there. When did he join this situation? So this is everyone that came down for the wedding because Elrond and Galadriel and Celebrorn are there and Gandalf. They were all there for the wedding.
00:30:19
Speaker
And now everyone collectively is going up back north. And here is where Aragorn and Arwen and their party. Well, Aragorn continues on for a little while longer with the party, but not much.
00:30:35
Speaker
And i think this is this is where Arwen is turning back to Minas Tirith. Okay, because there were all of these references to Elrond and Gladriel and Caliborn. And I was just thinking, where did all these people come from? Why are they here? And that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
00:30:52
Speaker
It was very like right before the last mission in a video game where like all of your allies are standing around in the in the like staging room and you can you can talk to all of them one last time.
00:31:05
Speaker
or like for me when I play games, when I know it's about to be the last mission, I'll fast travel my way around the world to all the fun spots and like talk to all the characters I love, even if they'll just give me the same, you know, I am sworn to carry your burdens ah that they always do.
00:31:24
Speaker
um But it's it feels like a victory tour. Yeah. Particularly in like games like Mass Effect where like, oh, Shepard doesn't walk away from this.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yikes. As opposed to Skyrim where you can defeat the dragon and then continue living your life forevermore. Taking on kill the bandit quests. Anyway.
00:31:53
Speaker
But bringing it back, yeah, Arwen goes and has her farewell with Elrond. And the quote that I wrote down about that was, And bitter was their parting that should endure beyond the ends of the world.
00:32:04
Speaker
And ah specifically that word bitter i wanted to explore. Does it just mean that it was sad? Did they feel some resentment towards each other? This is obviously like we were talking about a very complex decision.
00:32:21
Speaker
But I wondered if you had an interpretation of that line specifically. No, I was more focused on the, you know, that should have endured beyond the ends of the world. Mm-hmm.
00:32:31
Speaker
And I think that's what makes it bitter. That's the return to the bitter modifier. Because the assumption at her birth was that she would live forever. Mm-hmm.
00:32:47
Speaker
That she and her whole family would go to Valinor and live in happiness for eternity. And she's now chosen otherwise.
00:33:01
Speaker
And... Elrond helped raise Aragorn. And so, Aragorn's somewhere in his eighty s So Elrond's probably known for about 80 years, roughly, that like, this was coming.
00:33:18
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that you can then let go of the 2000 years that you assumed you'd have to spend with your daughter in yeah perfect happiness yeah and knowing that you will never see her again it's not like you're sending her off to college or like we talked about earlier moving to a different country it's you're going to basically another dimension yeah you are you are taking a one-way settlement trip to alpha centauri yeah yeah that's gonna be fucking rough you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemists but that's just peanuts compared to alpha centauri
00:33:59
Speaker
We can do Hitchhiker's Guide bonus episode. That'll be fun. I reread those books last year and that was a good time.
00:34:09
Speaker
They taper off in quality towards the end, but. Oh, they very much do. like can We can discuss the first one. But. Just the first one. Yeah. So they have their goodbye and then Eomer and Eowyn approach Merry and they see him off specifically and they complain that he is refusing to accept any gifts and insist that he at least take this sweet ancient horn, which is an heirloom of their house from the time of Errol the Young. So very, very important cultural artifact.
00:34:45
Speaker
And then it says, then Mary took the horn for it could not be refused. And he kissed Eowyn's hand and they embraced him. And so they parted for that time. And I just like that they hugged, which and specifically the phrase they embrace him.
00:34:59
Speaker
I'm picturing a group hug. I'm going to choose to believe that's what happened. And they both probably had to bend down because he's so short. And I just thought that was a nice, sweet moment. And I have this written in my notes later on.
00:35:12
Speaker
But I like in these chapters that we're seeing. side characters spend time with the members of the fellowship that they were connected to so it's not just the whole party awkwardly standing around while mary has his special moment he gets to have his special moment by himself yeah and i think that it's a really satisfying way to wrap up these relationships that they've all formed individually Another quick ah invocation of rule number four.
00:35:43
Speaker
The heirloom horn was stolen from a dragon horde. Oh my god. I miss that. ah From Scatha the Worm. Yes. And they split ways. Arwen and Aragorn go back south and the rest of the party continues on to Helm's Deep.
00:36:01
Speaker
And Legolas and Gimli go fuck in the glittering caves and Legolas loses the power of speech afterwards. Yes! Amazing! I was so happy! i wrote an all caps, Legolas and Gimli go on their trip!
00:36:14
Speaker
They go to the Glittering Caves! Fucking finally! Then Legolas repaid his promise to Gimli and went with him to the Glittering Caves, and when they returned, he was silent and would say only that Gimli alone could find fit words to speak of them.
00:36:27
Speaker
And never before has a dwarf claimed victory over an elf in a contest of words, said he. Now, therefore let us go to Fangorn and set the score right. Because we know they love to keep score. But...
00:36:38
Speaker
It was just nice. And I'm glad they got to go on their romantic little trip. I'm sure it was nice. My brain is filled with all sorts of filthy thoughts about about this. I mean, there's lots of, lots of caves were explored, I'm sure.
00:36:52
Speaker
very Very vibes of Legolas got topped for the first time and is now having an existential crisis about it because he also got topped for the first time while looking at the most beautiful sight he's ever seen.
00:37:05
Speaker
Want high five, Gimli. That's great. I was just focused on the happiness after all of this misery. i was i was very focused on the happiness, but I'd also written the line, Gimli's a MILF guy earlier, and that was the energy that followed.
00:37:24
Speaker
That's fair. And that's what our listeners are here for. So I'm glad you're bringing that to the table. And now we go to Isengard. Though Isengard be ringed and barred with Not doors of stone anymore.
00:37:39
Speaker
Orchards full of trees. Yeah, after all of the discussion when we first went there about how there was no living thing, now it's beautiful and Treebeard is there and they've renamed Isengard to the Treegarth of Orthanc. Do we know what Treegarth means?
00:37:59
Speaker
I looked it up and the only references I could find were to the Treegarth of Orthanc. So I assume it just means placed with a lot of trees. Probably. Well done, Professor. Gandalf asks Treebeard about Saruman and how he's doing.
00:38:13
Speaker
And honestly, I forgot that he was still alive and up there. I knew that he was alive, you know, on some level, but I had completely forgotten about him. He was just totally irrelevant in my mind.
00:38:27
Speaker
And the explanation that Treebeard gives about Saruman's current state is basically that he bored Saruman into submission until he just lost all of his will to fight and then just let him go because a snake without fangs may crawl where he will.
00:38:48
Speaker
And that was certainly a choice. Well, he also says that he doesn't like to see anything caged. So he said prison abolition now. Which is fair. We love to see it.
00:39:01
Speaker
Yes. He also reveals to Gandalf that the Ents stopped an army of orcs coming out of the mountains to the north and just slaughtered them all. Because of course they did.
00:39:12
Speaker
Because of course, because they're the wrath of nature. isn it They are peaceful and tranquil when you're talking to them. And then if you piss them off, you are so fucked.
00:39:27
Speaker
Aragorn gives the entire valley to the Ents to rule and only asks that nobody enter Orthanc without his permission. And similar to the Wild Men is they were kind of already...
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah, the ants don't really need keys. and quick beam apparently was hanging on to the keys to orhan which he just gives to ericors is ok here you go yeah the ants don't really need keys I think they've proven that.
00:39:57
Speaker
And Legolas pesters Gimli to come with him deep into Fangorn, deep in somewhere, ah now that they have permission to that. And it's at this point that the Fellowship officially goes their separate ways.
00:40:10
Speaker
Yes, Aragorn has the line, here then at last comes the ending of the Fellowship of the Ring. And I had to stop for a minute just sit at that line. Yeah, it was, it's emotional.
00:40:25
Speaker
It's for for these characters that we've sat with for now, over a year of our real life time. Now going their separate ways.
00:40:38
Speaker
And I don't remember if it was here if it was at a different point. Somebody says something about them probably not all gathering together ever again. That this is the last time they're all going to be in one place. And that sucks.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah. Gimli specifically, because he and Legolas are going to go off to Fangorn to go fuck in the woods. Says, well, farewell, my hobbits.
00:41:04
Speaker
You should come safe to your own homes now, and I shall not be kept awake for fear of your peril. We will send word when we may, and some of us may yet meet at times, but I fear we shall not all be gathered together ever again.
00:41:16
Speaker
That's, that's something, especially then when you follow that with treebeard's farewell to Celeborn and Galadriel. He says, they won't meet again, for the world is changing.
00:41:28
Speaker
I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again. And I had forgotten that this line was in the books because it's in the movies by a different character in a very different place.
00:41:45
Speaker
I am eager to see what that will be. So it was like, oh, wait, this actually gets said.
00:41:53
Speaker
Merry and Pippin have another drink with Treebeard. Yeah, and he remarks that they've already gotten taller, which is cute. And Aragorn finally turns back as they head towards the Gap of Rohan. And they continue on until they come across...
00:42:08
Speaker
Well, before they come across the person that they come across, there is a little moment where Aragorn leaves and he reminds Pippin that he is still a Knight of Gondor and not technically released from his service. He's saying, you're on leave.
00:42:24
Speaker
I'm giving you permission to take a break, but I may yet call on you. So keep your head on a swivel, which I just thought was very funny. I don't think that he has any actual intention of ever making Pippin come fight.
00:42:36
Speaker
But i that was some more formality with a layer of humor that I enjoyed. But they... you go? Yeah, i just I just saw this other little piece of... We talked several times throughout the series about you know when the light hits Aragorn just right, he looks all kingly.
00:42:56
Speaker
And now he's constantly kingly. But there's a line here as Aragorn is leaving. With that they parted, and it was then the time of sunset, and that when after a while they turned and looked back, they saw the king of the west sitting upon his horse with his knights about him, and the falling sun shone upon them and made all their harness to gleam like red gold, and the white mantle of Aragorn was turned to a flame.
00:43:20
Speaker
Then Aragorn took the green stone and held it up, and there came a green fire from his hand. Like, just level of power just steps up a little bit.
00:43:30
Speaker
Yeah. Just making making sure we know, oh, yeah, he's he's still top dog. Oh, yeah. And then. But then they ride on and oh, shit, it's Saruman. He's just there. hair And then at the beginning of this encounter, I had a question. Yes. Which then I think gets answered.
00:43:50
Speaker
And the question is, if magic makes you dramatic, does losing your magic happen? make you less dramatic and I think the answer is no because Saruman sasses Galadriel so that's a choice yeah and and Wormtongue is also there I guess but yeah he's just a pathetic sad wet cat having the worst time and honestly I feel like just living in obscurity is kind of the worst punishment he could have so i hope that he is fine I guess
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah, he so desperately desires power and desires ah acknowledgement that him now being just one more traveler on the road is awful for him.
00:44:47
Speaker
Gandalf offers him help and Saruman tells him to get fucked, basically. He takes some offered pipe weed from Mary and then says the South Farthing is going to be fucked up when you get back.
00:44:59
Speaker
And then perfect line, a perfect curse. Long may your land be short of leaf. That's actually chilling, you know, because on the one hand, yeah, he's referring to pipe weed.
00:45:15
Speaker
But also he could be referring to other forms of plants. He's he's cursing them with famine, which even from a depowered wizard is not something to take lightly.
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah. And this is the first of many indications that we're going to get that things are not good in the Shire. And there's Now this small undercurrent of dread about what it is we are coming home to that is just sort of barely skimmed over. We get more of it in the next chapter, but that's now...
00:45:53
Speaker
In our noggins. Yes. They stop for seven days outside the gates of Moria, because this is where Caliborn and Galadriel and all of the Lorian elves are going to go home. And they're going to go over Gahadras, which we failed to do back in book one.
00:46:14
Speaker
But now that Saruman is not turning the mountain against them, they should be fine. Yeah. And with all of their combined powers, I think they'll be all right.
00:46:25
Speaker
They'll be fine. And eventually, they come back to Rivendell. Do you want me to say it? Yeah. Yeah. And we find Bilbo, who I honestly was worried had died. So he is still alive. And there are a couple of points in this chapter where I is he dead? Is he dead? Oh, no, he's just sleeping.
00:46:45
Speaker
OK, classic old man problems. One time i was in a parking lot somewhere and there was a car parked next to me that had the oldest woman i have ever seen in the passenger seat.
00:46:58
Speaker
And she was sleeping. But I was staring at her because the car was off. It was parked. Presumably the driver was in a store or something somewhere. But I was so worried this lady had fucking died.
00:47:10
Speaker
And that's how I feel about Bilbo in this chapter. Are you good, buddy? You breathing? And yeah, he's there and he looks very old but peaceful and sleepy. And he's surrounded by his paper and pencils. So he seems to be doing fine. Yeah, his memory is not what it was.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah. He keeps losing little bits and pieces. he's He's old. Yeah, he's it's the day before his birthday. The day before his 129th birthday.
00:47:41
Speaker
um and he says if he gets one more year, he'll beat the old Took. And that's his goal. Yeah. Yeah. And the hobbits all celebrate his birthday and they spend several days catching up with him.
00:47:54
Speaker
And he's interested in hearing about the wedding and said that he was invited and had waited for it long enough, which is interesting to me because obviously, I mean, I guess if he's been hanging out in Rivendell, then he's heard about these plans. But I was just thinking, how did he know about this for so long? Why was he in the loop about these plans?
00:48:15
Speaker
romantic plans but i guess that makes sense if he's hanging out in arwen's family home yeah i mean if he he's been friends with elrond for 70 years which means he's probably known aragorn since aragorn was a kid oh my god if he's 82 83 at this point
00:48:42
Speaker
In his late 80s, I think. So yeah, so he was probably... Yeah, since he was like a young, like a tween or a teenager. all
00:48:51
Speaker
And the line that he says about why he didn't go is that he felt he was too busy and didn't want to pack. And I took that initially as him just being eccentric and being a little bit weird.
00:49:03
Speaker
But now tying it back to what we were saying earlier about Arwen's commentary, he's just old and he... couldn't have physically made that journey. So that's another sort of classic old person thing of not admitting his physical limitations of just trying to play it off. But we can tell that he's really lost some of his vigor and vitality at this point.
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah, and he... One morning, Frodo wakes up to frost on the windows and knows it's time to go. Bilbo gives them all gifts. He gives them books and gold and silver pipes and asks about the ring. And Frodo goes, I've lost it, Bilbo, dear.
00:49:44
Speaker
Which that immediately shouted to me. I know we've mentioned that the both of these this this is ah a gay uncle adopting his his gay nephew.
00:49:57
Speaker
But the calling someone Bilbo dear is that's such just old gay men things. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've talked about on the podcast, my awe and reverence for people who are just casual babe people who could just call, you just call you babe. Especially when I was in college, if I met someone who was a casual babe person, I would just be immediately transfixed. say Oh, this, what did you, got i am babe, what did I do? I would like to hear you say that more, please. It would just charm me.
00:50:30
Speaker
But yeah, It has to be natural. It cannot be an affectation. Because if you can tell that somebody's trying it out, it doesn't sound quite right, then it just sounds stupid.
00:50:41
Speaker
But if it just comes naturally from someone, it's a magical ability. And I think I may be on a road to becoming a casual babe person, which would be great for me. I would love to possess that power.
00:50:53
Speaker
But I think the Bilbo deer, that's sort of in the same vein as, you know, the casual, it's like a waitress at a diner, the casual honey, the casual sweetie, or, you know, coming from like an old person in a way that doesn't feel creepy or overstepping. Just you can tell that's how a person naturally is.
00:51:10
Speaker
fucking love that. But i I sometimes am a casual babe person. Like, I slip in and out of it. One of the members of our D&D party actually used to be a casual babe person all through college.
00:51:25
Speaker
Is this your former roommate? My former roommate, yes. Because she still does it sometimes. She does sometimes. Yeah, it was... it was It was actually one of the linguistic pieces because she start she she'd stopped doing it by the time like as frequently by the time that I moved in with her.
00:51:47
Speaker
um So we went to college together. um we were two years apart. She was two years ahead of me in college. And then when I moved to the city that we live in now, I knew that she lived here and had texted her and she was like, oh, I've actually my roommate's moving out. Do you want to move in?
00:52:03
Speaker
And I was like, yes. So, um but yeah, by the time that we moved in together, she sort of stopped doing that. And it was that it was one of the linguistic pieces that I noticed. It was like, well, that's changed.
00:52:15
Speaker
Interesting. But yeah, now that there is a lot of power wrapped up in the casual babe. It's, it just short circuits my brain. But anyway.
00:52:26
Speaker
That's the, that's the gayness is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and maybe it's not about other people. It's about me. That's just my brain. But anyway, in this gift giving and speaking about Bilbo's memory for fuck, I was gonna confuse the hobbits again.
00:52:48
Speaker
i was so good until just now. I have them confused three times in my notes that I've noticed so far. I think that I caught it all the times that I wrote it down, but my brain is still catching up.
00:52:59
Speaker
Anyway, Bilbo, old hobbit, gives Frodo, young hobbit, the mithril coat and sting, which he forgets that he already did. He also gives him three books that he wrote, and it doesn't specify what those three books are, just that they have been translated properly.
00:53:17
Speaker
from elvish so that's fun we got some books and then there's a piece that i'm grumpy about because it's about the stupid sam b plot that i hate gives sam A little bag of gold, which he says is almost the last drop of the smog vintage, which may come in useful if you think of getting married, Sam, which I want.
00:53:41
Speaker
I will just change my interpretation in my mind to say, you can use this if you want to marry my nephew, because you are so clearly in love.
00:53:52
Speaker
And that is the person whose relationship we have been exploring for the last six books and who obviously you are very close to and would marry not this rosy cotton bitch who I'm sure is fine but we just conveniently brought up a couple chapters ago to be this romantic interest which we've never mentioned up until this point and you know maybe if it had been brought up in the very beginning that he vaguely had a crush on this girl.
00:54:21
Speaker
And then through their whole journey, he's thinking about her and thinking about the normal life that he left behind. And instead of dreaming about waking up next to Frodo, like he does all the time, he could dream about waking up next to this girl that he's in love with. And then he gets his new lease on life and comes back to the Shire and is like, I know what I need to do. I need to be confident and ask out this girl.
00:54:42
Speaker
That's fine. That would be a believable plot. But that's not what happened in the books. There is no basis for this. And I'm sure that she's a very nice hobbit. And when they inevitably get together, fine.
00:54:54
Speaker
You know, I'm the relationship anarchist. I understand that he can hold so much love in his heart. But from a narrative perspective, it makes me so angry. And it's stupid. And why does Bilbo know or care about this? have we and ran Have we discussed my very firm belief in hobbit polyamory?
00:55:16
Speaker
I believe we have. Yes. I don't know how much we've talked about it in detail on the pod, but between the two of us, yes, we've talked about it. Yeah. I very firmly believe that polyamory in the Shire is just like incredibly normal.
00:55:33
Speaker
um There was a Tumblr post I came across ages ago that had a very neat breakdown ah Yeah.
00:55:44
Speaker
logically why polyamory has to be happening in the shire this something about the big families something about it was it was about the big families and the obsession with genealogy and the fact that the they supposedly have a lot of children and huge families But the population is super stable.
00:56:06
Speaker
And there is doesn't seem to be, like, mass exodus of emigrants or, like, they're not involved in wars. They don't have a really high infant mortality rate. Like...
00:56:19
Speaker
They're just happy little people. And so the way that that makes the most sense is when you're talking about the big families is, oh, they have they're they it all have they all have like these large blended families
00:56:38
Speaker
And I'm on board with that. It's just this specific relationship that has no basis in anything. That makes me so mad.
00:56:49
Speaker
If there was more, I would be fine with it. But oh I'll just grumble about it. I'm just going to be happy for our polyamorous hobbits.
00:57:01
Speaker
I mean, that's great. Good for them. We do get another verse of Rhodes, which is fun to come back to as somebody who really loves this poem.
00:57:12
Speaker
And this is kind of a sad verse because it's very much a conclusion. Yeah. The road goes ever on and on out from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone. Let others follow it who can.
00:57:27
Speaker
Let them a journey new begin, but I at last with weary feet will turn towards the lighted inn, my evening rest and sleep to meet. Oof.
00:57:40
Speaker
And then immediately after that, he falls asleep and I had another one of my, oh my God, did he die moments. And that would be a hell of a last word situation. I don't know. He's going to kick the bucket at any point. And then later on, we get confirmation that he's going to live at least another year, hopefully to beat the old took, but we'll see.
00:57:59
Speaker
But then Frodo and Sam are just kind of left awkwardly standing there. And they're sort of talking to each other, speculating that maybe Bilbo hasn't gotten that much writing done and he won't ever get around to writing their story.
00:58:14
Speaker
And then Bilbo immediately wakes up and tells Frodo to clean up and tidy his notes and that he will get some writing done, which is very funny. But then they leave and Elrond says that Frodo probably won't need to come back to Rivendell and that he will accompany Bilbo back to the Shire around this time next year.
00:58:35
Speaker
so hopefully Bilbo's going to stick around another year, but we'll see. This is a secret and Frodo does not share this information with anyone.
00:58:47
Speaker
and Anyway, we move on to chapter seven, Homeward Bound, which is 1993 American adventure comedy film. ah And a remake of the 1963 film, The Incredible Journey.
00:59:04
Speaker
Amazing. So relevant. Yes. You know what? I had to. yeah you did. that That movie's older than the both of us. Oh, my God. Not by much, but it's older than the both of us.
00:59:16
Speaker
So says, at last the hobbits had their faces turned towards home. And then Frodo is talking to Gandalf about kind of being afraid to go home and the idea that it it won't be the same. the The idea that he's been forever changed by the journey.
00:59:41
Speaker
though i may come to the shire it will not seem the same for i shall not be the same i am wounded with knife sting and tooth and a long burden where shall i find rest gandalf did not answer And, you know, you've heard the phrase, you can never go home again, which, you know, I think of a lot when I go back to places that I've lived before and things have changed.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah. And for Frodo... Now, who's been through traumatic experience after traumatic experience? I think for the next several chapters, we're going to very much see pieces of Tolkien's military history.
01:00:26
Speaker
The reflections of the world that he came back to after the First World War and of the people that he saw around him trying to make sense of the world.
01:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to settle in just to your old routine after everything has changed.
01:00:54
Speaker
And even just back into civilian society specifically, because he's really only been interacting with people who are directly involved.
01:01:06
Speaker
Mm hmm. we're going back to brie we're seeing some of the fallout for regular people of everything that's been happening and dealing with their concerns and their priorities and trying to just reintegrate into broader society Yeah, they they do. They make make it debris.
01:01:30
Speaker
And they find the gatekeeper is carrying a club, which is noted because it's kind of out of place. Yeah, they show up and the gate is locked, which is a bummer because they were kind of hoping for a better reception.
01:01:42
Speaker
And the gatekeeper shows up eventually and he's armed. And things just seem really off. The gatekeeper is meeting them with a lot of fear and suspicion.
01:01:54
Speaker
and There's this new kind of long, low building by the gate, which I wasn't totally sure what that was supposed to be. And Bill Fernie's house is boarded up and there is a little comic relief line.
01:02:09
Speaker
do you think you killed him with that apple, Sam? said Pippin. I'm not so hopeful, Mr. Pippin, said Sam. But I'd like to know what became of that poor pony. He's been on my mind many a time and the wolves howling and all.
01:02:20
Speaker
And we do get more about Bill the Pony. But... Yeah, I don't know what's going on with that long building. Is that supposed to mean something specific? I think it's meant as a guardhouse.
01:02:31
Speaker
Like the idea that a number of men had come out and were staring at them over the fence. It's now we have placed a barracks here so that fighters can be closer to where they'd be needed.
01:02:49
Speaker
as opposed to rousing up a militia from around the town. Yeah. They make it to the Prancing Pony, and Butterbur also greets them with a club. Yeah. Well, first we see Nob, our buddy Nob, again, wrongfully maligned. And he summons Butterbur, comes out, guns blazing, so to speak.
01:03:09
Speaker
And he's happy when he realizes who it is and then scolds Nob like it's Nob's fucking fault. But there's this weird energy between them two because Butterbur is still ordering Nob around just like he was when we first came to the Prancing Pony with sort of the same sense of urgency and rush, but there's no one there. The inn is basically dead.
01:03:33
Speaker
Yeah. and And over the course of the evening, folks from around the town do come into the inn. um and it And it sort of mentions that it fills up a little bit, but not as it was.
01:03:47
Speaker
There's no pipe weed coming from the Shire. Business isn't great. And I had a moment where I was like, it's only been a year. Like, how much does this change? And then thinking about like, a lot can change in a year.
01:04:02
Speaker
Right. And I just I just had the thought of like, it's October, the difference between October 2019 and October 2020.
01:04:12
Speaker
How much the world was come completely different in a year. yeah So that's what's at stake here. That's what's going on.
01:04:24
Speaker
And they haven't just been having financial troubles. Some people have died. There's been armed conflict. And there's some remarks about the hobbits have kind of forgotten what a spectacle they are because they're used to this formal warfare. They've been part of militaries for a while now.
01:04:50
Speaker
And so to show up in full armor on their nice horses to this town that suffered so much scrounging together whatever defenses they can, it's a very weird thing.
01:05:01
Speaker
disconnect and people are just kind of staring at them wondering what to make of it's very dnd party walking into a random small town tavern and being like how do they know we're adventurers because you came in in full armor with an axe larger than you are tall and threw around gold like nobody's business like and they make a good point or the narration makes a good point that the rangers have all gone away to fight in the war So the people are left fending for themselves, which is also something they're not used to doing.
01:05:35
Speaker
Because Strider makes a point earlier, and and now I'm thinking of him and his Strider persona, which is why I'm like, why did I call him that? Not Aragorn. Anyway, he says a while ago that a lot of the work that the rangers do is sort of in the shadows so that the regular people don't have to know about it. So they can be protected from the knowledge of that violence and that conflict.
01:05:57
Speaker
But now they're coming face to face with not only the conflict with Sauron and its fallout, but just the regular dangers that they had been protected from that they weren't even aware were out there.
01:06:10
Speaker
So that's a lot. Well, and we also get a sense that while all of this was going on some of these dangers have been going now for months because Butterbur mentions that like this was all just after the new year.
01:06:26
Speaker
And it's October. Yeah. So, you know, even accounting for calling the new year sometime in March, which I would assume Bree is not doing because the information hasn't gotten there yet.
01:06:43
Speaker
That's still six months of whatever this has been. So, you know, more likely it's been nine or 10 months of this. hmm.
01:06:55
Speaker
you know, shortly after they left Bree the last time. So the party tells Butterbur the whole story.
01:07:07
Speaker
Gives him the whole rundown now that they're not trying to keep secrets. And Butterbur's like, well, I don't know about the king. Like, we still want them to leave us alone because he's a libertarian. And Gandalf's...
01:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, an isolationist in Gandalf says, the king knows Bree. He loves it. He loves your beer. He thinks it's a great place. Butterbusters is going, wait, what? Why the king know about Bree? And they clue him in that the king is Strider. And that reminds me of a text post that I saw ages ago about Avatar The Last Airbender and what it must be like for random people in Ba Sing Se see the new Fire Lord Zuko and go, wait.
01:07:52
Speaker
that Lee from the tea shop? He's the fire lord. He made good tea. Just the random regular people. guy oh Oh, that's Lee.
01:08:03
Speaker
remember him. Yeah. And so that- He made hot leaf juice. Iroh made good tea. So true. And so that's the same thing. Oh, that's that guy. He's the king. Okay.
01:08:13
Speaker
Okay. All right. Yeah. Butterbur is very, very kind. He cares deeply about his guests. He is not the brightest bulb on the tree. so ok That's That's fine.
01:08:28
Speaker
We all have our guests. Yeah. I do love that- The Brie folk remember that Frodo had lied about a book he was writing. Oh my God.
01:08:39
Speaker
And so they asked him about it and Frodo was like, well, I haven't written any. I'm taking my notes home to work on it now.
01:08:46
Speaker
And they ask him to deal with the events at Brie. And he says, so as to give a bit of interest to a book that appeared likely to treat mostly of the remote and less support less important affairs away south.
01:09:03
Speaker
I love that the Brie folk just do not give a fuck. Gotta respect it. They're like, yeah, something's happening down there. We don't care what it is. Yeah. And as they ride off the next morning, they note that there's definitely something fucked up in the South Farthing.
01:09:20
Speaker
And Pippin is like, it's Lotho Sackville Baggins' fault. Absolutely. Unquestionably. This is a Sackville Baggins hate podcast. So frankly, we should have guessed that if something was fucked up, it would be the Sackville Baggins fault.
01:09:35
Speaker
And Gandalf is like, let's not be hasty. But he's probably involved. But let's not be. It might not be his fault, per se. It might not be entirely his fault. You know, we'll see. We'll find out.
01:09:48
Speaker
Gandalf knows what's up though. Like Gandalf absolutely knows what's happening and being who he is is speaking entirely in service to the plot still.
01:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, because Butterbur warns them before they go that all is not well in the Shire and there's funny goings on. And Sam thinks that it might be related to his vision of the Shire with the trees being cut down and everything being in chaos.
01:10:15
Speaker
And Gandalf, in service to the plot, just kind of subtly reminds them that Saruman had been very interested in the Shire and then frolics away around the area where they first met Tom Babadil.
01:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, and he warns them to get home before the gates are locked. And Mary's like, what fucking gates? And Gandalf goes, the gates.
01:10:40
Speaker
Yeah, obviously, you know about the gates that were built while you were away. And I knew that you were away Yeah. So despite the fact, too, Gandalf also says that like, he no longer like his time is over, much like the elves.
01:10:56
Speaker
He is no longer serving as an advisor. It is not his job anymore to advise people on what to do, to make plans, to interpret.
01:11:10
Speaker
He's done. So he's going to go have a chat with Tom Bombadil and, you know, do some mushrooms. ah I was about to say, do some amazing drugs. Yeah.
01:11:23
Speaker
Abso-fucking-lutely. There's a parody of Lord of the Rings called Board of the Rings in which ah Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are stoners.
01:11:35
Speaker
And yeah, yeah Tim Benzedrine and Hashberry. i believe we've talked about this. Yeah. Amazing. Yes. So anyway, Gandalf definitely knows something is up possibly because of the amazing drugs that he he's been probably doing and definitely anticipating.
01:11:55
Speaker
But we are finally now just down to the hobbits. yeah And if you don't have anything else, I think we can close out the chapter.
01:12:07
Speaker
I had one tiny little. yeah Yes. Which is when the first night at the Prancing Pony, we get confirmation that Bill the Pony is alive and well, which I think we knew because the narration had told us ages ago. But it's nice to be reminded of that.
01:12:20
Speaker
And Sam would not go to bed until he visited Bill in the stable. So I assume that Bill got some good scratches. maybe an apple. And if nothing else, Bill the Pony is okay. And I will cling to that knowledge as hard as I need to cling to it.
01:12:38
Speaker
When the night is dark.
01:12:42
Speaker
we can We can just remember that Bill the pony is okay. And I'm sure being cared for yeah wonderfully because we know Butterbur cares very deeply about the people that he is responsible for being fed and happy and comfortable.
01:13:01
Speaker
And that clearly also extends to the animals. Absolutely, yes. Absolutely. But the last piece of the chapter is Mary going, well, here we are, just the four of us that started out together, said Mary.
01:13:17
Speaker
We have left all the rest behind, one after another. It seems almost like a dream that has slowly faded. Not to me, said Frodo. To me, it feels more like falling asleep again.
01:13:31
Speaker
So that's an energy that we will take with us into the next chapter.
01:13:37
Speaker
Next time. Yeah, on that contemplative note. And I'm very, very excited for the next chapter. Because chapter eight, The Scouring of the Shire, is my favorite chapter in Lord of the Rings.
01:13:54
Speaker
You have been hyping it up for a long time. Not by the chapter name, which I have seen in the table of contents and been ignoring because it sounds very scary and I don't want to think about it. But I knew that your favorite part was coming up.
01:14:07
Speaker
So now we know what it is. And I am very excited get The Scouring of the Shire and then the Grey Havens, which honestly we can probably do in one episode because the Grey Havens is ah is a short chapter and the Scouring of the Shire is long.
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:24
Speaker
So I'm very excited to get into this next time. It weirdly is going to be politically relevant. but Oh boy. I was thinking about this the other and I was like, oh no.
01:14:40
Speaker
i hate when things are applicable. The horrors. more It's not allegory, but it's applicability. So dear listeners,
01:14:53
Speaker
If you are listening in the future and there are horrors beyond our comprehension and you would like to escape those horrors with us,
01:15:05
Speaker
or alternatively, enjoy our interpretations of the horrors. You can do that by subscribing to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts, leaving us a five-star review um if the podcast platform you're listening on allows for that.
01:15:21
Speaker
A written review is even better if the podcast platform you're listening on allows that. You can tell your friends about the podcast because then you can drag more people into this strange dreamscape that we inhabit.
01:15:39
Speaker
You can also follow us on our social media. We are on Instagram, Blue Sky, Tumblr, technically Twitter, and technically TikTok.
01:15:53
Speaker
But we don't really use those last two. So just focus on the first three. Or you could send us an email at thefandomapprentice at gmail.com. Yes, absolutely can. And we will be back in your ears in two weeks with the next and last episode of the content of the Lord of the Rings saga.
01:16:19
Speaker
And there will be more after that. We're going to do the movies. We're going to do some other bonus content. We have an entire season two that you have planned in a Google Doc since before we started recording any of the Lord of the Rings stuff.
01:16:32
Speaker
So we're not going anywhere. Y'all are stuck with us. But in terms of the books. Oh, the podcast is. Yeah, the podcast is very much continuing. Yeah. Yeah, we're we're still going.
01:16:44
Speaker
But we will be finishing this first part of our journey and on to the last part of our journey next time.
01:16:56
Speaker
Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time. 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.
01:17:10
Speaker
This podcast is created for non-commercial entertainment purposes.
01:17:20
Speaker
The content discussed is the property of the Tolkien Estate and is used here under fair use.