131. The Weirdest Chapter in Middle-earth (with dancing bears!?) : The Hobbit #19

With talking animals, animals serving food and dancing bears, this may just be the oddest chapter in all of Middle-earth! It kinda feels like it just doesn’t fit. We explore why the animals walk and talk, and how Tolkien had no problem with dancing bears, even adding them later to even more mythology of Middle-earth!

This week we look at:

• CS Lewis’s Advice that shaped The Lord of the Rings
• Gandalf and Beorn’s Dark Humour
• Is Beorn a Vegetarian
• Beorn’s Big Bear Rave
• The history of Dancing Bears of Númenor
• The Meaning of the Dwarves “wind” song
• Dr. Doolittle and JRR Tolkien

In our extended episode (available for our members) we talk about:

• How to retcon (retroactively connect) Beorn into Middle-earth
• What would a Beorn TV show look like (and why it SHOULD be made!)

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The History of The Hobbit
The Annotated Hobbit
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🔍 If You Like Tolkien
The History of The Hobbit
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (audiobook)
The Expanded Letters of JRR Tolkien (book)
The Silmarillion
The Children of Hurin
The Atlas of Middle-earth
Make Tolkien Great Again – Tengwar Hat