[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lorecast.
[SPEAKER_00]: The show that explores the background of Tolkien's amazing world, from the very beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every good author knows that you need to vary the pace of your story.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will be frantic moments where lots of things happen, conflict, and then resolution.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there will be moments of quiet, slow times.
[SPEAKER_00]: where things don't seem to happen much at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: A time to take a breath, a time to reflect on what has happened so far with the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or in Tolkien's case, at least at this point of the Hobbit, a time to focus in a little bit more on what's going on both with the characters and with the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that Tolkien does so well is to use these slower moments in order to build, to build our understanding of the characters.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even more importantly, to build out the world that those characters are in.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just create a room for the characters to wander into.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives the room a name.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives it a reason for its existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't just come up with the idea that, oh well, the characters need in this case, to go out to a place where they can watch over the land around them in case the dragon comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he gives us a reason why those things are there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are there watchtowers?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it would make sense that they would exist.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that there would be more than one, and that they would be in ruin, and that there would be a reason why maybe they didn't work the first time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we go into that in this section of the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does such an amazing job of giving us the big details, and then the small details, and connecting them through to answer the why questions that so many of us come up with on our own, or would have
[SPEAKER_00]: Realized after reading, if not multiple times through the story, why would this be the way it is?
[SPEAKER_00]: And oftentimes, he already answers the question for us in the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know, for some people, this feels overly meticulous.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've made the joke many times about how in the Hobbit, or especially the Lord of the Rings, it feels like they are moments where you are walking down a road between, well, nowhere in somewhere else,
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a reason for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It creates a sense of place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are the things that you would notice when you have nothing else to do, but to march between two distant locations, just like the characters on the journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the plants are important.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the case of Eribor, the details inside this mountain kingdom are important.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get a real sense of what the dwarves were like, what things they valued, how did they build inside of this place, was their light, how did they defend themselves?
[SPEAKER_00]: All from these little details that are tied together at this point in the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: The treasure here is not just the golden gems that the dwarves and Bilbo are looking to get back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the details.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have been promised from the beginning of this story that we were going to regain irrebore.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were going to get to see the inside of a dwarven kingdom in a mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here we are, we actually get to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the treasures that we were promised as the readers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would have to imagine in the 1930s or the 40s or even the 50s that this would have been a sort of singular experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: In our world today, we have so many stories about other kinds of creatures and dwarves and elves of other stories and fantasy lands and dungeons and dragons and wherever.
[SPEAKER_00]: But back then, these stories were rare, and a world with a backstory and a history like Middle-Earth, even more rare.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's take a moment to slow down, explore the rest of the mountain, and see what's in store for us, because there are treasures around every corner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Philly and Killy were almost in merry mood, and finding still hanging there, many golden harps, strung with silver.
[SPEAKER_00]: They took them and struck them, and being magical and also untouched by the dragon who had small interest in music, they were still in tune.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the very first sentence of this next section that we're delving into and immediately we are with multiple things that I have to comment on.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, he says they were almost in Mary mood, not in a Mary mood as we would more likely say today, at least in my American English, in Mary mood, which feels more efficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we really need to put a in front of Mary?
[SPEAKER_00]: not necessarily.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also interesting that one of the treasures that they find are golden harps and that these are magical.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we find out in a minute that part of the magic had to do with the fact that they were still in tune, which anybody who plays a stringed instrument would know that stringed instruments don't usually stay in tune.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they can go out of tune simply by temperature changes in a room.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's always funny to me as a guitar player, meeting new guitarists and my son has picked up guitar and bass, and I've known many other musicians over the years, but oftentimes younger or newer musicians will be confused by the fact that when they picked to their guitar back up, it was out of tune.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like, well, I didn't play it since I played it last, and when I put it down, it was in tune.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, the strings stretch and change due to temperature and humidity and things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this case,
[SPEAKER_00]: these have been in tune for a very long time and that's part of the magic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's also interesting that the dragon doesn't touch them, specifically because and not because it was an interested in gold and of course he liked the gold and all of the gems and all of that, but because he had small interest in music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Music in Tolkien's work is something that's almost always tied to the good people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The elves played music, they would sing songs, the dwarves played music, hobbits, play music, men, especially the good ones, play music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I can't remember a specific quote or a specific place Tolkien talked about, so although there may be something out there and I'm just not remembering it on the spot.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the feeling I have about this is that it's very similar to a respect for nature, gardening, those kinds of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Music is something that is natural to the good peoples of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Evil people have no use for music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Music is something that brings joy and shows a connection with the community of other people, what uses music if you're not playing it for others and enjoying it in company of others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so somebody like Smaug doesn't have any use for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is another one of those fun little details about the history of the world that intrigues me on occasion.
[SPEAKER_00]: In today's world, we come across music all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I go to the grocery store, I leave with whatever was the worst song played from their easy listening collection of tunes.
[SPEAKER_00]: rummaging around in my brain for the rest of the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Music today is common, it is ubiquitous, it is devalued because of how easy it is to come across it, and how easy it is to summon it out of our phones, or radios, or wherever.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in a world that doesn't have modern conveniences, a world much like the world that Tolkien grew up in,
[SPEAKER_00]: music was much more rare.
[SPEAKER_00]: You needed to have real human beings in a real space with real talent with thousands of hours of practice in order to have any sort of music of quality at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other than say maybe the singing of your family members, but to actually have an ensemble of instruments and very talented singers,
[SPEAKER_00]: You needed to be in a place where that could happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't just erupt out of the speakers while you were eating dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever thought about how strange it is that you could be having the most mundane meal, and yet out of those speakers is somebody singing about the most traumatic romantic events of their entire lives while you eat a cheeseburger.
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of odd when you think about it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this world, in the world of Middle Earth, music is very similar to the world that Tolkien grew up in.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was something that was rare.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was something that was special.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was something valued by the good peoples of Middle Earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not only do they find these instruments, these harps, but they start playing them immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to remember, Philly and Killy come from a royal family.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would have had training in the playing of these instruments.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, there are multiple times in the story where we're reminded that the dwarves could play instruments.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that I've gone on a long time about this very first sentence, but it is that important.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the depth of the interesting detail that Tolkien puts into the scene that says so much more than just what this variety of words on the page would seemingly convey to somebody who doesn't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now of course they find other gems and they stuff their pockets and of course Thorin is among those who are doing this and we are told that he is looking for the Arkansas.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yet he hasn't really told anyone else or he hasn't really brought it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says that he spoke of it yet to no one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after finding the musical instruments and some gems, they find male and weapons, and they arm themselves, and were told that Thorin indeed looked royal.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls over Bilbo and says, Mr. Baggins, here is the first payment of your reward.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can hear the excitement in his voice just reading the text, cast off your old coat, and put on this!
[SPEAKER_00]: He's excited to give Bilbo something of value because he's been so helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He respects Bilbo at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the first mention of Bilbo's mythural coat.
[SPEAKER_00]: He puts it on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're told it was like a silver steel and it went with a belt of pearls and crystals.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is a fun little detail because this was designed for some Elven Prince long ago and never seemed to make it to him and it's just this one-off line and I'm planning to go more into this in the bonus episode this week because there are discussions out there that maybe this was something designed for a young lego loss at some point and we'll explore the potential of that being true or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love this image of Bilba putting on this male coat.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's never worn anything like this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is not a warrior.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was not raised even in a place where things like this were common.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to remember, there's an anacronistic quality to the life that the hobbits live that feels very much like a almost modern day England and the world that the dwarves inhabited, which feels much more medieval.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in his mind, it's like he's putting on a costume.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I feel magnificent.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then thought, but I expect I look rather absurd, actually, he thinks this whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it realizes that they would have laughed at him at home, because of how silly he would have looked to two the other hobbits.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then were very specifically told about the effects that this horde of treasure has on everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and everyone except for Bilbo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Baggins kept his head more clear of the big leachment of the horde than the dwarves did.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this very moment, we're reminded of Bilbo's poverty bag inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: He thinks to himself, I would give a good many of these precious goblets for a drink of something cheering out of one of Bjorn's wooden bowls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically saying, the gold in the treasure and the gems are nice, but ultimately it's these simple comforts that really do make Bilbo happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, in this next moment, Bilbo takes the lead here and says Thorin, he yells hell loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's next?
[SPEAKER_00]: We are armed, but what good has any armor ever been against Smauge, the dreadful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice he uses dreadful in this, and he's got a point with fiery breath and toxic
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's this moment that pulls Thor in back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, he says, you speak the truth, answered Thor, and recovering his wits.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only in that moment that he decides, okay, it's time for us to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, not in a thousand years, should I forget the ways of this place, which is a wonderful statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, clearly this was his home and his kingdom that he's returning to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it would make sense that he would know this place like the back of your hand, which doesn't even really make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: How often do you look at the back of your hand?
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, he and the dwarves pass through the gaping doors out of this chamber, and of course, they look behind them kind of longing at all the treasure, but they can only carry so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, that's not the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not going to keep them safe.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not going to help them recapture their home, and what's the use of treasure if they can't spend it or their dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it does show how much of a real effect it has on them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love the fact that they've marched together.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've got this glittering male under their old cloaks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they've got this like brilliant shiny looking armor.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they're absolutely weatherstained and broed worn equipment over top of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they march in a line, a line of little lights in the darkness that halted often, listening in fear once more for any rumor of the dragons coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: This idea of them marching in a line through these tunnels that would have been mined out, paints a picture of snow white and the seven dwarves, the old Disney cartoon, and I looked this up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out that they came out in the same year.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it was curious, was one maybe inspired by the other?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the Hobbit took a number of years to write.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure Snow White took a while to animate and make.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the chances of that are slim.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at the dates, the Hobbit was first published on September 21st, 1937.
[SPEAKER_00]: Snow White was in theaters, December 21st, 1937, within just a few months of each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: So chances are that there was no real influence here from one and the other, but it is interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the door of March through Arobor, we get all sorts of descriptions that remind us how much time has gone by and how much smoke has actually broken this place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Old adornments were molded and destroyed, always be fouled and blasted with the Cummings and Goings of the Monster.
[SPEAKER_00]: They met no sign of any living thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the spooky little details like this, the echoing ways of the stairs, fertive shadows that fled from their approach.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is painting a very uncomfortable situation for them, even though they are back in their home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even though these details don't feel familiar to them at all, we do get familiar details.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way the stone paths are carved out, the steps are made.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that they're not made for hobbit legs, which I think is probably more of a commentary on the resilience to climbing that the dwarves have unless about their size, because the difference in size between a dwarf and a hobbit really isn't that big.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they finally climb their way up to this next massive chamber, we're told that the roof sprang high and far beyond the reach of their torchlight, and that there's this white glimmer that could be seen coming from far above the air-smelt sweeter and yet the doors.
[SPEAKER_00]: hung twisted on their hinges in half burnt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everything's still not good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though they're approaching the surface and this white glimmer of light is interesting as well, it's been days since they've gotten sunlight and fresh air.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet even amongst these pleasantries, I guess we can call them pleasantries.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tables were erodding, chairs and benches were laying overturned, charred, and decaying, either from the initial attack of the dragon or just because the dragon wanted to wreck their stuff, but probably the initial attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Boons and skulls were upon the floor among flaggons and bowls and broken drinking horns, and dust painting a picture, potentially of the suddenness of the dragon's initial attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just as we get through all the terribleness of all of that, we have another Pleasantry, we'll call that the sound of water and gray light that suddenly fills the room some more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thoran says, there is the birth of the running river from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It hastens to the gate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us follow it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not only a natural feature of the way the mountain works and where the water comes from the mountain builds the river, but also a piece of their own infrastructure.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did they get water?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it came right out of the mountain, where did they put their waste probably in the river that flowed away from the mountain?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we get a description of it, issuing a boiling water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've looked into this, boiling is probably not a reference to the temperature so much
[SPEAKER_00]: Although, maybe there's a reference to temperature, smout himself, possibly would have heated up the place, but it seems less likely to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: They follow this river forward, and we get this line, which is super cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: In front of their rosé tall arch, still showing the fragments of old carbon work within, worn and splintered and blackened, though it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: A misty sun sent its pale light between the arms of the mountain and beams of gold fell
[SPEAKER_00]: at the threshold.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the front, this was the front door.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the light was coming in and even though it was broken and burnt, you could still see the craftsmanship that was designed around this archway.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, when we're met with natural beauty and the beauty of the dwarven design, we are then again hit with something that is dark and terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: A world of bats frightens them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wakes up from their slumber and fly out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the dwarves themselves, their feet slithered on stones, rubbed smooth and slimeed by the passing of the dragon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything beautiful here has been corrupted.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Bilba walks out to the front door, he realizes how hungry he is, he says, dear me, more walking and more climbing without breakfast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder how many breakfasts and other meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have missed inside that nasty, clockless, timeless hole, and Tolkien, or the narrator, gives us an answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he says, it's been two nights and a day.
[SPEAKER_00]: that much time is gone by so it makes sense that he would be hungry but also think back to what they were doing they were hiding in the dark for two nights and a day before they dared move forward and that raises other questions why would the dragon be gone for so long which makes make a lot of sense to why they're so suspicious to look around fearing an attack from somewhere that they weren't expecting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this line from Thorin is interesting too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come come, said Thorin laughing, his spirits had begun to rise again, and he rattled the precious stones in his pockets.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't call my palace a nasty hole.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wait till it has been cleaned and redecorated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this, of course, feels very thorn, but notice he rattles the precious stones in his pockets.
[SPEAKER_00]: His hands can't help but touch the treasure.
[SPEAKER_00]: The allure of the treasure is still on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: and so they discuss what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know that they have to protect themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know the dragon could still be out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're hoping he's not just waiting on the side of the mountain for them to come out and yet they have to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must move away from here, said Dory.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel as if his eyes were on the back of my head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Bomber chimes in and says, it's a cold, loon some place, there may be drink, but I see no sign of food, a dragon would always be hungry in such parts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, come on, cry the others.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us follow Balanced Path and Balanced leads them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: To get a glimpse of what's outside and take a look around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we get a very meticulous description of their journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bridge that Balen had talked about is Fallen.
[SPEAKER_00]: the stones and boulders are now in the stream and they forward the water, it talks about the ancient steps and gives us a picture of how this would have been a lot easier to travel back when everything was still the way it was designed to be and not destroyed and yet they see no sign of the dragon.
[SPEAKER_00]: They find their way to a del and word del isn't used as much at least in the US as it would have been back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means a small valley usually among trees and they stop for breakfast and
[SPEAKER_00]: But the only thing they have is cram, and if you remember, cram is the bread that they got from Lake Town, it's kind of like a proto lembas, because it's designed to be used for long journeys and to last a long time, but it's not necessarily the most delicious thing that they would want to be eating in the situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: but it's food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then eventually they march on again like snow whites dwarves until they find a flat place without a wall on three sides, but backed to the north by a rocky face in which there was an opening like a door.
[SPEAKER_00]: From this perspective they could see to the east, the south and the west, they just came from the north.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ballon describes what this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a guard room and there were numerous of these on different sides of the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: significantly far enough away from the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took them about five hours to march out here that the people in the guard rooms would be able to survey the area around the mountain in case something was coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he talks about how, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: the guards would become too comfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says otherwise we might have had longer warning of the coming of the dragon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Had they not been overly comfortable and manning their posts the way they should have, but then there's discussion about how, well, would that really have made any difference at all anyway?
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I talked about at the beginning of the episode, this is another one of those details that really paints the picture of what it would have been like to live in a place like this at the height of the dwarf's power.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were multiple guardhouses, there were roads that were
[SPEAKER_00]: some along the side of the river.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were bridges that were made for crossing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This size of the passageway down the main entrance of Irabore was large enough for multiple people or carts to be going to and fro.
[SPEAKER_00]: There would have been regular trade and the regular people working and walking and talking with each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we are getting here is the ghost of something that used to be alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: a working, lively kingdom that would have needed guards to watch the different ways to and from the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, during this entire time, the mixing of the natural and the beautiful designs of the dwarves that nature around them with the destruction has created this eerie dissonance after they decide to stop here and shelter for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're told that Dory was always looking up towards the mountain's peak as if he expected to see Smellg, perched there like a bird on a steeple.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can picture this in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: This idea of this dragon who's been just waiting on the other side of the mountain peeking over the top to see the dwarves come out, to a place where they couldn't defend themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet that doesn't happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lauren says, we must take our chance of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can go no further today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in a moment of comedic relief, and I think this is another one of those moments, Bilbo cries out here here, and he flings himself to the ground, because he's so ready to be done walking, and he's exhausted in all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a typical Bilbo moment, and one of those points of comedic relief that seemed much more common earlier in the story, and yet we haven't gotten much of that, as things have become more and more serious
[SPEAKER_00]: This chapter ends with this paragraph.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the rock chamber, there would have been room for a hundred, and there was a small chamber further in, more removed from the cold outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was quite deserted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not even wild animals seem to have used it, and all the days of Smaukes, Dominion.
[SPEAKER_00]: There they laid their burdens, and some threw themselves down at once, and slept.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the others sat near the outer door, and discussed their plans.
[SPEAKER_00]: where is Smauge?
[SPEAKER_00]: They looked west, and there was nothing, and east, there was nothing, and in the south, there was no sign of the dragon.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a gathering of very many birds, at that they gazed and wondered, but they were no nearer understanding it when the first cold stars came back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you're enjoying this section of the book as much as I am with the creepy juxtaposition between the beautiful things and the terribleness of smug and their journey out of the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so excited to get to the next chapter, but before that, well, I've got to welcome our newest patrons thank you to everyone who signed up in this last, well it's been a week and a half.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did the last episode a little bit earlier than I normally do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Comment on the Patreon and let me know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But thank you everybody for being here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do have one review that came in this last week on Apple Podcasts in the US.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please leave five star reviews wherever you're listening to or comment nice things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any of that stuff absolutely helps share it with your friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: This came from camey.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eat who says excellent breakdown of very complicated dot dot dot.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the title.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it got cut off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And writes, Tolkien is a master in this podcast breaks down his creation in an easy to understand and engaging way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So happy I found this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So simple and so nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for taking the time to leave that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's it for this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're moving on to the next chapter and more craziness because you know how the story goes from here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It only gets crazier.
[SPEAKER_00]: So excited for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and I'll see you next time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the Lord of the Rings lorecast.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to learn more about other fantasy worlds, check out my other podcasts.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Elder Scrolls lorecast, the Witcher lorecast, and more, have robotsradio.net.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to reach out, I'd love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Send me a note on Twitter at robots underscore radio, or join our amazing community on the robots radio discord.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are links in the show notes, or just search robotsradio discord, or find the link on robotsradio.net.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you next time.