The One Ring

Mae govannen, dear listeners, and welcome to Season 2 of For the Shire.

We begin, as all great tales do, in shadow, by turning our gaze to the One Ring:

That which devours.

That which disembodies.

That which destroys.

“What have I got in my pocket?”

A riddle, a chance, a doom.

The Ring holds many powers, but perhaps its greatest gift was not to Bilbo, nor to Gollum, nor even to Sauron. But to Tolkien himself. It gave him something solid, something glinting in the dark, to seize amidst the vast, swirling depths of the mythic world he was weaving. Down in the endless blackness of the Misty Mountains, the Ring gleamed, metallic, crisp, and cold, and Bilbo’s fingers closed around it. So too did Tolkien’s imagination close around this talisman, forging from it the legend that would shape his life’s work.

And so we, in turn, hold fast to the Ring. We follow where it leads:

Into the underworld,

To the fiery chasm from whence it came,

To the hidden realms beneath the seen world where ancient forces stir and archetypes rise.

On this journey we pass through the lands of animism, of mass consumption, of charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and The Tower. Each step draws us deeper into the heart of the story and the heart of ourselves.

And so we ask you, listener:

What is it that you have in your pocket?

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If you'd love to geek out with us, reach out to ⁠fortheshire.pod@gmail.com⁠ or follow us on @fortheshire.pod on Instagram.

Co-hosted by Molly Davis and Libby Rose Waite.

Music by Steve Ernenwein, host and composter for The Dreams that Shape Us Podcast:

⁠https://linktr.ee/dreamsthatshapeus⁠

⁠https://linktr.ee/aqthedreamwalker