143. Playing Tales of the Shire So You Don’t Have To

When Tolkien attempted to rewrite the Hobbit in 1960, he just gave up halfway through Chapter 3. In this episode we look at: Changes in time and distance Changes in Prose and style Why he gave up His...

5 Nov 202445min

In the second half of Chapter 3, A Short Rest, Tolkien seems to start a shift from a children’s story to more of an epic quest.  What prompted this change?  We have our thoughts, including: How Elron...

29 Okt 202442min

We did it!  And this time we wrangled Dan in to give us his BIG THOUGHT again! 🙂 In this final episode of Season 2, one dwarf delved too deep (and then we find out the real problem there–political in...

8 Okt 20242h 8min

Yeah.  They kissed. We also get the worst battle in the history of Middle-earth, the greatest smith of Eregion acceds to Sauron willingly, the dwarves turn back and entire army to face one person, and...

1 Okt 20242h 15min

Michael is back as we examine how wrong The Rings of Power treats the elves (as simple imbeciles), how the Númenoreans are now deciding rulers based on what big animals do, and how Tom Bombadil invert...

24 Sep 20240s

It was disappointing but not surprising to see how badly Hollywood writers treat the Númenorean’s faith.  We take a deep look at episode 5 of season 2 of The Rings of Power (Michael is still moving ac...

17 Sep 20240s

Not sure how this Tom Bombadil came into existence–but he’s definitely incredibly different from Tolkien’s Bombadil.  He’s involved.  He cares about everything.  He lies to Gandalf.  He explains every...

10 Sep 20240s

Season 2 of The Rings of Power is here! And with it comes new hackneyed phrases, ridiculous contrivances, and incredible coincidences. Things aren’t looking up. Don’t worry, though… we’ll be back read...

4 Sep 20240s