[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]: Have you ever thought about all the different things that you have to take into consideration as an author, as you're writing through a story?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure a lot of us consider some of these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: The general plot, the different kinds of characters, the locations, the character arcs, the way things are going to play out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even the tone and the minute details that bind the scene stuff, the things that you don't necessarily point out, [SPEAKER_00]: But there's another element among all of the different things that you have to consider that I don't think it's discussed very often.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about information.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do characters know what they know?

[SPEAKER_00]: And how does important information get from one place to another, especially when it's secret?

[SPEAKER_00]: especially when the plot hinges on that information getting exactly to the place it needs to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some authors are better about this than other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes people just magically know things, and it's not really explained or sometimes it's kind of a clumsy thing or sometimes it's a Deus Ex-Makina.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a god behind the machines and things we're just going to work out that way no matter what.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the most elegant solution to the problem of the dissemination of information, are solutions that make sense in the context of the world and the situations that the characters are in.

[SPEAKER_00]: In today's episode, we're going to be discussing how information travels from one place to another.

[SPEAKER_00]: A few different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: The most prominent one that you're probably aware of is the information about [SPEAKER_00]: and how that information gets passed to the dwarves and in the conversation between Bilbo and the dwarves, it is overheard by the thrush, who then takes that information to bard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just saying that like I am saying it right now out of context, it seems kind of silly, but we have to remember that this is fantasy, this is mythology, and there is magic in this world, [SPEAKER_00]: sometimes those creatures have their own agendas, but there's also other forms of information that gets shared.

[SPEAKER_00]: They discuss how to kill a dragon and the stories they know about heroes from the past and the things that they did that were successful or did not work in fighting dragons.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have to remember that the dwarves at this point have dealt with dragons in the north.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dragons were a huge problem in the mountains to the north where many of the dwarves had lived, where even those who had lived in Eribor at one point went and helped with the dragon wars.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they know the stories of the past and the way that that information is conveyed leads to a solution to their problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And right now, that's a very big and angry and yet strangely quiet problem that they're going to have to deal with.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's get into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the afternoon was turning into evening when he came out again, and stumbled and fell in a faint on the doorstep.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dwarves revived him, and doctored his scorches as well as they could, but it was a long time before the hair on the back of his head, and his heels [SPEAKER_00]: Roupar properly, it can.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw how cannot say that without laughing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It had all been cinched and frizzled, right down to the skin.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not supposed to be a funny moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I try to point those out when they do occur.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is funny to me because the version of Bilbo that we carry around in our heads does not include the back of his head, missing his hair, or the back of his heels because we have to remember that he has lots of hair on his feet because he's a hobbit.

[SPEAKER_00]: it's such a funny image.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine in the movies, if at this point in the story, Bilba was running around with a singed back of his head with no hair for the rest of the film, I'm not sure that we would have really engaged with that in the same way that it makes sense in a story like in a book like this, like a novel.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just picturing Martin Freeman without hair on the back of his head.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just doesn't come across as charismatic when he looks like [SPEAKER_00]: a cancer patient.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, it's just, it's very sad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but yeah, poor bill though, getting cinished by Smaug's blast and makes it back up the passageway.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there he is, and there of course, tending to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And bill though is shaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know I should probably do this in more of a tone that matches the actual book.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's shaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is, he is worried, he is uncomfortable, and it specifically says that in the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit was worried and uncomfortable, and they had difficulty in getting anything out of him, and worried and comfortable is probably understated here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just barely survived with his life.

[SPEAKER_00]: From dealing with a dragon face to face, can you imagine going through that?

[SPEAKER_00]: And now he's not only just barely survived, but he's having doubts about the way he handled the situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he garnered some new knowledge and some very crucial knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing that may possibly be able to stop this gigantic monster, but at the same time, he may have revealed too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says he was now regretting some of the things that he had said to the dragon and was not eager to repeat them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was now also worried about what the dwarves would think about his decisions and what [SPEAKER_00]: not typically billbowl-like.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gets angry easily.

[SPEAKER_00]: He throws a stone at the thrush.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was still there just hanging out because we have to remember this thrush.

[SPEAKER_00]: This very specific thrush was part of the prophecy that would help them find the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever think about why that would be the case?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you just make a prophecy about some random bird showing up in a random place at some time in the future?

[SPEAKER_00]: The very specific time, well, I guess a specific place at a specific time in the future, but they're just happening to be a bird there, or [SPEAKER_00]: is the bird placed there on purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: But how could that possibly be?

[SPEAKER_00]: Little birds like this only live very, very short lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever crafted this door would have done so at least a few hundred years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, maybe they have magic that can help reveal the door, or I don't know, predict when the sun is going to shine at a certain time on a certain day, but that you could do that with star charts and things like that, you would know when the sun sets on a certain day in the future, if you're charting the sky over years and years and years, that doesn't take magic.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the elements of having a thrush there right at exactly the right moment feels [SPEAKER_00]: may have been exactly the same bird that was with the dwarves when they crafted the door, and that thrush is magical and intelligent and able to choose to be there because it is a friend of the dwarves.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a companion of maybe the craftsman who made this door.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it knew that it had a job on a certain day in order to just follow through with what the dwarves who had crafted this place wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that seems incredible until we get to the details in this part of the story that make it more possible and we'll get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Bilbo is upset.

[SPEAKER_00]: Leave him alone, Sithorn.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thrashes are good and friendly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he goes into the details about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a very old bird indeed, and is maybe the last left of the ancient breed that used to live about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now how he would know if it's the last left, I'm not sure, but he may remember from a time in his youth when those birds were becoming more and more extinct.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't expect to see another one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And being such an important person in the society, then he would probably have information about something like these majestic magical old birds.

[SPEAKER_00]: He goes on and gives us more information.

[SPEAKER_00]: Teem to the hands of my father and grandfather, his direct lineage.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were a long-lived and magical race, and this might even be one of those that were alive then, a couple of hundreds of years or more ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me say that again, a couple of hundreds of years or more ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: These birds are not just long lived because they can live decades.

[SPEAKER_00]: These birds live for centuries.

[SPEAKER_00]: This bird may have witnessed everything that happened in Eribor since the time before who knows.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thor remembers?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he goes on, the men of Dale used to have the trick of understanding their language and used them for messengers to fly to the men of the lake and elsewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: The men of Dale and the men of the lake are linked.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is another one of those points that makes this clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: It also shows that there are those who understand their language, maybe some of Thorin's ancestors.

[SPEAKER_00]: But definitely the men of Dale, and their descendants potentially, is this something that gets passed down to them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this does get confirmed as we get further in the story, but we're not quite there yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we get this really interesting line.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he'll have news to take to Laketown, all right, if that is what he is after, said Bilbo.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is foreshadowing.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thrush has not left them, we have no reason to believe the thrush would go specifically to Laketown.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now that we found out that this is a magical bird that people can understand their language, this feels like a possibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: It also feels just kind of like a flippant comment by Bilba because he's stressed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it'll definitely have news to share if that's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though I don't suppose there are any people left there that trouble with thrush language.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's probably a good assumption.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are men.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have limited life spans, and many of the people of Dale no longer exist because they were destroyed by smell.

[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, this foreshadowing is going to prove that Bilbo had a right hunch about this, and the information getting spread, but was wrong about the idea that there would be nobody left who can understand the thrush language.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as I talked about at the beginning, this may come across if you are somebody who's just simply reading a story like a convenient solution to the problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you convey that smug has a weakness so that the people of Lake Town can at least attempt to fight back?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because otherwise, there's no hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: This dragon is too powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's invulnerable for the most part except for this one spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's nothing they'll be able to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It seems impossible.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it seems convenient for a magical bird to show up and just kind of convey that information to everyone, but we have to remember that Tolkien set this up before this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bird was here because of the prophecy about the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bird was tasked to be here, or most likely was tasked to be here, maybe, maybe not, or chose to be here, because it is a more intelligent, long-lived creature than it appears from the outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, this absolutely matches the theme that's been billbows storyful time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't underestimate things that are small.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the big things that can change the world, although they do, but also the small things, the small people, the small creatures.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a theme.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the reason why Gandalf goes and makes friends with the Hobbits, because he believes that even the smallest among us, even the lowest, [SPEAKER_00]: And in Bilbo's case, he's just a hobbit.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a little guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He can't do a lot, but what he can do, he does really well, and he has the courage to do it when he needs to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we've learned that lesson by now about Bilbo, then we shouldn't doubt the thrush.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this ties together in a genius and very simple kind of way.

[SPEAKER_00]: It solves the problem of conveying that information in a way that doesn't feel like it cheats or flippant or not even worth noting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It conveys this information where it needs to go in a way that absolutely matches everything that this book has set up so far.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so at this point, they're not being attacked.

[SPEAKER_00]: They seem, it seems like they've got time to kind of recover and whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Bilbo relaxes a little bit and he starts to confess about what happened with the dragon.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that maybe the dragon guessed too much of his ripples and he specifically says, I am sure he knows we came from Lake Town and had help from there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is something that you could assume based on the fact that Smaug was able to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at the ponies and knew the items and the ponies and those probably came from Lake Town, but it was even more confirmed by the Barrel Rider comments and Bilbo owns up to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he gets a response from Ballon that totally makes sense because remember, Ballon is kind of filling in here as a father figure for Bilbo.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, well, well, it cannot be helped, and it is difficult not to slip and talking to a dragon or so I've always heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ballon would have heard the stories about talking to dragons, and he's trying to help Bilbo out here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you did very well, if you ask me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You found out one very useful thing at any rate and got home alive, and that's, that's a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that anybody else in this situation would have succeeded at that except for Bilbo.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the best they could possibly do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they begin discussing dragons slaying, and all of the stories that they know, historical, dubious, and mythical.

[SPEAKER_00]: Notice mythical and dubious are not the same thing necessarily.

[SPEAKER_00]: We use myth in our own current day world as saying things like, well, it's just a myth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just dubious.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how we use myth, but in Tolkien's mind, myth is not inherently dubious.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be dubious, but it also might be historical.

[SPEAKER_00]: or it could lie somewhere between the two, those are not necessarily mutually exclusive things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they tell these stories and it makes me wonder how many stories did they have about fighting dragons, slaying dragons, how many heroes had attempted that throughout history, how many dragons were there?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have good answers to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We only have a few little pieces that have come up here and there and I've discussed a lot in certain bonus episodes, but [SPEAKER_00]: Really, there aren't that many that we know about.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dwarves on the other hand would probably know about a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this brings to mind another piece of the information puzzle.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do you deal with situations like this?

[SPEAKER_00]: In a world where you can't just look something up online, where you can't just ask AI to give you the best answer for a thing and do some research on some forums or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: That information was conveyed through storytelling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Word of mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, storytelling and word of mouth has its flaws.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody wants to change the details a little bit, even subconsciously, people will change the details a little bit, will miss remember things, and over time that information can fall apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just like Bilbo's situation with the dragon, sometimes it still conveys something very important.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the most important bits actually continue, even though the other details might change.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is another parallel to the exactly the thing that's happening right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they discuss, well, maybe there are things from these stories that we can use to help us out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they come to a conclusion, [SPEAKER_00]: They decide that, well, it seems like confronting a dragon in its sleep is a bad idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: People try this all the time, but dragons tend to use that to their advantage, and will kill the heroes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whereas confronting it straight on might actually be a better strategy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, why would that be the case?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, like, Smog just showed us, he was pretending to sleep.

[SPEAKER_00]: If Bilbo had revealed himself, he would have seen him immediately and could have killed him without a second thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: but if you do approach a dragon directly, maybe you can catch it in a conversation, maybe you can use riddles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you can set up a situation where it is, I don't know, hunting or traveling is not a sleep and you hide in a ravine while it is awake and confront it more directly than if it was sleeping, like two are in did.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that counts, but maybe that's one of the stories they were talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't say here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they decide that taking it straight on is probably the best thing to do, which, of course, plays into the foreshadowing.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Smell attacks Lake Town, that nobody can sneak up on him, it's not going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody has to confront him directly, and of course we'll get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in this moment, Bilbo is still not feeling safe, and he warns them again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am sure we are very unsafe here, he said, and I don't see the point of sitting here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dragon has withered all the Pleasant Green, and anyway, the knight has come in and is cold, but I feel it in my bones that this place will be attacked again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe this is Bill Bo's PTSD kind of reaction happening here, or maybe there's something more going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there's probably something more going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he reinforces this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he will break all this side of the mountain to bits if necessary to stop our entrance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we are smashed with it, the better he will like it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Thorin's like, wow, you're very gloomy, Mr.

Baggins.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then asks a very good question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why has not Smauge blocked the lower end then, if he's so eager to keep us out?

[SPEAKER_00]: he has not or we should have heard him like wouldn't we hear this happening and he hasn't done it yet so why wouldn't he do that now this is a great question talking would know that we would ask this it feels like a plot hole wouldn't he lock up the entrance in order to make sure that they couldn't get back in so that they would have to go outside so that he could kill them out there wouldn't that make sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Bilbo tries to answer the question.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I don't know, maybe you wanted to try and learn me in again, or perhaps he's waiting till after tonight's hunt, because he doesn't want to damage his bedroom, or I don't know who knows.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a dragon.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, maybe he's got something else going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we find out in a little bit that Smout did have something else going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was being secret and silent and quiet and hoping to catch them unaware.

[SPEAKER_00]: He also probably knew that they wouldn't actually risk going back down into the treasure room because if he was still down there, because they haven't heard anything, so they're probably assuming he's still down there, then they wouldn't go down there anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if they did, and he came back and they were still there, he would just murder them.

[SPEAKER_00]: kind of wins no matter what.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's overconfident.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that makes sense that he would make a mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, he's extremely vain in the idea that he wouldn't want to mess up his bedroom by, say, breaking that part of the entrance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also kind of makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's vain.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why mess up something nice when they're all just going to die anyway?

[SPEAKER_00]: So the party is still debating what to do, and they're not sure about where to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they leave, they'll probably be killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they go in, they'll probably be killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're only safe place they have is this passageway, and so they probably need to close the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if they do close the door, they probably can't open it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: They feel very stuck.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this makes a lot of sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not really an obvious good solution to this problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the conversation continues.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Bilbo has in his mind the poisonous words that Smog said to him about doubting the dwarves and their intentions and the fact that they were probably just manipulating him to get what they wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Bilbo brings this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, this feels like a wise decision to do in the situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: This feels like something that, again, in our modern day, would make sense if you go to therapy and your therapist says, well, why don't you just talk about it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why not communicate about your feelings?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you have doubts, the other person can address those doubts and at least you put everything on the table so that you can discuss it so you don't just make assumptions about each other, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This feels like a very modern kind of solution, but Tolkien knew that this was also the solution and Bilbo did too.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brings it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Thoreen is able to answer his concerns.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, we knew it would be a desperate venture, and we know that still.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I still think that when we have won it, we'll be time enough to think what to do about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: As for your share, Mr.

Baguette, I assure you we are more than grateful and you shall choose your own 14th.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's now upgraded him to like you get to choose which treasure you want as we divide this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as we have anything to divide, I am sorry if you are worried about transport and I admit the difficulties are great.

[SPEAKER_00]: The lands have not become less wild with the passing of time, rather the reverse as they have all come to realize in this adventure, but we will do whatever we can for you and take our share of the cost when the time comes, believe me or not as you like.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's basically just putting it out there, he's saying we're going to take care of you and I've already in my mind of upgraded you You're going to get the first pick of the treasure.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've done so much to carry all of us through all of this and we really do appreciate it [SPEAKER_00]: That's all you could ask for, aside from him continuing to be honest about that answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a good answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the kind of thing that Bilbo needed to hear in order to break the enchantment of these terrible words and images that the dragon put in his mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the discussion turns to all the things that are in the hoard, a whole list of wonderful things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, inspiration for future dungeons and dragons adventures and all the things that this story and the Lord of the Rings inspired in the things that we all consume today.

[SPEAKER_00]: This first one is really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: The spears that were made for the armies of the Great King, Bladderthin.

[SPEAKER_00]: bladder thin today sounds super silly like you've got a thin bladder like you've to peel off but it was a name that Tolkien had considered using for Gandalf before he went with Gandalf and I think it was a name that he really really liked.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it also leaves a big hole in our understanding of who this King bladder thin actually was.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't fit nicely into the kingdoms and the histories that we know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says here specifically that he's long since dead, then it describes these spears as a thrice forged heads and their shafts were inlayed with cunning gold, but of course they were never paid for.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why they're still there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were never picked up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who was this great King bladder thin?

[SPEAKER_00]: some speculate that it was a king of man, somebody who was in the northern part of the world, maybe, I don't know, from the lineage or the peoples that eventually became the people of the rover in, potentially, but there's not a whole lot of evidence for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: His name could be interpreted as being more elven, and this could have been an elven king, much like the woodland king, but [SPEAKER_00]: who that is and where they lived, we don't really know, and the fact that they're long since dead implies that they're more likely to have been a king of the lineage of men because of their life spans than an elven king who could still potentially be alive, but of course elves could die.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of different options here, but we don't actually know who this is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien just kind of sticks it in as another piece of history and maybe somewhere in his head he had an understanding of what this was or who this was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it goes on and explains Shields made for warriors long dead, a great golden cup of Thor to hand it hammered and carving with birds and flowers whose eyes and petals were of jewels.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can just picture these in your mind as he describes them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Coats of male, gilded and silvert and impenetrable.

[SPEAKER_00]: impenetrable?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is this a reference to Mithril before we even know that Mithril is a thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: The necklace of Gary and Lord of Dale made of 500 Emeralds green as grass, which he gave for the arming of his eldest son in a coat of dwarf linked rings, the like of which had never been made before, and it was wrought of pure silver to the power and strength of triple steel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me that doesn't sound like Mithril.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says pure silver, but this [SPEAKER_00]: of myth rule, and its lengths of chain, just like we see in the Lord of the Rings.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the fairest of them all, of course, is the Arkansas, great and white, and the dwarves found it beneath the roots of the mountain, the heart of the mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: This feels like an archeological discovery, like back in the, I don't know, the 17 1800s when explorers from the West were discovering or rediscovering these ancient lands and the ancient treasures of Egypt and the Middle East and Africa, and all of these places that the Western world had not really ever [SPEAKER_00]: explored before, at least in our modern world didn't really know about, and yet, of course, other cultures did.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may not have had the up-to-date details on all, you know, the locations of the different tombs and things, but I'm sure those cultures were like, yes, we had these ancient kings, and there's, you know, used to be treasure here, and this is what the treasure looked like, and all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what this feels like, this idea of a great and powerful series of kingdoms, [SPEAKER_00]: and the remains of those things from the past, which make your imagination wander.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get a moment when, of course, this happens a lot in the movie, but we get the moment where Thorin starts to think about the Arkansas, and he talks about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it was like a globe with a thousand facets, it's shown like silver in the firelight, like water in the sun, like snow under the stars, like rain, upon the moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And upon reading this for the first time in a while, I thought about this in the sense of this is what it would look like in each of those situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would shine like silver in when you took it and put it in firelight.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would shine like water if you put it out in the sun.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that's actually what is being said here.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are more metaphorical.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about exactly how shiny it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's shiny like all of these situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're giving this little note here that the enchanted desire of the hoard had fallen from Bilbo.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was no longer intoxicated.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this talk about all of these wonderful things, and yet he, all of a sudden, has a moment of clarity.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stops listening to the dwarves.

[SPEAKER_00]: He becomes clear of mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Darkness grew deeper and he grew ever more uneasy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shut the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: He begged them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like this silence far less than the upper-or of last night, shut the door before it is too late.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something about the situation in his mind in this moment gave him a moment of clarity that saves all of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it doesn't say it here, it's almost as if the dragon sickness, the greed, the discussion about all of the treasure, was something that was being forced into them through the presence of the dragon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was doing so in order to put them in a place where they would not realize that they were in danger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not a moment too soon, it says, in the very next paragraph, right after they close the door, they commit to closing the door, they kick the rock, they close the door, and then it's as if the side of the mountain explodes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what gave Bilbo the clarity in that situation was his resilience as a hobbit, was it something greater, the hand of a levittor, the luck of the hobbit, something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that it's ever revealed specifically for this situation, but we do know that they would have been destroyed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just going to read the very end of this because it is amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about smiled in his fury.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was breaking rocks to pieces, smashing wall and cliff with the lashings of his huge tail.

[SPEAKER_00]: Till their little lofty camping ground, the scorched grass, the threshest stone, the snail covered walls, the narrow ledge and all disappeared in a jumble of smithereens and an avalanche of splintered stones fell over the cliff into the valley below.

[SPEAKER_00]: Smog had left his layer in silent stealth, quietly soared into the air, and then floated heavy and slow in the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was waiting for the dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why he was being so quiet and why he hadn't actually patched up the whole in the entryway in his bed chamber.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was waiting for the darkness because he was using that to his benefit in order to confuse them and confront them directly without them expecting it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like a monstrous crow down the wind towards the west of the mountain in the hopes of catching unawares something or somebody there, and of spying the outlet to the passage which the thief had used.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was the outburst of his wrath when he could find nobody and see nothing, even where he guessed the outland must actually be.

[SPEAKER_00]: After he let off his rage in this way, he felt better.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he thought it in his heart that he would not be troubled again from that direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the meanwhile, he had further vengeance to take.

[SPEAKER_00]: Barrel Rider, he snorted.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your feet came from the water side and up the water you came without a doubt.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know your smell, but if you are not one of those men of the lake, you have their help.

[SPEAKER_00]: They shall see me, and remember who is the real king under the mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: He rose in fire and went away south towards the running river.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for tuning in again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got some new or a new patron, Norwegian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to miss this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Norwegian is Belrogius Hunterus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fun name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining the Patreon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Patreon.com slash L-O-T-R-Lorcast to help support this show to get ad free episodes and bonus episodes every single week and all sorts of other fun stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: T-shirts and stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go check it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your continued support to all the patrons, and I have to shout out all of our VIP tier patrons And then get to the reviews.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got a one-star review.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna read because hey, why not, but thank you to all of the VIP patrons Let's see if I can get through all the names a camey's a clever Eldarion was right Apollo a Varyl as a result Barney D Daniel Knight we've heard David S.

Divine Madman full-crim Gimli a break ginger fury who on is my hero Jezor Capena [SPEAKER_00]: Lori B, Mason Weathertop, Matt, nor Wedgey Ennis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm gonna mess this up every week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Balrogius Hunter is Party Snacks, Philip M, Richard J.

Rosie Rose, single end looking for antwives, the best display TJT.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much to all of you for your support and for just being a part of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for coming up with wacky names that are hard to read, I appreciate that as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so we got a new review that showed up on Apple Podcasts here in the US.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a one-star review, and it says, annoying voice and pacing, kind of an annoying voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: He always starts out every episode with a calm, even tone.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then five minutes in, he's basically yelling because he's excited about something.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a jarring shift in tone.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish he would get lessons on how to speak properly to host a podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so that's an opinion, I guess.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's a problem, let me know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I guess I'm already a whole lot of episodes in, so I can't really go back and redo all those old episodes.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I could change that if that's a problem, or, [SPEAKER_00]: maybe speaking in a calm, even tone for half an hour is boring, and I'm passionate about the subject matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: You let me know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me know what you agree with or disagree with, and thank you for continuing to be here, and I hope you're excited to continue the story, because it only gets better from here.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to deal with the legtown attack, and all that stuff coming up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be super fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go answer some more questions for the patrons, [SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, if you get excited about something, then make sure to speak in a calm and even tone.

[SPEAKER_00]: 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 Under Score Radio, or join our amazing community on the Robots Radio Discord.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are links in the show notes, or just search Robots Radio Discord, or find the link on RobotsRadio.net.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you next time.