Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lore cast, the show that explores the background of chapter five, you're probably thinking that things are about to wind down.

In fact, you've probably read this chapter many times maybe.

And you might be thinking, okay, we've gotten through

Bilbo encountering Gollum. I almost said meeting, but it's not really a meeting. It's an

encounter. And Bilbo accidentally finding the ring, the riddle game, the slipping on of the ring

on the finger, and the chase up back through

the mountain. So you might be thinking, hey, that's probably it. From this point on, it's all downhill,

or uphill and downhill on occasion, depending on how the, you know, the caves wind through the

mountain.

But there's more to it.

Of course.

Of course there's more to it.

If you've been listening to this show and if you've been reading J.R.R. Tolkien,

you know that there is more.

That Tolkien is not done foreshadowing or setting up things for the future in a few different

ways. We get in this next set of pages the first time that the ring tries to betray Bilbo.

But even more interestingly, we have a situation.

We have a situation that Ghalem goes through, a very specific situation and a mistake that he makes, that he will not make a second time.

We'll also see once again how Tolkien manages to ramp up the tension.

He understands how to build a climactic event, even when it just has to do with Bilbo

escaping a cave.

So welcome back, friends.

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