Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lore cast,

the show that explores the background of Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning. In prepping for chapter 7 and getting ready to record today, of course, I'm doing my

read-through and a little bit of research and kind of getting everything ready.

And it occurred to me that as I was looking up the definition of carrock or the nature

of oak and elm trees and those kinds of things in order to fill in those details for

all of you on today's episode, I realized that I've been creating something with the intent of

sharing it for you, for the listeners out there, and for your enjoyment and your education.

And yet, and maybe this isn't a surprise for anybody, I've been the recipient of that as much as any of you.

I was thinking about it. The last time I went and read through these books, I didn't take the time

to answer the questions that popped in my head as I read through the books. I was familiar

with the works, and I was familiar with the history of the world and the world building, the mythology, all of these mysterious and ancient creatures and beings and individuals, and all of that stuff. And yet, I still come across things when reading this, like, you know what? I don't know that much about

oaks and elms. That seems like something worth researching. Or the word carrock. I always assumed

that the word carrock was an existing word that they just happened to use in the story.

But no, it's not. It's a combination of old words that were made into basically

a new word for The Hobbit. Because, of course it was. Because this is J.R.R. Tolkien. That's what he does.

And yet, I wouldn't have taken the time to dig into these types of details if it wasn't

for the fact that all of you were listening along to this show and giving me the opportunity to do

so. So I just wanted to start out this episode and say, thank you so much for that opportunity.

And I mention it occasionally. I enjoy making this content. I enjoy doing this show, hopefully as much as all of you enjoy listening to it. But from that particular perspective, I don't think it really, really hit me until today that not only has it given me the opportunity to do this, but to also dig deeper into

the things that I wasn't really sure of. So thank you for that. All right, so let's get into

Chapter 7, Queer Loggings. So this picks up right after where they were in the previous chapter, of course.

They're up in the eerie of these

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