Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lore cast, the show that explores the background of

Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning. There is a lot to love about what Tolkien does as a writer, as an author, ways that he creates things differently than other authors and the world that he creates things differently than other authors and the world that he

creates, especially when you think about how the creation of Middle Earth, the creation of

everything that he's done started a century ago.

He was paving the way, and yet, sure, there were other authors creating fictional worlds,

but just not in the same way that Tolkien did.

But that's not one of my favorite things.

I mean, it's a great thing, but if I was to say one of my favorite things, and it would be the way that he has the ability to transpose absolute terribleness.

And I'm smiling as I say this because it's, I mean, it's dark.

The kinds of things that happen in these stories, the darkness, the hopelessness, the despair, with moments of light.

And I've talked about this before on the show.

The way that Tolkien uses the backdrop of these dark, massive enemies,

these characters like Morgoth, Melkor, or Sauron,

and the impending doom that they bring,

and how he's able to cut through that darkness

with these points of light that are so bright that they can puncture through that

darkness.

And they make, even though they're small, a very critical change, a very critical

cut in that darkness. And I think that punctuates the power of light over darkness, of hope

against despair, of the kinds of real- world things we deal with. And to be

frank, guys, the real world can be very dark. There are a lot of terrible things that happen.

There are a lot of terrible things that people do to each other. And yet in the midst of all

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