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

Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning. The first sentence of today's episode is,

With such gloomy thoughts followed ever by croaking crows above them,

they made their weary way back to the camp.

On last week's episode, we discussed a lot of the details of their journey going to the

lonely mountain, the way that the landscape and even the weather, the time of year, all

of these details compound together to affect the mood, or at least to share in the mood of the party as they get closer and closer to the mountain.

And of course, we know the reasons, or at least some of the reasons, for why the party was in such a bad mood.

For example, you have Bilbo, who is concerned about having to confront a dragon, and that seems more

and more likely as time goes on. And so it would make sense that they are in a kind of a

dark mood. They've been on a long journey. They are exhausted. They don't know what the future

holds. But in some ways, this feels counterintuitive.

Just a few days earlier, they were partying in Lake Town and being treated like celebrities,

and they were in very good moods.

And we know that they're getting closer and closer to the point of the story because we've read it before,

or we've at least watched the movies, where they find the

hidden door. And we know that they have the hint to help them find the door, the runes on the

map. And the runes, let's go back and read those. Stand by the gray stone when the thrush

knocks, and the setting sun with the last day of Duren's day will shine upon the keyhole.

So it seems like they have all of the elements that they need.

They are equipped.

They are fed.

...