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

Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning. So we're finally at the party.

And it's more than a party.

It's basically a fair that was put on by One Hobbit for the enjoyment of everybody else there.

And Tolkien puts in the work to make sure that we know who is at this party.

It's basically everyone in the shire plus extra. And then he goes into even further detail about

who are the closest members of this group that get to go to the special dinner of 144 people, a gross total number,

and all of that.

And you might be wondering, why is he so insistent this early in the book to feed us these

details?

What is the point of it?

And why, as we get through this section of this chapter, does everything

seem so busy and dense and full? Well, there's a solution to that. And this is something

that actually just dawned on me this morning. After I already went through this section. I've done a little

bit of research. I

mark up all my notes. And then I think about it for a few days. And it occurred to me that the tone

of the text, not just the tone of the text, the pacing of the text matches the excitement of the

party. Have you ever gone to a party, a big event, a celebration, a concert, some sort of major event,

and you looked forward to it for weeks, and then you get there.

And it's as if the night just takes off on its own.

Before you know it, six, eight hours have gone by, and it's time to go home.

This happens to little kids all the time. They get lost in the fun of the thing they're doing,

...