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

Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning.

One of the reasons why I enjoy doing this close read and going over like three to five or six pages at a time is that I've realized it gives me a lot more time to think about things.

It's not just about zooming in and getting the definition

of specific words, which, by the way, there is a word in this week's section that was invented

by Tolkien. And we're going to discuss that. But the thing that stood out to me this week that I didn't

realize was as important, I guess. Maybe that's the way to say it. It's not that I didn't realize

that going slow would reveal things that I hadn't thought about otherwise. But this week's episode,

I took an extra few days. Some things changed in my schedule this week. And something happened

in my thinking through this text in my subconscious. One day, I woke up and I realized that there are themes that match

in this section. For example, Frodo, picking up after Bilbo at the party, is very similar

to Frodo taking on the responsibility of carrying the ring after Bilbo leaves.

In fact, that's not the only smaller version of a bigger theme that we even see in just these few pages.

Another one would be that previously in this chapter we've seen Old Man Bilbo, the fact that he's so tired of

dealing with all of these other hobbits and the funny ways in which he does deal with

them, which we're going to get more into in this episode.

But it comes across as somebody who's been doing this for a long time who needs a vacation.

Yes, he's extremely witty, he's still very clever and very on top of things, but he's tired.

In this chapter, we finally get to really get to know Frodo, and Mary as well shows up.

And they come across with a very different kind of energy.

So sure, Frodo is tired of dealing with all the visitors and he takes

a moment to relax and remove himself. But then again, when pressed, as we get to the end of this

...