Welcome to the Lord of the Rings lorecast, the show that explores the background of Tolkien's amazing world from the very beginning. There's an old adage about war that you've probably heard before.

War is long periods of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. We are in the quiet before the

storm. On the last episode, you heard the elves rejoice that Turgan and the gondolinians

had decided to join the conflict.

And so now they wait.

They have a plan.

Remember the anvil and the hammer?

They have a plan for how they can take on Morgoth and defeat him.

But everything needs to go to plan.

And so they wait.

And in this period of time,

Morgoth, as we have found out,

has spies.

We're told later in this story

that the greatest weapon Morgoth uses against the forces of the free peoples.

It is not dragons. It is not ballrogs.

It is not his own sheer terror and power itself.

It is distrust. It is distrust.

It is the fear of men who are willing to betray their own to save themselves.

It is spies.

And among the Nooldor, there are men. There are many different men.

Some who are true of heart, like Huron, and Hoor, who would fight to the very end, but way too many others who seek to save their

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