384 – Ticket to Ride

The Prancing Pony Podcast

Alan Sisto

Film Reviews, Books, Tv & Film, Arts

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tolkien writes about the difficulty of relating the legendarium without “explanatory digressions”; Alan and Sara realize the PPP has a new subtitle. Join The Man of the West and the Shieldmaiden of Rohan as we begin — hold on to your headphones — a ten-part series on the story of Aldarion and Erendis, as the PPP begins its season-long look at Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. Meneldur is a humble and wise king; Vëantur gives his grandson a ticket to ride; and Aldarion starts his cult of personality early on. We wonder if Tolkien would ever have been satisfied with The Silmarillion, challenge listeners to put “ready to mirth” on their dating profiles, and discover that what we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Also, Alan sings too much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, when I started this podcast, it felt like I had to become 10 people overnight.
0:05.3	Producer, editor, marketer, designer. It was a lot. And I kept thinking, I wish I had someone in my
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1:02.2	Shopify.com.com.com. Hello. This is Jack Wilson, the host of the History of Literature
1:08.6	podcast. For the past 10 years, I've been talking to novelists,
1:12.4	biographers, and scholars about the greatest books in the history of the world and the men and
1:17.2	women who wrote them, like our recent episodes on Dante in Love, a starter pack of 10 Indian
1:23.5	classics, the pop culture that influenced Sylvia Plath and a talk with scientist and novelist
1:29.9	Alan Lightman about the wonders of nature. Join us at the History of Literature podcast wherever you
1:36.0	get your podcasts. Good evening, little masters, and welcome to episode 384 of the prancing pony podcast, where, well, my exercise is rather in thought than in the deeds of the body.
1:58.5	But are you also into astronomy?
2:18.1	Yeah, astrology, right? Maybe, no. Oh, don't let Christine Larson hear you say that. I'm kidding. I was totally kidding. Folks, pull up a bench in the common room and join us. I'm Sarah Brown, the shield maiden of Rohan, and I'm here with the Man of the West, who is all too often ready to mirth, Alan Sisto.
	...

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