Hello, and welcome to the NataCast podcast, the podcast that usually goes through a Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week, but not here.

I'm one of your hosts Emmett, also known as Poor Quentin. My co-host, Jeff, also known as Brendan Beefish, is taking a couple months off the podcast for work.

As soon as he's back, we'll resume the weekly Song of Ice and Fire podcast

with Sansa 3 in a Storm of Swords. In the meantime, I'm recording some episodes on my own and some

with guest hosts on a variety of topics, including picking up where I left off last time Jeff was gone

with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Last week, we covered book four chapter 3 of the Lord

of the Rings. The Black Gate is closed, and this week week we covered book four chapter three of the Lord of the Rings,

The Black Gate is closed, and this week we're covering book four, chapter four of herbs and

stewed rabbit. The first three chapters of book four were a descent into hell, like an inverted

pilgrim's progress, or a version of Dante's Inferno with Gollum playing the part of Virgil.

Frodo and his companions made it out of the labyrinth of the Eminemuil,

and crossed the wasteland of the dead marshes only to be stopped dead by the Black Gate.

Now what? Where are they going? And what does that mean for the story?

Book four is divided up into three parts.

The third and final part is another descent into hell like the first, climbing past the

nightmare city of Minas Morgle into the dark terror of Shilab's lair.

But in between, the second part of the book, the tone is different.

Less terrifying, more melancholy.

There's still a threat, but it has less to do

with flying ring wraiths and giant spiders than how the ordinary mortals deal with one another,

as the shadow grows all around them. The chapters at the beginning and end of book four are so

effective in part because of the sense of isolation. Frodo, Sam, and Ghalam are so cut off from the rest of the

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