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.

While he's away, I'm doing a variety of episodes, some on my own, some coming up with guest hosts,

including picking up where I left off last time Jeff was away with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Last week, I covered Book 4, Chapter 4 of the Lord of the Rings of Herbs and stewed rabbit,

where Sam just tried to have a nice home-cooked meal, but ended up running into the war, and we met the new character of Faramir. This week, we're moving into Chapter 5 of Book 4, the window on the West,

but this is a very long chapter, the longest chapter so far in Book 4, so I'm going to be doing

what we often do on the Song of Ice and Fire podcast, and split this chapter up into two episodes. So next week I'm going to be finishing this chapter up. So we're going to be just starting off this chapter this week, book four, chapter five of

the Lord of the Rings, The Window on the West. When last we left off, Sam was taking a nap,

perchance to dream of the wonders he'd seen. But he wakes up to some grim realities. As I said last week, the middle section of

book four works differently from the beginning and the end of the book, which are focused more

on otherworldly obstacles in dreamlike settings. Here in the middle of the book, Tolkien is focused

on mundane, practical realities, what the mortals make of each other when they're

not busy dealing with things like flying ring wraiths and giant spiders.

Faramir returned while Sam slept, bringing all his men with him.

Hundreds of men gathered in a semicircle around Frodo and Faramir, who sit facing each other.

It looks to Sam as though Frodo is on trial. We've gone from

high fantasy to a legal drama. And like most legal dramas, this one is at its heart about performance.

The staging also reminds me of an amphitheater as though Frodo and Faramere are putting on a play.

And so they are. They're performing for each other, for the on-looking men, and for themselves.

Because it's not just Frodo on trial, Faramir's soul must take the stand as well.

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