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's third chapter in a storm of swords.

In the meantime, I'm picking up where I left off last time with J.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Last week, I finished up Book 4, Chapter 5 in the Lord of the Rings, The Window on the West,

in which Faramir and Frodo put each other's souls on trial and emerged as friends.

This week, we're covering book four, chapter six of the Lord of the Rings, The Forbidden Pool.

So even though Faramere and Frodo are getting along now, there is one sticking point left

unresolved.

Gollum.

He stands in for the possibility of it all falling apart, especially regarding the nature of the Hobbit's mission.

So now we have to redo the trial in this chapter, but externalized.

Frodo's not on trial. He's being forced to act as judge, jury, and by proxy executioner.

When Faramir wakes Frodo up, it instigates old fears in him. He's worried that Farmer might have changed his mind, come to attack him.

All that work was for nothing.

The mood of melancholia from the previous chapter gives way to suspense and mystery.

Faramir reassures him, almost in a kind of over-the-top way.

He uses the smokescreen of the moon.

You gotta come out, Frodo, Check out how beautiful the moon is. Oh, by the way, I have a little problem I think you can help me solve.

Unlike the previous chapter, Fairmere's suspicions aren't for Frodo anymore.

He's trying to deflate the situation so that Frodo will help him.

...