Bonus Episode 01 - Dragon Sickness: What Holding On Costs

The Steady Path · Sep 3, 2026 · 34m

This is the first of 3 bonus episodes celebrating Hobbit Day. One pile of gold, and Tolkien shows what it does to everyone who touches it. Thrór — Thorin’s grandfather, King under the Mountain — lets it pile up in plain sight, and it brings the dragon. Smaug lies on it for generations, using none of it. Thorin takes it back, and then cannot give away a coin. Bard divides what is left — and the Master of Lake Town, handed a share for his town’s relief, runs off with most of it and starves in the Waste, deserted. Bilbo takes two small chests. Gold is not the danger. Gripping is.

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