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Sidecast - LOTR: An Author's Journey, Book 1 Chapter 1 · Mythmakers

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  Hello and welcome to MythMaker's special series. This is called Lord of the Rings and
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  author's journey. My name is Julia Golding and I'm going to be taking you through all
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  of the chapters of Lord of the Rings doing a deep dive into it from the point of view
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  of an author. What I see in the writing and trying to unpack few new treasures so that
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  when you reread Lord of the Rings again, there's some fresh things for you to discover.
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  Now I'm going to start with the first chapter, a long expected party. But I just want to gesture
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  to a couple of things that are in the preface and the prologue. The reason I'm not starting
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  with them in full is that of course these were some of the last things that Tolkien wrote.
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  He circled back to tell us what he thought we needed to know in order to appreciate his story
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  and he would have written them toward the end of the process. There are a couple of things though
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  that are helpful to highlight before we get going. First of all, there's an account by Tolkien
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  as to how long it took him to write Lord of the Rings and the problems he had in that process.
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  He says it was written between 1936 and 1949 and obviously there were years of revision as well
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  which we'll touch on later on. He says in his letters about some of the things he did as part
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  of the revising process and any author will tell you that your first draft is a big baggy article
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  the way you're just getting the story down and in the days before word processes you probably
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  didn't change it as much. Tolkien very poignantly writes that he didn't have the money to hire a
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  typist so he did the further manuscript drafts by typing it out himself. It's ironic considering
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  how much it's worth as a franchise and as a property today but anyway he still would have gone
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  through that revising process and changing his mind about certain tonal qualities and what have
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  you. So what we're seeing is not the raw draft but things that he worked on much later.
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  The other thing from the the timeline he gives us is that he says that the first book
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  of the Fellowship of the Ring so this takes us up to the end where they reach the Fords and
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  they reach Rivendell. That wasn't completed by the end of 1939 the outbreak of the war
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  so you can see that this first book is taking him quite a long time to get going on and I think
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  you can see that in the writing and these clues that he's given and tell us why there is
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  what I suppose is a relatively slow start to get going in this story. The other thing from the
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  Prefectory material which I think will be of interest is Tolkien's thoughts about allegory versus
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  applicability. He makes a point this isn't an allegory of the invention of the nuclear weapons
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  or anything like that but he also says don't confuse that with applicability so if you're reading
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  Lord the Rings and you find that behaviors of certain characters or situations remind you of
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  problems that we see in society today or things that you've met in your life that's absolutely
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  intended by the author. He is basically allowing you the freedom of the reader to interpret it so
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  it has meaning for your life today and that's nice to think that he has sort of given us the
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  nod that it's okay to do that. So here we are at chapter one a long expected party. Now one of
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  the reasons why people fail to get into Lord the Rings is this first chapter. Tolkien when he
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  set out thought he was writing a sequel to the Hobbit and referred to it as the new Hobbit
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  when he was describing it to friends and to family and that explains why there is a very
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  distinctively childlike tone. It is a bridge from the world of the Hobbit into the darkest more
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  serious story and subject matter of Lord of the Rings. This is the chapter where that
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  nursery tailed tone is most apparent though to be honest most of the chapters that still take
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  place in the shower have elements of a jocular tone which drops away as the story continues.
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  So if you've got a friend who's failed to get into Lord of the Rings but does like fantasy
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  this might be one of the things that coming up again so may say I prefer the film because it
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  doesn't do the same tone. So I'd suggest you say persist persist keep going because it's after you
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  get through that the deeper tones more complex situations come up. So let's first of all have a
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  look at the chapter title. We can tell it is thinking it's still the Hobbit because if you're
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  remember that the Hobbit starts with a chapter called an unexpected party that's referring to
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  Bilbo's nice quiet life being interrupted by the arrival of quite so many dwarves.
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  Here Bilbo is planning a birthday party which is entirely expected. However it doesn't actually
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  start with that. What we start with is a framework of how Bilbo is perceived by the Hobbits.
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  The Society of Hobbit and Bywater. And it's worth drawing attention to the shifting
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  narratorial standpoints that you get in Lord of the Rings. Have you ever actually noticed
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  how the narrator's viewpoint shifts? In this particular chapter we're going to go from
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  that narrator sitting alongside or sort of subsuming his view within the Hobbitan attitudes
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  to a close focus on Bilbo and Gandalf back out to a larger scale view of how the Hobbits are
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  enjoying the party. Then back to Gandalf and Bilbo where the narrator is sort of like the standing
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  between them like a referee in a boxing match. You're not sort of party so the inner thoughts of
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  either but you can tell what they're thinking from the way the argument they have is described.
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  Then we're with Frodo and Gandalf and so on. So the narrator moves, gives himself the permission
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  to be quite loose as to where they are in the scene that's being described. And it sometimes
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  also has knowledge of the future which the characters doesn't have. There are times when it hints
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  to that. This sort of loose narratorial point of view is something which is quite hard to pull off
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  because it can at times feel like you're jumping between heads and can be a bit disorientating.
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  So very often a piece of advice a young writer would get would be
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  stick with your main character. You know be quite close to them. That's the kind of thing they do
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  in Harry Potter but Tolkien's allowing himself that freedom to move between different characters,
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  different situations and it's done with a purpose. So what is the purpose of starting with the view
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  of the ordinary folk of Hobbiton? Well that's because he's establishing that the Shire is
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  what everything else. All the values the sense of home is all built on Shire Wisdom. Shire Wisdom
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  can be very blinkered and we'll return to that at the end in the scaring of the Shire but there's
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  something about it which gives the Hobbits the deep seated qualities that they have which make them
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  heroes in the larger world outside. And how it starts is also by giving a little bit of a backstory
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  on Bilbo by telling it through the amusing perspective of those who find him out landish and
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  strange. His mad baggins to them who comes back up the hill with his treasure chest. So we get an
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  economic way of hinting to the events of the Hobbit. It reminds me a little bit if I'm allowed
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  the comparison but how Jane Austen starts pride and prejudice. One of the most famous opening
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  lines in English literature is hers which is it's a truth universally acknowledged that a single man
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  in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. That's gesturing in the ironic tone
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  of Jane Austen to Universal Wisdom. And I think there's a little bit of irony here because
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  we know that Bilbo is a serious character. If we've come at this from the Hobbit we know
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  is a hero but there's everybody around him sort of sucking their teeth and wagging their fingers
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  saying he's good fortune must be paid for it isn't natural and trouble will come of it.
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  They're obviously right but the reasons why they're condemning him are not ones that take in all
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  the factors that we're aware of. So in that point we as the reader who've probably know the events
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  of the Hobbit are more like the narrator in having superior knowledge to the characters who interact
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  with Bilbo. Anyway moving on. So we're going into a story with the grounding in the Shire
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  and it's nice to note that this is where we're going to end to gives the there and back again
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  to this story as well. Tolkien also spends time on some humorous well-building details such as
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  you don't get to be of age until you're 33. You can imagine giggles in the Tolkien household as
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  that rather ridiculous fact is made about Hobbits. Though of course it's pointing out that their
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  experience of life is of a more extended lifespan so they aren't us. They kind of are. They're a
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  version of us. Another part of the well-building that happens here and it goes through the whole
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  chapter is Names. So let's do a little thinking stop about Names. So the very first Hobbit surname
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  of the Baggins we meet is Sackville Baggins. And these two names Baggins and Sackville Baggins
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  sums up Tolkien's use of names very neatly as succinctly. So Baggins itself is a real surname
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  and its origin is Anglo-Saxon and obviously there's the word bag in there so it has a connotation
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  of perhaps a peddler or a traveller but Sackville is also Sack is the French Sack which is also a
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  bag so it's a Norman invasion, Norman conquest name. People call things like Sackville it notes
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  potentially a Norman ancestor and so you've got the old Anglo-Saxon peasantry and the conquest
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  aristocracy coming in with their Norman names. But in terms of the Shire it's obviously not part
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  of the Norman conquest world because it's a prehistory but it suggests that the Sackville Baggins
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  are aspiring to airs above their station. They're Frenchified. Ville is the equivalent ending to
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  Tom Hobbiton Sackville it's like the place town and so you've got the the setup between
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  aspirational wanting to live finer Sackville Baggins is and Bilbo who's happy with his roots
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  and looking back at the past. There's also a little naughty I don't know if it's just a happy
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  coincidence or intentional but at the time there was a very famous Sackville and that's the Sackville
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  Sackville West was a great friend of Virginia Woolf and key figure in the Bloomsbury set
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  and if you were thinking about the history of mid-century 20th century English literature the
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  Bloomsbury group arm the group who get far more critical attention whereas you could set them
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  alongside the contemporaneous inklings who founded modern fantasy so nice to see a little bit of
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  potentially two literary groups talking to each other across across the way there in just those
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  names. Looking at other names you've got Bilbo's home bag end now may not be immediately apparent
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  to you but houses in England which are named something end suggest a sort of gentrified house
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  possibly because it means like the end of a drive or something like that you might be a
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  familiar with Howard's end which is the E. M. Foster novel. Bagend sounds like to an English
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  ear sounds like a posher house certainly posher than Bagshot Row which sounds like a row of cottages.
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  Other name that you might want to pause and think about is the people down at the ivy bush
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  who which is where we're going to go next in the story and that's Gaffer Gamji so Gaffer is a
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  commonly used term to mean an old guy like a geezer or geezer and it was part of the kind of
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  nickname that went on in Tolkien's circle. The most famous Gaffer in Tolkien's world was the Gaffer
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  who set up Blackwells and indeed talking about the house of the Blackwell family and they were his
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  first publisher and if you go to Blackwells bookshop today you will find an office called the Gaffer's
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  office is still there but it was lots of people were called Gaffer and apparently the Tolkien
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  family came across a Gaffer Gamji down in the southwest and it was a sort of family name or joke
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  they picked up and that goes to show how as a writer you go around collecting these things
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  all sorts of different sources this is something Tolkien did in particular he wrote stories about
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  a lost toy for his children the Rover random story but in the Lord of the Rings you've got Tom
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  Bombardill who was a sort of puppet figurine that they had in the family and Tolkien spun a whole
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  world around this Tom Bombardill figure with a poetry and the stories and of course he makes
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  an appearance in Lord of the Rings but we're not there yet so names are very important
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  and in fact the whole Middle-earth project started with Tolkien thinking about names and languages
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  so it's not surprising to find how important they are here so the first conversation with named
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  characters is down at the Ivy Bush not the green dragon but the Ivy Bush which is described
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  as a small inn it's worth noting if you're not familiar with English village life that even a
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  small village could have numerous ins the one I live in at the moment had at least five pubs or
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  ins in living memory lots social practices have changed and so we're down to one in a restaurant
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  these days but it's a recognizable world where a village would have lots of different places to go
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  and different groups of people would habitually meet in different ones they'd have their own
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  recognisable pub they go to so the Ivy Bush is clearly where all the old geezers meet and set the
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  world to rights this is a very male world I suppose the women were back home putting the baby
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  hobbits to bed or whatever but that is part of the period piece of Lord of the Rings you have to
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  think about it being a kind of 1920s world really or even an Edwardian bit before that so the
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  social relationships are from that era not from the present day the first conversation we hear about
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  Bilbo sets out the social structure of the Shire we hear that Bilbo is a Mr Bilbo a gentle
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  hobbit is a gentleman in other words doesn't mean he's a gentle hobbit though of course he is
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  but it's the term for a gentleman and we hear the gaffer says that he gives him respect for his
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  knowledge of vegetables and here we've got this strange flat social structure of the Shire
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  so we've got Bilbo who is clearly a form of gentry and there are a few other hobbits that are in
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  that kind of world but the majority are laborers and working people gardeners and so on and they
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  are each given respect for their trade so we have skilled workers and leisure gentleman like Bilbo
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  but we don't have any aristocracy that's possibly because the aristocracy are technically the king
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  and his followers and the king as we know has not yet returned and even when he does return
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  he doesn't impose an aristocracy upon the Shire so we have a very flat pyramid and this is one of
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  the answers to why Sam happily calls Frodo master Frodo pretty much all the way through even though
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  they're clearly each other's best friend during the course of the story and that's because
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  there is no shame in being a servant in the Shire you're not being servile and of course talking
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  as a good Roman Catholic would have known to be a servant is to be the highest thing you could be
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  when you hear Sam deferring to Frodo it's not meant to a base Sam at all it's part of a
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  respected role in his life it's a it's the mores and manners and mores of the early 20th century
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  it would play very differently if you were trying to put it in today's context but I would encourage
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  you to let it be a period piece and enjoy the master servant relationship as is described here
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  because it's drawing on the heroic batmans and valleys that Tolkien knew from the First World War
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  people who went into the trenches with their officer and literally stayed at their side through
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  death and reincarnation it's not to be sneered at but to be celebrated so this conversation down
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  the pub is another way of getting in backstory one of the challenges as a writer is how do you tell
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  you don't want to do a sort of lump of narration you know Tolkien does do that from time to time
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  when someone tells somebody else the history of the ring for example but you can't keep doing that
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  so how do you fill in some key details or one way is to do what he does here and that is to
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  have a conversation like this everybody in the pub already knows this story or part of the story
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  but it's become a favorite story to tell and in a oral culture of telltelling and poetry and so on
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  they all are happy to hear the same story again and that's what we get here
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  we get Frodo's backstory how he became an orphan when his parents died in a boating accident
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  couple of things here just to highlight for you one is his mother's surname which is Brandy Buck
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  that's how he's related to Mary through his mum Brandy Buck noticed the name Brandy is a spirit
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  and a buck is well you get a bucking horse of course but it probably most likely refers to
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  a deer a male deer known for fighting with their antlers so he gets double spirit alcohol
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  spirit and a spirited animal so you know that anybody with the name Brandy Buck is going to be
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  a feisty person you also get here very subtly some hints that not everything is perfect in the
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  shire it's not a bucolic world where everybody loves each other you've got some grit in the oyster
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  so you've got particularly sandy man the miller saying that he thinks or he has heard he's
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  not so bold so he actually thinks that he blames it on other people unnamed he heard that
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  Primula Brandy Buck pushed Drogo Baggins in and asked he think to say about somebody
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  so we see there are dark thoughts people who have less than worthy motives in the shire as well
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  and that is notable because it is the the mill is one of the first places that kind of falls
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  into the horrible ruined shire that we come back to at the end so you can see how the beginning
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  is actually already thinking ahead to the very very end three books later this conversation does
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  a lot of things it introduces us to the sort of hoppity dialect of the rural people they speak more
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  rural than Frodo and Bilbo do it's the kind of language that Sam speaks but we also get Sam
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  introduced we know that he's been learning his lessons from Bilbo so a little bit of backstory
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  for Sam thrown in here and then we finish with the announcement that the party is about to happen
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  the party set up quite a lot of this chapter is devoted to the party probably daringly too much
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  in terms of getting people into the story I love it because I I'm just happy to carry on reading
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  talking but looking at it as good storytelling it does take a while to get going so we've got
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  the Gandalf arriving with his fireworks which he doesn't let off but maybe there is something to be
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  said for delaying our gratification because the slow buildup means that when the party does come it
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  shines all the brighter we don't get to see the fireworks until the party unlike the little whizz
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  bangs in the Peter Jackson version of this but I want to draw your attention to the first conversation
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  between Bilbo and Gandalf this is the first time that we're meeting the core characters
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  not mediated by the viewpoint from the Hobbit's the Hobbitan view we're actually in the room
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  eavesdropping almost on their conversation and I just want to point out the brilliance
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  of the scene setting and how economical Tolkien is with his descriptions but we're immediately
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  there so it says inside bag end Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting at the open window there was
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  small room looking out west onto the garden the late afternoon was bright and peaceful the flowers
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  glowed red and golden snap dragons and sunflowers and the stashions trailing all over the turf walls
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  and peeping in at the round windows it really helps if you know what those flowers are
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  so they're all common flowers found in a cottage garden they're all in the orange yellow and red
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  end of the spectrum I'm sure everybody knows what sunflowers are snap dragons I remember
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  delighted me as a child so here we've got the nursery field steel because if you took a snap
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  dragon bloom off a stalk probably shouldn't have done that but you can press it so that the flower
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  opens and closes like a dragon's jaws like little dragons jaws and we've got a hint here of course
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  of the fiery adventure with smelk with the reds and the golds we've got a hint of the earlier
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  adventure that Bilbo went on with Gandalf he's also got the scent that he is in the autumn of his
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  life that kind of atmosphere and we've got a sense of the peace and the beauty all done with
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  those little details the stashions actually are edible so that's a nice I'm not sure they
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  talking would have eaten them but he was a keen gardener so he definitely knew his flowers
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  and then it does feel like a conversation where Eve's dropping on because they're talking about
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  a plan that they've already discussed Bilbo says it's going to stick to it but we don't hear
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  what that is going to be we're kept out of the full information so it's a bit like a trailer
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  he's saying pay attention to this party something important is going to happen so keep reading
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  but it's not letting us in to the secret as yet we're booted out of the room again and we have to
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  look at the party being set up from a distance and we're kept out of Bag N 2 there's that famous
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  sign on the door no admittance except on party business so the closest we can get to the party
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  preparations is standing watching the tents being erected and the cooks arriving and so on
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  and then there's quite a lot about presence this shows us we're still in the
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  world of a children's tale because watch out doesn't like birthdays and presents
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  there of course it would also be delighting them that the rules are reversed here
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  and that it's actually you giving the presents on your birthday so there again another sort of
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  humorous tone that fits this child's tale emphasis on presents emphasis on food and then we get
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  another of these wonderful bits of description which are doing lots of jobs it's bringing the magic
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  of Gandalf's fireworks into our imagination but also within the fireworks the messages about the
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  past and messages about the future we've got mentions of all the different cultures or some of
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  the main cultures we've got dwarf candles elf fountains and goblin barkers then amongst the
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  beautiful descriptions of what the fireworks turn into there are some that seem to nod to things
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  have happened or will happens there's one that are like green trees with trunks of dark smoke
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  and they're leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a moment which feels very much like the
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  wonderful trees that we see in lothlorian but there's other hints of the past and the future
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  we've got sailing ships that could of course refer to the elves coming from the west but it also could
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  hinting at the end we've got eagles billbo is saved by the eagles eagles come to save
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  Frodo so he's weaving into this passage which is seemingly about fireworks the world of his story
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  and this is where you see his master craftsmanship at work this this very thick feel that you get
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  to the world which is one of the reasons why I love reading his book so much the world is so
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  convincing so deep embedded throughout all these little details that you really believe you
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  can walk around inside it and then there's of course the dragon which is both funny because it
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  makes all the hobbit panic but also there's a neat visual recap of the events of the hobbit
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  it shows us that we're connecting it to that story with the lonely mountain and the dragon
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  and I think one thing that's worth pointing out here is that we have two main wizards in this story
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  we've got Gandalf and we have Saruman they both have the ability to manipulate forms of
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  magical gunpowder Gandalf chooses to make fireworks with his to entertain hobbits and Saruman chooses
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  to use his as a weapon of war and I've said going on to Bilbo's speech I think there's a couple of
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  things just to draw your attention to here that is that we are still outside the secret Gandalf knows
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  what's going to happen Bilbo knows what's he's going to happen but we are still looking on to him
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  as if we're one of the hobbits watching the speech the other thing is the repetition of the names
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  it's actually quite extraordinary when you look at that passage it's a long list of names
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  it's repeated three times so first of all we have the narrator's account then we have Bilbo
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  reciting it with great pleasure and then it's recited a final time with the tempo picking up
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  as a reaction to his disappearance looking at these names we've learnt to
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  realise that names mean more than just the superficial sound of them all of these names are
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  cathonic they're natural to the world of the Shires in middle England so the area underneath
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  Birmingham stretching down to Oxford including Stratford upon Avin and all that area this is the
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  world of the Shire and if you come and visit today you'll find villages that are not dissimilar
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  to Hobbiton the way the speech works when you read it for the first time is that it's delayed
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  gratification so it's a bit we are like the hobbits kind of say when are you going to get to the
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  main point we don't particularly want to do this backstory into him having a cold when he was on
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  the barrels and that's all on purpose to make us feel the abruptness of the moment when he
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  disappears and then look at how the next sentence is written Bilbo says goodbye and then it's written
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  he stepped down and vanished there was a blinding flash of light and the guests all blinked
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  it's very subtle but there's a delay between the flash of light and him vanishing
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  Bilbo we find out did the first thing Gandalf did the second in order to cover his exit
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  it's very subtle but it's there if you're looking for clues perhaps on a reread
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  and then a very important thing happens in this next section which is we meet Frodo for the first
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  time he's only been mentioned in the past and we've had some of his backstory we now find that he
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  is one of the other people who is in on the joke in fact he's the third person there's Bilbo there's
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  Gandalf and there's Frodo so that immediately sets him apart from all the other hobbits
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  a first entrance by any character is important so what do we get here let's look at that really
• 30:49
  carefully he's a little bit apart from everybody else he is kind he makes sure everybody gets
• 30:57
  another round of drinks and what have you but he's also amused kindness and a sense of humour
• 31:02
  are core qualities of Frodo but he also get his reflection he thinks deeply and his love for Bilbo
• 31:11
  is a moment when he realizes just how much he loves his uncle and he sets himself apart so he leaves
• 31:19
  he's almost like a little microcosm of his journey that he is a little bit apart and he leaves
• 31:25
  I doubt that that was intentional but I can see that in it now I have a look at this little section
• 31:30
  just now he slips out of the pavilion at the end he slips away to the grey havens and then we
• 31:37
  go back to Bilbo and we've got this wonderful important scene in fact if this was a medieval
• 31:44
  manuscript it would be illuminated with lots of you know look at this with stars and wild animals
• 31:51
  on the margin so that we would read it carefully because this confrontation between Gandalf
• 31:57
  and Bilbo is a key pivot moment in the history of middle earth why because Bilbo is the only person
• 32:05
  in history who willingly gives up the ring thematically that's absolutely important if this scene
• 32:13
  didn't go this way the rest of the story would not happen but it's still notable that he needs
• 32:18
  Gandalf to make him get them envelope and put it on the mantle piece for Frodo it's not an easy
• 32:26
  thing to do but before he reaches that point he has to be persuaded into it and there are some
• 32:32
  little notes here which are showing us how urgent the situation is it's a wonderful conversation
• 32:40
  do read it with care because I like the way the narrator is standing back we're seeing both
• 32:46
  parts of this conversation equally we can fill their reactions pretty equally as well
• 32:52
  we've got Gandalf getting more and more mystified and Bilbo getting more and more angry
• 32:58
  until the point at which they have the moment when Gandalf unveils his power and suddenly they
• 33:04
  see each other in a new relationship but before they get that we've got the terrible moment when
• 33:11
  Bilbo calls the ring his precious and if your alarm bells weren't ringing already that's when
• 33:17
  they would ring this is what prompts Gandalf to take that big step to actually not be Gandalf
• 33:24
  who the magician who visits the Shire but to show his other quality the sense that he is one of the
• 33:30
  Maya they're like Archangel's the the role of the wizards in Middle-earth is like helpers to
• 33:39
  the Valla who are like the demigods of this world and you get a little sense of his power
• 33:45
  breaking into the ordinary world of the Shire so this is where you get the big sense of magic
• 33:51
  and power in Bilbo's house that contrast again is a bit like a tease for what's going to happen
• 33:59
  going on in that is briefly exposed as a brief confrontation and then Bilbo's strength of character
• 34:09
  wins and is able to give up the ring so imagine in my copy all the trumpets and stars around
• 34:17
  that moment because it is absolutely vital and then there's that nice moment where he's made the
• 34:23
  decision but it's still in his pocket so he has to be reminded to actually leave it so it draws out
• 34:30
  that moment is he going to wander off with it in his pocket no Gandalf said to stop that and it's
• 34:35
  really important that when he's offered it in a sense Gandalf is wise enough not to touch it
• 34:43
  he says no don't give it to me put it on the mantelpiece again another important decision made by
• 34:50
  Gandalf though he may not know how important at this point but he has a inkling that it's a very
• 34:57
  dangerous thing for anyone to touch and then you get the after all the drama of the party and whatever
• 35:04
  and then the big decision which is this moment we get now I'm off and off Bilbo goes and there's a
• 35:10
  lovely sort of image of him walking out with his dwarf companions and jumping over the fence
• 35:18
  and off he goes and he sings the first of the poems in Lord of the Rings so of course there is the
• 35:25
  the big poem that's at the beginning of each of the books the one ring poem this is the first
• 35:30
  bed embedded in the narrative and it's very apt that this poem is all about roads and journeys
• 35:37
  going on and on because both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings is all about taking the journey
• 35:44
  and then the switch to Frodo being the main focus of our attention in the world of the Hobbits
• 35:50
  comes at this point he comes home and Gandalf quite brusquely hands it over it being the ring
• 35:58
  tells him to go to bed I you get the sense that Gandalf wants to have a think about things
• 36:04
  and in that interim we've got the tidying up at the party and here we've got still this nursery
• 36:09
  tone because we've got the the jokes on the gifts that Bilbo leaves behind for his various relatives
• 36:16
  each with a little sting in the tail and as part of the giving away we discover just how generous
• 36:22
  Bilbo is to the poorer Hobbits again this establishes his core characteristic of as a kind and
• 36:29
  gentle Hobbit and we get a brief scene with the Sackful Baggins is about disputing the will now
• 36:37
  if you're an editor looking at this today you might think oh that's holding us up let's get rid
• 36:42
  of that but actually if you think about it this is one of the few times we actually meet and have
• 36:46
  a scene with the Sackful Baggins who are important when it comes to the conclusion and the scaring
• 36:53
  of the Shah because it is the greed of Lotho and Otho and Labelia Sackful Baggins that is the
• 37:01
  doorway through which Saruman is able to walk and start trading with the Shah and basically end
• 37:09
  up taking it over so if Bilbo's act of giving up the ring is like the good seed that flourishes
• 37:15
  this greed on part of the Sackful Baggins is showing the bad seed that will be left behind in the
• 37:21
  Shah and will unfortunately produce its thistles then we have Gandalf telling Frodo he doesn't know
• 37:29
  what's going on the ring but he's just beginning to wake up to the fact that it's a much more important
• 37:34
  artifact than he perceived and leaving Frodo in charge of it and we get one of the strange breaks
• 37:41
  that happens with Gandalf he goes and comes back again over the years and his departure mimics
• 37:48
  that of Bilbo so when Bilbo left we had Gandalf watching him leave now we've got Frodo in that
• 37:55
  same place watching Gandalf leave that's the end of this chapter and what is really going on here
• 38:02
  as a writer I think is that Tolkien is exploring what his story is going to be so he has the big
• 38:12
  overarching world of Middle Earth that he's aware of the events so he's probably by this time
• 38:20
  already sketched out in a fair detail the events of the first age and the second age but he
• 38:26
  doesn't know all the moves in the third age so it's genuinely unknown to him and he is
• 38:33
  searching for a story at this point he wants described Lord the Rings as a story where a
• 38:39
  character goes to lose a magical artifact rather than gain it and it's possible that when he started
• 38:47
  off that was pretty much the intellectual furniture he had in his head for this it probably
• 38:53
  had a sense that it was in a way going to be a quest achieved so he had a sense of his ending but
• 39:00
  the moves to get there he hadn't mapped out so in this the writer is very much like Frodo
• 39:08
  standing at the threshold of this journey Frodo is to find out that he's got a treasure that he
• 39:14
  has to get rid of but he has no idea where he's going to go when he sets out from the shire
• 39:21
  he only really notices his leaving the shire and it's Gandalf who will go on to suggest
• 39:27
  well why not go to Rivendell not much for plan and I feel that the writer and his main character
• 39:34
  are pretty much in the same place at the start of this book and that's rather a nice place to end
• 39:41
  with that thought.