142 – Confustication Breakdown (with special guest Corey Olsen)

The Council of Elrond begins, and to help us bring the meeting to order, we welcome Corey Olsen — the Tolkien Professor himself — to the Prancing Pony Podcast! We start with a conversation about the nature of Rivendell itself, then dive into the text to untangle the various accounts at a pace none of us are quite used to. Along the way, we revisit the making of the Rings of Power, the Last Alliance, and Elrond’s less-than-exemplary committee chairing skills. Plus, what really happened when Frodo showed Bilbo the Ring? And what’s up with Boromir’s hair? 

Please watch LIVE when we continue the crossover with Corey Olsen on Exploring The Lord of the Rings with the Tolkien ProfessorTuesday, November 5 at 9:30 pm (Eastern Time)! You can find it on Signum University’s Twitch channel here: https://www.twitch.tv/signumu/

Listen to the episode here, on YouTube, or in the player below:

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Recommended Reading:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) pp. 233-238, “The Council of Elrond”

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Book of Lost Tales Part One (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 1) (Del Rey, paperback)

Garth, John. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (Mariner Books, hardcover)

Olsen, Corey. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)

Kocher, Paul H. Master of Middle-earth: The Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey, paperback)

Lobdell, Jared, ed. A Tolkien Compass (Open Court, paperback)

Flieger, Verlyn. Green Suns and Faërie: Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien (Kent State University Press, paperback)

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)

Shippey, Tom. J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Mariner Books, paperback)

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