The hobbits take a quick rest stop before the last leg of the journey down into Mordor, and in a moment of contemplation, Sam imparts some newfound wisdom about the nature of adventures and the stories that inspire us. But while he recaps the first season of the Prancing Pony Podcast, Gollum slips away unnoticed for some reason that can’t be good. All this, plus we consider Frodo’s pity towards Gollum as a parallel to Bilbo’s, offer word-nerdery on “man” and “human”, and break down Samwise Gamgee’s biggest mistake.
As always, please visit our friends at Tolkien Collector’s Guide for information about rare or hard-to-find Tolkien materials like The Oxford English School.
Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “The Stairs of Cirith Ungol”, pp. 695-700
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey. J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (Houghton Mifflin, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
I love how Sam speculates about whether Gollum/Smeagol wants to be a hero or a villain – and shortly after that Gollum/Smeagol is debating that very thing with himself – whether or not to betray them to Shelob, which is ultimately a deciding point of whether he will play a heroic (coming to love Frodo and ultimately sacrificing himself to destroy the Ring, as the letter speculated) or villainous role in this story! But then it is Sam NAMING him a ‘villain’ that ultimately makes up his mind that he WILL be one! That is to say, I love it in poetic/good story kind of way, but I also kind of hate it. XD
Anyway, thanks for your wonderful podcast! I just started listening a month or so ago, and this was the very first episode I listened to (since this is one of my favorite scenes of the book) and now I’m hooked. Your thoughtfulness, heart, respect for characters, deep knowledge and insights, and sense of lighthearted fun and referential humor (even your singing and silly puns – don’t apologize for them!) convinced me quickly that I would have a great time with it, when I’d never really gotten into any podcasts before! Now I can’t wait for Return of the King next season! 😀