Haldir of Lórien greets the Fellowship (the less beardy fellows, at least) as friends and invites them to spend the night in his magic treehouse. Poor Gimli is deemed a spy just for being a Dwarf in an Elvish forest, but nobody tells him. And while the others sleep, Frodo awakens in the middle of the night to the sound of Orcs… and something else. We expose the casual racism of the Galadhrim, discuss surprising connections to a recently unearthed Tolkien Christmas poem, and go back to the Bovril well (trying hard not to fall in) for more jokes.
For Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull’s blog post about Tolkien’s poem Noel, see their website at https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/tolkien-notes-8/
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. 333-39, “Lothlórien”
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
Rateliff, John D. The History of the Hobbit (HarperCollins, one-volume hardcover)
So I am listening to the podcasts (trying to catch up) and was interested in your Haldir vs. Eomer discussion about different responses to the “law” of their respective lands. I think you made some interesting points but I think you may have missed a salient detail, Haldir doesn’t appear to be an agent of the kingdom (Lorien in this case) in the same way (although not explicitly mentioned I think it is easily assumed based on where he is, what he says, and future amendments to his interpretation of the law) as Eomer. Haldir in my opinion is probably something more of a junior office or high level Non-commissioned officer without having the authority to be creative in his application of the law whereas Eomer is a high ranking (general officer) member of his nation’s military force effectively commanding an entire command structure of Rohan’s army thereby having much more authority to creatively apply the law as his discretion allows. Thoughts?
(Bulwer-Lytton): I grew up around Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, to this day the home of the Lyttons. My mother worked as a guide there.
So yes, Lytton truly was a dreadful writer. In his most famous novel, The Last Days of Pompeii, a spendthrift noble says
“these rich plebeians are a harvest for us spendthrift nobles”
But I feel that the atmosphere somehow feeds into Rivendell. The opening words
“Ho, Diomed, well met” might be heard in the Hall of Fire