The time has come for Shawn to drink the cup of parting, but not before we take a moment to celebrate his time in the Common Room! We look back on how this thing got started in the first place, talk about some of the amazing guests that have joined us, honor our community of listeners, and commemorate six years of friendship, hard work, learning, and laughter. Alan shares his exciting plans for this season of the PPP (think “all-star co-hosts”), and Shawn gives an unexpected answer to one last mailbag question. Farewell now, Lord of the Mark! Ride to good fortune, and ride back soon to our welcome!
Recommended Reading
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (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)
Gilliver, Peter, Jeremy Marshall, Edmund Weiner The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, hardcover)
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed. The Shaping of Middle-earth(The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 4) (Del Rey, paperback)
Fimi, Dimitra, and Andrew Higgins, eds. A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (HarperCollins, hardcover)
Farewell wherever you fare till your eyrie receives you at your journey’s end, Shawn! Great job, Alan! I’m going to miss Shawn so much. He has done so well over the one year (or there abouts) that I’ve been listening and I’ve really enjoyed all the nerdy philology (the word charnel springs to mind) especially as I tend to have a good idea as to what a word means and never look it up. But I’m also really excited for the season starting now. I can’t wait for chapter 4 of The Return of the King and the whole book in general. I’m so glad that as in the case of Faramir being chased by Nazgûl that someone (or someones) will “go out to” Alan and rescue him from horror of a one-man PPP.
I’m a bit late to the party, but there it is. A real breaking of the fellowship. The tears I am shedding are not evil, at least. I don’t quite remember when I first started listening to you, might have been late into the Silmarillion or early Hobbit. And what fantastic last words (for now) from Shawn.