We cut away to Lake-town for Chapter 14 of The Hobbit, as the people of Esgaroth slowly realize that the lights coming from the Lonely Mountain are not the triumphant King Thorin flooding the river with gold, but a very angry dragon. The town worrier turns town warrior and leads the people in a valiant defense, but the cost is high… and everyone looks to the Mountain for compensation. We discuss how Bard the Bowman narrowly escaped death by a stroke of Tolkien’s pen, and try one last time to resolve the question of thrush-language.
For an image of J.R.R. Tolkien’s illustration The Shores of Faery, see this website for a major exhibition of Tolkien’s work opening at the Bodleian Libraries in 2018 (third image down, near “Exhibition highlights include”): https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/2017/mar-17
To find out more about the classic Sega Genesis console game Mutant League Football, visit this Wikipedia page and wonder how you got through the 1990s without it.
To watch Trogdor the Burninator burninate the countryside, see the Homestar Runner YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90X5NJleYJQ
Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback) pp. 225-233, “Fire and Water”
Tolkien, J. R. R. and Douglas A. Anderson, ed. The Annotated Hobbit (HarperCollins, hardcover)
Rateliff, John D. The History of the Hobbit (HarperCollins, one-volume hardcover)
Olsen, Corey. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
