"Roast Mutton" | JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit | Chapter 2 | Archives | 225

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[SPEAKER_00]: Food, fire, and foreshadowing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We wander the second chapter of J. Arotalkin's The Hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And explore how this simple chapter is a major clue to the rest of Bilbo's adventure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a look at the map.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For our new listeners, these map checks are inspired by the beautiful maps that accompany tokens' works, often drawn by the author himself.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Part of the adventure of wandering an epic fantasy world-like tokens is to check the map for the locations that are referenced in the story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: These map checks that we do on this show are sort of a refresh to remind us of the tale we are exploring and give context to today's wanderings.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So far, we've explored the first chapter of the Hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We were introduced to Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit, who found himself the unexpected host to a party of dwarves as they start their quest to reclaim their homeland from the dragon's smile.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Dan off the Grey has enlisted Bilbo's services, claiming that Bilbo is just the burglar, allegedly, that the dwarves need to accomplish their task.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We left Bilbo as he drifted to sleep, while Thorin's humming in the next room gave him rather uncomfortable dreams.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In chapter two, Rose to Mutton, Bilbo is whisked away on the adventure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The dwarves encounter three trolls in the wilderness, and Gandalf comes to the rescue in the nick of time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now we won't cover every detail or plot point, but I want to point out some interesting tidbits that you may have missed while reading this chapter.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We start with some lore connections to the Lord of the Rings.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But first, a ground rule.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Hobbit was written well before the Lord of the Rings, and yes, Tolkien had already written many fantastic tales set in Middle-earth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But were all the details figured out?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Was the world totally fleshed out?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly not.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As the place where Bilba lives is never referred to as the Shire in the Hobbit, nor is the village of Brie named.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But certainly clues can be guessed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And when we look holistically at Tolkien's work, we can draw certain connections.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The first connection is an ancient stone bridge that is mentioned while the party is riding through the rain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In Karen Winfonstad's fabulous work, The Atlas of Middle-Earth, we read the following, quote, the river was not named in the Hobbit, although the revised edition of the story specifically mentioned that it had a stone bridge.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This bridge is likely over the river Horwell, which runs from the Misty Mountains, joins the Loudwater, and eventually runs to the sea.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This particular river, and its mouth, is home to Numanorian settlements in the second age.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Another lore reference.

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[SPEAKER_00]: While debating if they should investigate the light in the distance, one argument is, quote, things have changed for the worst, and the road is unguarded.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They have seldom heard of the king around here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The king and reference here would have been to the ancient northern kingdom of Arnor, which a lendale founded after the drowning of Numanor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, by the time of Bilbo, that kingdom had fallen to civil war, splitting in a three-separc kingdoms before fizzling out altogether.

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[SPEAKER_00]: There had been no king for about fifteen hundred years.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Erragorn is the last living descendant of these ancient kings, but the Hobbits had a phrase, when the king comes back, quote, used of some good that could not be achieved, or of some evil that could not be amended.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So a king who provided order and protection for the road was a distant memory in the minds of the dwarves and Bilbo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For more details on the history of the North Kingdom, see my episode number sixty five are North and Aragon's Unbroken Line.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Last lore reference will look at in this chapter, but not far ahead were dreary hills, on some of them were old castles with an evil look as if they had been built by wicked people.

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[SPEAKER_00]: While not named specifically, the Great Watch Tower Ammon's soul, also known as Weathertop, would have been one of these ancient old castles.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Weathertop was built and controlled by Arnor, and was the center of the battles of the three-splintered kingdoms.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Witch King of Angmar, and Chief of the Nine Nazgul, raised Ammon's soul about fifteen hundred years before Bilbo would be passing through these hills.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Other hills that Bilbo could have passed were the borrow downs, where Frodo and his friends would later be captured by a ghost-like borrow-white.

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[SPEAKER_00]: These evil-looking hills were wear less noble and less enlightened kings had been buried.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now moving on from the lore, let's look at a key theme for this chapter, food and fire.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This theme opens as Bilbo needs to light a fire to make warm water for washing up after the dwarves breakfast.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Not soon after, Gandalf finds Bilbo as he is sitting down for his second breakfast.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Ah poor Bilbo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For just like Pippantok, he will forego second breakfast for the sake of adventure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: After traveling in beautiful sunshine, the company is caught in the rain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And Bilbo's chief worry, quote, I'm sure the rain has got into the dry clothes and into the food bags.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The dwarves, while normally uncanningly able to light a fire, can't get a fire started.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And to make matters worse, one of the ponies is lost in the river, and with him is swept away his luggage, which, quote, of course, was mostly food.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, the party is cold, wet, and hungry, but they immediately find another group that is not cold, wet, and hungry.

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[SPEAKER_00]: On the contrary, the three trolls are warm, dry, roasting mutton, and drinking beer around their fire.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But even the trolls have something to complain about, lack of their favorite food, man flesh, which I find personally appalling.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, they have plenty of mutton and beer and fire, something that billboe and the dwarves do not.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When billboe was caught, he displays his quick-witted deflection skills with a plan words.

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[SPEAKER_00]: quote, I am a good cook myself, and cook better than I cook.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning that he can prepare food better than being the main dish himself.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo's ability to plan words while describing himself will come in handy later on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And the trolls have a predicament themselves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They suddenly have thirteen dwarves to eat before morning.

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[SPEAKER_00]: How to cook them?

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[SPEAKER_00]: They argued, quote, whether they should roast them slowly or mince them fine and boil them or just sit on them one by one and squash them into jelly.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, what the dwarves lack and the trolls have ultimately becomes the undoing for the trolls.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Arguing over their food gives Gandalf an opening to mimic their voices and continue the argument.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the midst of arguing about food, Gandalf finally says, quote, don't take you all, and the sun peeps over the hill and turns the trolls to stone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: While the trolls were safe and warm in the light of the fire, a literal ball of fire, the sun, turns them to stone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Of the great treasures that the dwarves find in the trolls cave, one that the dwarves immediately used was food and provisions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But by that time they felt like breakfast, and being very hungry they did not turn their noses up to what they had got from the trolls' ladder.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bombor sums up the steam quite nicely, quote, silly time to go practicing pinching and pocket picking when what we wanted was fire and food.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bonus points to you, if you can name the three letters the Bombor uses for a literation in over half of that sentence.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At one quick note on a wizard's voice, the narrator explains, quote, it was the wizard's voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarreling, until the light came and made an end of them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This simple statement pretty much is Gandalf's life mission.

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[SPEAKER_00]: His voice kindles the good to brave deeds and prevents evil from torturous ones.

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[SPEAKER_00]: His voice inspires the free people of Middle-Earth until the light comes and makes an end of evil.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Contrast that with another wizard's voice which gets a whole chapter in the two towers, the voice of Saduman.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That chapter is an exploration of the power of words, and the magic that a voice can have over a listener.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Sato Ma's voice was like a spell over all who heard it, quote, none were unmoved.

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[SPEAKER_00]: None rejected its pleas and commands without an effort of mind and will, so long as its master had control of it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, as Gandalf warned, beware of a wizard's voice.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I have one more insight from this chapter to share with you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to that right after this break.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done yet.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you like this episode, please leave a review and share with your friends.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And remember to subscribe if you haven't already.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you don't remember your high school language arts class, don't worry.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Too foreshadow is to give a hint or clue or prediction about what will happen later on in the story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Riders use foreshadowing because it's like a clue in a mystery.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It keeps our brains engaged in the story, because we're looking for that clue to be resolved.

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[SPEAKER_00]: foreshadowing also helps drive a story home.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The author is telling us the whole story in miniature, so that as we experience the rest of the tale, it feels familiar.

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[SPEAKER_00]: but also has twists that demonstrate character growth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This chapter, Rose Mutton, is the whole Hobbit book in miniature form.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's examine how this works.

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[SPEAKER_00]: First, Bilbo and company are in lands that are unguarded and unprotected by a king, though anciently a king once ruled over the land.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Before the end of the book, Bilbo will travel through another land that formally was ruled by King, Dale and Lake Town, not to mention Arobor and the kingdom of the dwarves itself.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Next, while the dwarves are arguing about what to do, they decide to send Bilbo first ahead of them to see, quote, if all is perfectly safe and canny.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is exactly what the dwarves will do to Bilbo when they open the secret door into the lonely mountain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Send Bilbo first to determine if Smog is still around.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This little point is actually a major theme of the Hobbit book and relies a natural quality of the dwarves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But look at that when we explore chapter twelve inside information.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The trolls also represent Bilbo's first attempt at burglary, although wildly unsuccessful, as the wallet screams and all his companions get caught in sex.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo gets much better at being a burglar, from stealing food and prisoners away from the woodland elves, to stealing from smog the dragon, and even stealing the arcan stone from Thorin.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm, with all this burglarizing and beginning to think that maybe Bilbo Baggins is not a good example of moral character for a children's story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In his encounter with the trolls, Bilbo shows his ability to plan words and to describe himself with pretty titles that are truthful, but don't reveal too much.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He says that there's lots and none more of him around the forest.

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[SPEAKER_00]: which is true, there's lots of dwarves in his company, but no hobbits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This skill will come in handy when Bilbo faces smog, but it will also get him into trouble.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo was lucky enough to find a key that fell out of the troll's pocket, particularly lucky that it did fall before the troll was turned to stone.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is similar to his luck during the riddle game with Golum, when he puts his hand in his pocket, fills the ring and asks out loud a question, which Golum mistakes for the last riddle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, it's Bilbo, who figures out how to open the troll cave door, even after Gandalf and the dwarves unsuccessfully tried to open it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He figures out how to use the key and he'll do the same at the Lonely Mountain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And look at the description of what they find in the troll cave, quote, there were bones on the floor and an nasty smell was in the air.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But also there were, quote, pots of gold coins.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is a perfect description for Bilbo entering the dragon's layer later on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: On top of Bilbo's foreshadowing, we see a hint at the resolution to the dwarves' problem of the dragon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf, not the dwarves, defeat the dwarves' enemy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's Gandalf, who confused the trolls long enough for the sun to end them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Later, it's not the dwarves who defeat their enemy smog, but barred the bullmen from Lake Town.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, this chapter is a brilliant example of foreshadowing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What Tolkien gives us is the quest of the whole book, condensed in a small form.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This has the literary trick of setting expectations in our minds as we read it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When we consume the story as a whole, it fills familiar and understandable, because Tolkien prepared our minds to receive it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, though, it also gives us the chance to see Bilbo's growth as a character from the start of the book.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo opens this chapter in his comfortable hobbit hole with a warm fire and enough food left over from the unexpected party, the he can prepare not one, but two breakfasts.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He later runs from his home on an adventure, without money or handkerchiefs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the story, he's a very different hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien not only shows this, but he actually tells us, quote, already he was a very different hobbit, from the one that had run out without a pocket handkerchief, from back-end long ago.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilba has become brave, even his self-descriptions grow in witness and complexity, and are not so revealing, except in one case.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We also see him develop his burglary skills, which he eventually puts to good use, even when Thorne is in thinking so straight.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And at first, Bilba was terribly unhelpful and getting the dwarves out of their predicament, which by the way is also called a pickle to pick up on that food theme.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He, in fact, gets stuck in a thorn bush that Gandalf has to pull him out of.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But by the end of the story, Bilbo will have saved the dwarves from spiders and elven prisons.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So this chapter simultaneously prepares us for the rest of the story and prepares us to see how Bilbo will grow and change.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that thesis statement for the book?

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[SPEAKER_00]: This is a story of how a Hobbit had an adventure and did many unexpected things.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This chapter sets that story in motion.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Resolve it in a miniature way and points us forward to the rest of the adventure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Join me next time where we will compare this chapter to how it's portrayed in Peter Jackson's Hobbit movie and see if their embellishments stay true to Tolkien's story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wandering Middle-Earth with me today.

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[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know by subscribing, leaving your review, and sharing with your friends.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For feedback on the show, please email me using the link in the show news.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Until next Thursday, remember, not all those who want to, are lost.