Speaker 1: Hey there, fellow travelers. Right now, I have one major
Speaker 1: goal for The Tolkien Road to finish my next book.
Speaker 1: While I'm doing that, I want to invite you to
Speaker 1: read through The silmar Million with The Tolkien Road this year.
Speaker 1: Over the next several months, we'll be revisiting the thirty
Speaker 1: episode series that Greta and I recorded back in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. And while you're listening, check out silm Guide
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Silmguide dot com. For guides to individual chapters.
Speaker 1: You can find a link in the show notes. The
Speaker 1: first episode is an overview of the Silmarillion in including
Speaker 1: its background, structure, and themes. To support our work here,
Speaker 1: please visit patreon dot com slash Tolkien Road Enjoy. Hey there,
Speaker 1: fellow travelers. Welcome to The Tolkien Road, Episode two seventy two. Greta, Hey, Hey, Greta,
Speaker 1: you ready to start a new journey?
Speaker 2: Always I'm always up for a new.
Speaker 1: Journey, always up for a new journey. I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In this episode, we were returning to the Silmarillion. Over
Speaker 1: the last seven years, we've learned a ton about Tolkien,
Speaker 1: Middle Earth, and the art of podcasting, and we're excited
Speaker 1: to bring that knowledge to bear as we journey through
Speaker 1: the Selm Million once again. Yes, so, and let's let's
Speaker 1: just say we're extra excited that we're going to have
Speaker 1: so many people along for the journey from the start
Speaker 1: this time.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: We did this so the last time we did the
Speaker 1: Silm Million, like this was literally our first episode baby podcasters,
Speaker 1: just baby podcasters. So yeah, so not only have we
Speaker 1: learned a lot about podcasting since then, not only do
Speaker 1: we don't have video of any of that stuff back then,
Speaker 1: so we have all that. Plus we have all you
Speaker 1: guys along for the journey this time, right, listening in
Speaker 1: real time. So pretty exciting. Yes, yeah, so I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I don't know, I'm gonna start gushing
Speaker 1: about it if I let myself go on. But let's
Speaker 1: just say this is going to be extra fun this time.
Speaker 1: I think, even more fun than the first time through.
Speaker 3: I totally agree. I totally agree. So yeah, I think
Speaker 3: it's gonna be it's gonna be really good. And I
Speaker 3: feel like, you know, sometimes I feel like rereads again.
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, there's so many.
Speaker 3: Great books in the world, Like, why waste your time
Speaker 3: reading one they've already read?
Speaker 2: But there are a few out there, excuse me, that
Speaker 2: I think are get it.
Speaker 1: You're getting for climped, I'm getting for climed.
Speaker 3: Yes, But I think there's definitely several works of literature
Speaker 3: out there that are definitely worth reading over multiple times,
Speaker 3: and the Silm Marillion is one of them. And I
Speaker 3: think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be even
Speaker 3: better the second time through for me, because the first
Speaker 3: time I was just kind of I was really new
Speaker 3: to most things Tolken. So I'm really excited to approach
Speaker 3: it with a more informed and knowledgeable brain, and also
Speaker 3: with just a little bit with our community as well.
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be really good.
Speaker 1: Boom.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in k in case you haven't gotten the message
Speaker 1: that we're excited word word all right, before we get started,
Speaker 1: we'd like to give a double up air five to
Speaker 1: our patrons. Gotta put that coffee down. You're gonna need
Speaker 1: both hands for this, Okay, three two one O Boom special.
Speaker 1: Thanks to this episode's executive producers, John R. And Kitlin
Speaker 1: of T with Tolkien, Thank you guys, and a shout
Speaker 1: out to Andrew T who annualized his pledge awesome. Thank
Speaker 1: you all.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Hey, become a patron by visiting Patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: Tolkien Road. Becoming a patron is easy and lands you
Speaker 1: a bunch of cool perks like episodes early in ad
Speaker 1: free uh and then twenty percent off all merchandise purchased
Speaker 1: through trumanthspress dot com, which you should go check out.
Speaker 1: And this is a brand new perk just announce on
Speaker 1: this episode access to our monthly live stream Q and A.
Speaker 1: So more on that at the end of this episode.
Speaker 1: So we've got a plan for our patrons only to
Speaker 1: do a live stream Q and A with them, and
Speaker 1: in order to get access to that live you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to be a patron, so boom.
Speaker 2: I like live streams.
Speaker 1: It was fun. We had a lot of fun during
Speaker 1: that one last month.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, we've done a couple, right. Our last
Speaker 3: one was before this past one, I think was a
Speaker 3: while ago. But the feod that we've done I've really
Speaker 3: really enjoyed for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and no, forget right now and for the rest
Speaker 1: of January. You can now make an annual pledge and
Speaker 1: get two months free. So two months of Patreon free,
Speaker 1: So save yourself two months. You're gonna want to become
Speaker 1: a patron for the rest of your life anyway, so
Speaker 1: you might as well save two months per year, right
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Win win.
Speaker 1: All right, we've done this before, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: kind of refresh this. I like this idea since we're
Speaker 1: going through the film Million from the start. This time,
Speaker 1: we're going to offer a token quote of the week
Speaker 1: which is going to have some relevance, you know, for
Speaker 1: to kind of kick off each episode, set the tone
Speaker 1: for each episode.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good. So this week's quote of the week comes
Speaker 1: from letter one A two written in nineteen fifty six
Speaker 1: to Anne Barrett of Houghton Mifflin Co. Which I thought
Speaker 1: was appropriate since since you know, here's my first edition
Speaker 1: right here of the Selm Million, and it's got Houghton
Speaker 1: Mifflin right there.
Speaker 2: Oh that's cool, yep, on the first edition.
Speaker 1: There we go. See. Yeah, well, the first edition it
Speaker 1: was actually you know, this book was actually on my
Speaker 1: parents' bookshelf since I was a little kid. So I
Speaker 1: remember just seeing this name jer R. Tolkien and seeing
Speaker 1: this book on that bookshelf with the Selm million. This
Speaker 1: this is the one, right, So seeing it sitting on
Speaker 1: that bookshelf and just wondering, like, you know, what is
Speaker 1: that book? And then when I read The Hobbit, I
Speaker 1: was like, what's the Selmer Million? And I just it
Speaker 1: seemed I can remember it. That name just seeming so
Speaker 1: bizarre to me, like what is that? Right, and then
Speaker 1: reading Lord of the Rings, being like, still, what is
Speaker 1: this Silm million? So little? What little did I know? Right?
Speaker 1: Little did I know the destiny that the Selm realion,
Speaker 1: that that I was on a date, I was on
Speaker 1: a crash course with destiny when it came to the
Speaker 1: Silm Million.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm trying to figure out this cover, I
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know, but I think it's there's
Speaker 1: the cover right there. I think it's I think it's
Speaker 1: actually supposed to. To me, it looks like it's seen
Speaker 1: from the Hobbit, right. I think it might be a
Speaker 1: scene from the Hobbit where they're up in the misty mountains,
Speaker 1: right and the storm's going on. Yes, but yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a good question. I don't know for sure. Anyway, let's
Speaker 1: talk about this quote of the week. All right, let's
Speaker 1: do that. So here we go. I shall certainly now
Speaker 1: if I am allowed publish the parts of the great
Speaker 1: history that was written first and reject it. But the
Speaker 1: to me very surprising success of The Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings will probably cause that rejection to be reconsidered, though
Speaker 1: I do not think it could have the appeal of
Speaker 1: the Lord of the Rings. No Hobbits. So we see
Speaker 1: here the Tolkien himself recognize one of the chief problems
Speaker 1: that The Selm Million would face when it came to
Speaker 1: the general public, which is no Hobbits. So let's just
Speaker 1: say that from the very start, for those of you
Speaker 1: who are new to The Selm Million, you're not going
Speaker 1: to find any Hobbits in the Lord of the Ring
Speaker 1: and the Selm Million. Now, you will find them within
Speaker 1: the confines of this book, but not in the Selm
Speaker 1: Million itself, the Selm Million proper as you will, as
Speaker 1: we will come to refer to it. We'll explain why
Speaker 1: that's true here in just a few moments. Okay, So
Speaker 1: you want to read The Selm Million if you have
Speaker 1: any interest in Middle Earth. It's only natural, especially for
Speaker 1: those who have completed The Lord of the Rings No
Speaker 1: small Feet in and of itself. It's the most logical
Speaker 1: next step. Right, You've read the hobbit. If you haven't
Speaker 1: read The Lord of the Rings, need to read Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings. If you've read both, then need to
Speaker 1: read the selm Million. Right, that's the next logical step. However,
Speaker 1: if you're expecting a story like The Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: you've probably already figured out that the Silmarrillion ain't it.
Speaker 1: In fact, you won't even encounter a familiar species until
Speaker 1: several chapters in, and when you do, it will likely
Speaker 1: be several more chapters until you finally get a grasp
Speaker 1: on what's actually happening.
Speaker 2: Is this a sales pitch because if it is failing?
Speaker 1: Okay, well it's I mean, no, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: sobering I know. It's not a sales I know. It's
Speaker 1: a sales pitch for listening to this podcast, right and
Speaker 1: getting yourself beefed up because it's.
Speaker 2: Challenging, right, it is very challenging.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's our promise to you. Here's comes a sales pitch.
Speaker 1: If you'll stick with us on this journey over the
Speaker 1: next several months, it will all start to make sense,
Speaker 1: and eventually you will see how it all connects to
Speaker 1: the Lord of the Rings as well as the hobbit
Speaker 1: and makes the experience of reading them both remarkably richer. Right, So, uh, Greta,
Speaker 1: I mean, would you would you concur with that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, having gone through the podcast the first time
Speaker 1: around yourself as a having and you never read the
Speaker 1: selm Marillion at that point, right right? Yeah? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: did you come to did you come to appreciate and
Speaker 1: understand the silm Million through that journey? Would you say,
Speaker 1: through the journey of the podcast?
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: How many people we heard from over the last seven
Speaker 1: years about you know, being being able to finally kind
Speaker 1: of make it through the selm Arillion and really understand
Speaker 1: the silm Million after listening to our first go through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot a lot of you. Because it's not.
Speaker 3: It's not an easy read. It's really not. It's not
Speaker 3: a you know, definitely not a beach read. And I
Speaker 3: would argue it's also not really a curl it by
Speaker 3: the fire and drinking a glass of wine read either,
Speaker 3: Like you kind of got to be on your game
Speaker 3: when you're reading this sul Marillion.
Speaker 1: Although I want to take issue with something you said,
Speaker 1: I think I think Olmo would say it is a
Speaker 1: bee tread that's actually so true. Say there's a bee tread. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as well as those who were inspired to build large
Speaker 1: kingdoms because of being close to the water and hearing
Speaker 1: the the mystical sounds of Almo. Yeah yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: So you know, for me, I wanted to read the
Speaker 1: silm Merillion from the moment I finished Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1: And I can remember picking this very book right here,
Speaker 1: this copy right here, taking it off of my parents'
Speaker 1: bookshelf after reading Lord of the Rings. This is probably
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and one, and starting out and
Speaker 1: just being like getting into idol Ndola and just being like,
Speaker 1: first of all, what is the I knew Lindale and
Speaker 1: what is going on? This is all about some music?
Speaker 1: Like there's nothing here that is relatable to me from
Speaker 1: a Lord of the Rings or Hobbit perspective, right, I
Speaker 1: don't recognize. I even was like, okay, maybe I'll look
Speaker 1: at the map and maybe this will help me get
Speaker 1: get it all figured out here. And I open up
Speaker 1: the map and it's just like, that's not Middle Earth.
Speaker 1: I don't know what this Belrian place is, but this
Speaker 1: that's not Middle Earth, you know, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on here? So it's all you know, You're like,
Speaker 1: oh great, I want to read the you know, this
Speaker 1: prequel to Lord of the Rings, and you very quickly
Speaker 1: find out that this is this is not like watching
Speaker 1: the prequels for Star Wars, right, where you know you
Speaker 1: immediately meet a younger version of Obi Wan Kenobi. Right,
Speaker 1: there's literally nobody who you even recognize, no place names
Speaker 1: that you tend to recognize for a long time. There
Speaker 1: are a couple of very minor exceptions in Valaquinta, the
Speaker 1: second section of the book, but even there, it's brief.
Speaker 1: It's just brief, right, It's very brief. Uh, and you
Speaker 1: don't actually, you know, see some of those characters come
Speaker 1: back until much later. Okay, So this is a challenge, right,
Speaker 1: it's a challenge. I know it. I've been there, Greta's
Speaker 1: been there, and together we're gonna make it through and
Speaker 1: we're really gonna enjoy reading this and you guys are
Speaker 1: gonna love it. Right, there's so much good stuff in
Speaker 1: the summarion. So it's a challenge, but it's so worth it,
Speaker 1: and you get bragging rights, yeah you will.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't tell you how many people have
Speaker 3: you know, mentioned that I read the Silmar Allion too,
Speaker 3: and they're like.
Speaker 1: Whoa, yeah, yeah, for sure, And here's the thing. You
Speaker 1: want to read it now, because within by this time
Speaker 1: next year, this thing called Latron Prime is going to
Speaker 1: have happened. Right, That's how we refer to it here
Speaker 1: on the Tolkien Road Lord of the Rings on Prime.
Speaker 1: It's going to have happened, and everyone is going to
Speaker 1: think they know all this stuff about the early history
Speaker 1: of Middle Earth, and you're gonna be like, well, actually,
Speaker 1: it happened this way because you've read the Silmar Allion already. Right.
Speaker 1: So for those of you who are here for the
Speaker 1: very noble and virtuous reason that you want to beef
Speaker 1: up on all of this before Latron Prime hits, right,
Speaker 1: you want to understand the background of that show before
Speaker 1: it hits the screen. Welcome, right, this will be a
Speaker 1: very worthwhile endeavor as we journey towards September two, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. So and for those of you who will
Speaker 1: be journeying through the Silm Million again, we're glad you're back, right,
Speaker 1: absolutely glad you're back. Or if this I mean this
Speaker 1: may be the first time listening to the podcast, but
Speaker 1: you're reading it again. Right. You know, there's some of
Speaker 1: you who may have read it dozens of times. We
Speaker 1: have plenty of listeners who have done that, right, you know,
Speaker 1: this is you know they they told us like they
Speaker 1: listened to our podcast even though they'd read the Selm
Speaker 1: million many times, and they really enjoy just kind of
Speaker 1: having our perspective and the discussion. Right. And that's one
Speaker 1: thing that we're all about on this show, right is
Speaker 1: we want discussion, we want conversation. Most of our episodes
Speaker 1: are going to be us talking to the microphone having
Speaker 1: a conversation about these things together. But we love the correspondence.
Speaker 1: And that's partly why we're doing this livestream Q and
Speaker 1: A once a month now is we want to open
Speaker 1: it up for those, you know, for those who are
Speaker 1: patrons to really join in the conversation with us right live.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and we're going to structure it those conversations
Speaker 1: that way where we're going to kind of look back
Speaker 1: at the previous month's episodes and we're gonna that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the focus right now. Not to say we won't
Speaker 1: maybe bring up some other interesting letters, but that's going
Speaker 1: to be the focus for us. Awesome, all right, So
Speaker 1: let's talk about some background of the Selm Million. So
Speaker 1: the Selm Million was published in nineteen seventy seven, four
Speaker 1: years after Tolkien's death and over two decades after The
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings and four decades after The Hobbit. However,
Speaker 1: its genesis predates both works, going all the way back
Speaker 1: to World War One and perhaps even before that. Right,
Speaker 1: what we have with the Silm Million is not so
Speaker 1: much one cohesive epic as it is a loosely connected
Speaker 1: collection of stories taking place within the same secondary world,
Speaker 1: the world that we know as Middle Earth. Though Tolkien
Speaker 1: had hoped to publish The Selm Million during his lifetime,
Speaker 1: he was not able to see it to completion, and
Speaker 1: after his death in nineteen seventy three, his son Christopher
Speaker 1: worked to complete The Selm Million. And what we hold
Speaker 1: in our hands as the selm Merillion is the result
Speaker 1: of that editorial process. All right, So let's break that
Speaker 1: down a little bit, kind of rehash, just rehashed that briefly,
Speaker 1: all right. The Silm Million published after Tolkien's death in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, but it is actually the earliest of
Speaker 1: all the Middle Earth works, right, It's the earliest. It's
Speaker 1: the beginnings of it actually go back to twenty years
Speaker 1: before the publication of The Hobbit, right, and predate the
Speaker 1: publication of Lord of the Rings by close to four decades. Right.
Speaker 1: So the Silmarillion is really this collection of stories that
Speaker 1: book ends Tolkien's creative life, right, it's the early stories,
Speaker 1: but it is the stories. What we see here is
Speaker 1: the stories he came up with. Is he was working
Speaker 1: out the background mythology for this thing called Middle Earth, right,
Speaker 1: And you know when you read Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: when you read The Hobbit, and it feels like there's
Speaker 1: like this incredible background, there's this incredible history to it
Speaker 1: all that goes way back. That's why, right, he had
Speaker 1: because there was like he had worked out all of
Speaker 1: these legends, the details of all of these legends, you know,
Speaker 1: as he was creating before he created the stories, as
Speaker 1: he was creating The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: and he continued to work them out afterwards. Right. He
Speaker 1: did hope to have it published in his lifetime. It
Speaker 1: just never happened. And so Christopher, who is one of
Speaker 1: his children, Christopher Tolkien, published The silm Marillion in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven. He had to do this very heavy duty
Speaker 1: work of going through his father's papers and really compiling them.
Speaker 1: And he knew the stories pretty well already, right he was,
Speaker 1: you know, he and his father had talked about these stories.
Speaker 1: He had grown up with these stories. But he was
Speaker 1: able to take them with the help of a writer
Speaker 1: named Guy Gabriel Kay and a young writer at that time.
Speaker 1: He was still a fantasy writer in his own right.
Speaker 1: He was able to take those stories and kind of
Speaker 1: edit them into what we have in the Selm Mirillion. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's some background, published in nineteen seventy seven, after
Speaker 1: Tolkien died in nineteen seventy three. That's what we have
Speaker 1: with this book, the Selm Marillion. How we got it?
Speaker 1: All right? Any questions on that, Gretor No, I'm good,
Speaker 1: all right, thanks. So let's talk about the contents now.
Speaker 1: It's important to note that we are going to be
Speaker 1: working from the second edition of The Selm Merillion, which
Speaker 1: is the most recent. So this is the first edition
Speaker 1: right here, all right, that I have right here, the
Speaker 1: one originally published in nineteen seventy seven. However, there is
Speaker 1: a second edition, and that is the one that you
Speaker 1: probably have unless you've been lucky enough to come across
Speaker 1: a first edition copy. The second edition, however, has some
Speaker 1: you know, some minor some changes to it, nothing too
Speaker 1: major in terms of the content. But there is one
Speaker 1: very important thing that's added into the second edition, and
Speaker 1: that is the Waldman Letter. More on that in just
Speaker 1: a bit. All right, So you're looking at the table
Speaker 1: of contents, Greta, let's maybe open it up on the
Speaker 1: table right here, if we can make some room here,
Speaker 1: watch out for that microphone. All right, So our table
Speaker 1: of contents, and.
Speaker 2: This is also available in paperback.
Speaker 1: Is it is available in paperback? Yeah, the one I have,
Speaker 1: the one we're using right here. I'm using a hardcover
Speaker 1: because I have it, and it's really nice and it's
Speaker 1: easier to lay out like this on a table, right
Speaker 1: it doesn't want to close back up.
Speaker 2: And not easier to read laying in bed.
Speaker 1: Not easier to read laying in bed, although there are
Speaker 1: some great so the art there. This is an illustrated version,
Speaker 1: not like a graphic novel, but it has illustrations in it,
Speaker 1: and the illustrations are done by noted Tolkien artist Ted Naysmith.
Speaker 1: So very you know, this is a good copy to
Speaker 1: get if you want yourself a nice hardcover edition of
Speaker 1: the film million. I will link to it in the
Speaker 1: show notes. So all right, there's a lot in this
Speaker 1: table of contents. Okay, really two pages worth, two good
Speaker 1: pages worth that we're looking at. Now. I want you
Speaker 1: all to think about the table of contents in terms
Speaker 1: of kind of three groups. All right, we have the
Speaker 1: introductory material that includes these forwards right, so forward, and
Speaker 1: then the preface to the second edition, and then this
Speaker 1: from a letter by J. R. R. Tolkien. All right,
Speaker 1: So that's the introductory material in this edition right here,
Speaker 1: because it has illustrations. There's also a list of illustrations
Speaker 1: in it. That's not going to be in the ones
Speaker 1: if it doesn't have illustrations, obviously the next section. So
Speaker 1: that's so we have. First section would be the introductory material.
Speaker 1: The second section would be the stories, and so that's
Speaker 1: going to be everything, starting where it says I know
Speaker 1: Linda lay right, and that's how you say that word.
Speaker 1: That's how you hear me say it, although there are
Speaker 1: people who would say it differently, but I say, I
Speaker 1: know de lay and then you go all the way through,
Speaker 1: and let's jump down all the way to of the
Speaker 1: rings of power and the third Age, all right, So
Speaker 1: that is kind of the main chunk of the main
Speaker 1: narrative chunk, right, of the story the content all right,
Speaker 1: of the Selm million I know, lind delay all the
Speaker 1: way through of the Rings of Power in the third Age.
Speaker 1: So we'll just call that the stories, all right, And
Speaker 1: so that's gonna be the main focus over the next
Speaker 1: several months of this podcast, right, We're going to go
Speaker 1: through those those chapter by chapter and really dig in
Speaker 1: deep and have fun exploring them. And then we've got
Speaker 1: supporting materials, right, So supporting materials. So after that where
Speaker 1: it says tables, you have genealogies, you have five different genealogies.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about those on this episode and how to
Speaker 1: understand and how those are useful. Then we have this
Speaker 1: table called the Sundering of the Elves. That one is
Speaker 1: really useful. Actually, that's that's probably the one that I
Speaker 1: referred to the most and when I was first reading
Speaker 1: this and kind of trying to get my mind wrapped
Speaker 1: around this as really helpful for understanding elves, right, really
Speaker 1: helpful table for understanding just the basics about elves. And
Speaker 1: then we have notes on pronunciation or note on pronunciation
Speaker 1: index of names, and then appendix elements and Quinya and
Speaker 1: Sindarn names. Okay, so that's all supporting materials, right. All
Speaker 1: that stuff from tables on to the end is what
Speaker 1: i'd refer to as supporting materials. So we got group
Speaker 1: one or section one, introduction material section two, the stories,
Speaker 1: Section three supporting material Yeah, makes sense. That makes sense,
Speaker 1: all right, So we're gonna spend the rest of this
Speaker 1: episode dealing with the introductory supporting materials. Kind of ground
Speaker 1: ourselves with those, understand how they're helpful, get them out
Speaker 1: of the way. But let's take a few minutes real
Speaker 1: quick just to consider the meat of the book. Right,
Speaker 1: what's in section two the stories? All right, So in
Speaker 1: most pred editions I've seen, you'll see things organize such
Speaker 1: that I know, Linda Lay, valaquina A Kalabeate and the
Speaker 1: Rinks of Power and the Third Age stand apart from
Speaker 1: the rest of the text with this thing called Quintus
Speaker 1: Silmarilion headlining twenty four distinct chapters. All right, so let's
Speaker 1: talk about what those are. The first thing I know,
Speaker 1: Linda de Lay, all right, I know Linda Lay is
Speaker 1: the creation story of Middle Earth. That's what we're going
Speaker 1: to discuss on the next episode. Okay. It is truly
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things Tolkien wrote, and it is
Speaker 1: very fascinating. Okay. The basic idea there is that middle
Speaker 1: Earth is made of music. A right, Middle Earth is made.
Speaker 2: Of music, made of music or from music.
Speaker 1: Maybe both, definitely from music. I would go so far
Speaker 1: as to say made of music, right. Okay, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that more on the next episode. Valaquainta vala quainta
Speaker 1: catalog some of the most important characters in the early
Speaker 1: chapters of The Silm Million. Okay, so it's not so
Speaker 1: much a story as it is kind of a an explanation.
Speaker 1: It's like an essay on some of the different characters
Speaker 1: that we're gonna meet, some of the different species of
Speaker 1: characters that we're gonna meet early on in this film. Million.
Speaker 1: Then jumping down, we'll come back to Quentin Silm Million,
Speaker 1: jumping down a calibath. This tells the story of middle
Speaker 1: ER's second age and the downfall of Numer. So heads
Speaker 1: up to all of you folks who are here because
Speaker 1: you're excited about Lord of the Rings on Prime. Okay,
Speaker 1: A Klabath is a must read, right, you have to
Speaker 1: read a Klibeth to understand the story of the Second
Speaker 1: Age and the Rings of Power. I'm sorry of Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings on Prime. Okay, that is the main
Speaker 1: text for understanding the history of Numen or we won't
Speaker 1: beginning to really diving into a Calibath until much later,
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of our reading schedule, because it
Speaker 1: does come very late in the book.
Speaker 2: But for a little taste, we did do a yes,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a reread.
Speaker 1: Good point. We've done actually plenty of episodes on a Calabath.
Speaker 1: We we did a reread earlier this year where Gretta.
Speaker 1: Greta kind kind of led the charge. You know, we
Speaker 1: never really did your second part.
Speaker 2: Never did it, and I kind of told some people
Speaker 2: we were.
Speaker 1: Going through it will be that as a bonus episode
Speaker 1: at some point, but we did. We have we did
Speaker 1: our first read through the of a Calibath. If you
Speaker 1: just can't wait and you want to go back and
Speaker 1: listen to that, it's it's way back. I'll try to
Speaker 1: remember a link to that. And we've also I have
Speaker 1: a collection of several several episodes on our YouTube page
Speaker 1: and you can go back into our into our podcast
Speaker 1: feed as well. But we've done several just on the
Speaker 1: on the Second Age in general. We we actually did
Speaker 1: a Calibath reread a few years ago where it was
Speaker 1: four parts, and we've done lots of other episodes on
Speaker 1: the Second Age and the lore of the Second Age
Speaker 1: and the history of the Second Age. So we've got
Speaker 1: plenty of content back from the past on on this topic.
Speaker 1: If you want to beef up on that.
Speaker 2: You wants, you know what your appetite.
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely you know if you If you have trouble
Speaker 1: find it, feel feel free to reach out to us
Speaker 1: so and I'll be happy to point you in the
Speaker 1: right direction. So easiest place to go to is probably
Speaker 1: like Twitter or Facebook, or just email us whatever right,
Speaker 1: or go onto YouTube. Right, go onto YouTube and and
Speaker 1: drop me a comment. You can usually search for just
Speaker 1: search for Tolkien Road a kalab eight or something like
Speaker 1: that and you'll probably come up. And then of the
Speaker 1: Rings of Power in the Third Age, this is this
Speaker 1: is a pretty interesting one. It gives a relatively short
Speaker 1: account of the creation of the Rings of Power all
Speaker 1: the way through the destruction of the one ring at
Speaker 1: the end of the Third Age. So this is like
Speaker 1: almost like a bird's eye view of the entire story
Speaker 1: of the Rings from when the rings were created all
Speaker 1: the way to to the one rings destruction at Mount Doom, right. So,
Speaker 1: and it's and it's the kind of thing you can
Speaker 1: read in one or two sittings. It's a pretty short
Speaker 1: version of it. So that one's pretty fun, especially, you know,
Speaker 1: especially if you're coming to the Selmer Million having just
Speaker 1: read The Lord of the Rings, you're probably really going
Speaker 1: to enjoy reading of the Rings of Power in the
Speaker 1: Third Age. So all right, now, let's go back to
Speaker 1: this thing, quinta Silm Million right where we've got twenty
Speaker 1: four chapters. All right, So quinta silm Merillion is basically
Speaker 1: that that's really what the Selm Million is. Right when
Speaker 1: we talk about when when Tolkien would have been talking
Speaker 1: about the Silm Million, that's that's the main thing he
Speaker 1: would have been referring to. Is this. It's this saga.
Speaker 1: It's this collection of stories that kind of presents this
Speaker 1: history of these things called the silm Merells. It it's
Speaker 1: gonna tell everything from the first awakening of the elves
Speaker 1: Uh to the creation of the three Selmer Ells, the
Speaker 1: numerous wars that result over them, and the coming of
Speaker 1: men into the world and really so much more. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's not just one story, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: a collection of many stories that are part of a
Speaker 1: larger saga, all right. And you know, the comparison has
Speaker 1: been made to the Old Testament before, because it's that
Speaker 1: same kind of thing, right, some of these you know,
Speaker 1: different characters can be involved. It covers a long period
Speaker 1: of history, but you know, it's all really telling. It's
Speaker 1: all part of kind of one big story, right, It's
Speaker 1: just not always necessarily easy to see how it all
Speaker 1: connects until later, right. The the Silmariles, let's define that
Speaker 1: real quick, all right, The Silmarills. There's three of them,
Speaker 1: and they are these holy jewels. We're gonna learn a
Speaker 1: lot more about them. But they are essentially these three
Speaker 1: jewels that contain a blessed light. And at some point,
Speaker 1: this blessed light becomes something that's no longer available, right,
Speaker 1: and so the three Silmarills are the only way of
Speaker 1: getting access to this holy light. Right. So that might
Speaker 1: seem all very like hard to understand if you're coming
Speaker 1: to this new like, what what's this big deal about
Speaker 1: holy light? But we'll understand that, right, we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into all that and what that's all about once we
Speaker 1: get into these stories.
Speaker 3: So the title being the soil Marillion, is that kind
Speaker 3: of I'm just trying to think of the connection. Obviously
Speaker 3: it comes like Silmriile as part of sil Marillion. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so can we kind of translate Silmrillion as like the
Speaker 3: Tale of the Silmrales or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's probably right now, that might not
Speaker 1: be the exact translation. One thing to remember, one thing
Speaker 1: you need to remember about Tolkien is he was a philologist.
Speaker 1: He he loved language. Literally, he was a philologist in
Speaker 1: terms of loving language, and literally he was a philologist
Speaker 1: in terms of that was his profession, right, so, uh
Speaker 1: he he loved language, and uh so I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if that's the exact translation of the Silmarillion, but I
Speaker 1: think that's a good way of referring to it, right,
Speaker 1: It's like of the soil Marles or the tale the
Speaker 1: Tale of the Silmrles, Right, Yeah, so yeah, good question things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just like, was basically it's Silmarill with
Speaker 3: Ioan on the end, and so I'm trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what ion like, how that what the relation of
Speaker 3: the ending to the words sill Morill is like how
Speaker 3: it relates, but clearly, I mean the sill Morrills are
Speaker 3: kind of a focus of most of the stories.
Speaker 1: They're what all the trouble is about, indeed.
Speaker 2: Indeed, and they're beautiful, so I mean it makes sense.
Speaker 1: However, they don't show up until several chapters ten.
Speaker 2: So you got to be committed people, you do, You're going.
Speaker 1: To find that's a theme this is. This is a
Speaker 1: story that you got to be committed. You got to
Speaker 1: be kind of committed to getting into it. But once
Speaker 1: you get into it and you commit, it's worth.
Speaker 2: It, right, totally worth it.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. How much in life is that true? Of?
Speaker 1: Oh so right, yep, the really worthwhile things you got
Speaker 1: to commit to, and once you commit to them, you're
Speaker 1: happy you did, right, absolutely, yes, all right, So let's
Speaker 1: go back to this thing called the Waldman Letter. So
Speaker 1: this is good. This is really helpful in terms of
Speaker 1: introducing some of the themes. Actually, let me circle back
Speaker 1: first to this introduction to our forwards. Right, so, our
Speaker 1: forward to the first edition, our forward to the second edition.
Speaker 1: The forward from the first edition is written by Christopher.
Speaker 1: I want to read this opening paragraph from actual I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read it over here. I want it. This is
Speaker 1: a better place to read it. Here we go, all right,
Speaker 1: this is from the first edition.
Speaker 2: This is from the first edition, right, so not the
Speaker 2: edition we're working out of.
Speaker 1: Well, it's also in that. Oh, it's in both, right,
Speaker 1: but it was it was part of the first editiontcha. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Christopher says. The silm Million, now published four years
Speaker 1: after the death of its author, is an account of
Speaker 1: the Elder Days, or the First Age of the world,
Speaker 1: and the Lord of the Rings were narrated the great
Speaker 1: events at the end of the Third Age, but the
Speaker 1: tales of the Silmarillion are legends deriving from a much
Speaker 1: deeper past, when more Goth, the first dark Lord, dwelt
Speaker 1: in Middle Earth and the high Elves made war upon
Speaker 1: him for the rec recovery of the selmer El's all right,
Speaker 1: so break down a little bit of that for you.
Speaker 1: That's a really good little summary of the selmar Million. Okay.
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings hobbit take place at the end
Speaker 1: of the Third Age of Middle Earth. Okay, this three
Speaker 1: thousand year period called the Third Age. New minor the
Speaker 1: history of neumenor that is going to be the focus
Speaker 1: of Lord of the Rings. That's the second age. That's
Speaker 1: when the Rings of power were created. Okay, and the
Speaker 1: end of this so the beginning of the second age
Speaker 1: is the creation of New Minor, right. The end of
Speaker 1: the second age is the downfall of New Minor along
Speaker 1: with the last alliance of men. And L's right, So
Speaker 1: that the first defeat, the first defeat of Souron really
Speaker 1: not the first defeat, but one of the defeats of
Speaker 1: Souron where he loses the one ring, right, he loses
Speaker 1: the one ring and we think he's vanquished, and the
Speaker 1: one ring comes into the possession of of is seal door. Right,
Speaker 1: So you know that bit of legend, from that bit
Speaker 1: of the legend from Lord of the Rings. Okay, So
Speaker 1: third age into third Age, Lord of the Rings, end
Speaker 1: of second age, kind of the inciting action of the
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings. First age is what the selm
Speaker 1: me million is all about. Okay, More Goth? All right,
Speaker 1: who's this guy? More Goth? Because you thought Sururn was
Speaker 1: the bad guy, right, you thought Suron was the bad
Speaker 1: guy of Middle Earth. Suron is a we'll show up
Speaker 1: in the selm Merillion, but he is a lieutenant of
Speaker 1: more Goth. Right, he is, he is a He learned
Speaker 1: everything he knows from more Goth. Okay, more Goth will
Speaker 1: not be known as more Goth until well into the
Speaker 1: Selm me Million. Before that, he is going to be
Speaker 1: known as Melcore. All Right, you're gonna we're gonna meet
Speaker 1: him at Idol and Delay as melcoor okay, Melcor slash
Speaker 1: more Goth is the chief bad guy of the Selm Million. Okay,
Speaker 1: makes sense?
Speaker 2: Makes sense?
Speaker 1: All right? Yeah, so yes, uh, and the chief creatures
Speaker 1: that were going to uh, they're going to kind of
Speaker 1: be in focus in all this are the elves, right,
Speaker 1: so you know, men will come to figure in it,
Speaker 1: but not until much later, not until much later in
Speaker 1: the film million. Okay. Christopher also notes in this forward
Speaker 1: he he talks a lot about the challenges he faced.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of interesting from a textual history,
Speaker 1: not something you need to spend any time on or
Speaker 1: get tripped up by unless you're super curious, Okay, But
Speaker 1: basically he explains that putting this thing together was no
Speaker 1: easy feat. All right. What you'll learn about Tolkien as
Speaker 1: you learn more about him is that he was incredible.
Speaker 1: He was an incredible genius, and like many incredible geniuses,
Speaker 1: he was extremely disorganized, right he was. He was kind
Speaker 1: of like, maybe not extremely disorganized, because he was organized
Speaker 1: enough to have these papers in a place where his
Speaker 1: son could work with him. Right. But he wrote a lot, right,
Speaker 1: He wrote a lot, and he wrote many different versions
Speaker 1: of these stories, and so Christopher had to like go
Speaker 1: back and put together in some cases like the best
Speaker 1: versions of the stories. Right. So, but one thing to
Speaker 1: note is that everything that's included in here is according
Speaker 1: to his father's explicit intention. Right. Christopher says that that
Speaker 1: all works included are according to jerr Or Tolkien's explicit intention.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like he was just throwing things in Like.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like he decided to throw in a kalabath
Speaker 1: because he felt like, you know, it belonged in there
Speaker 1: was that was his father's intention. So second edition forward
Speaker 1: really very short. Basically, he just gives a little background
Speaker 1: on why this introduction was added this Waltman letter, as
Speaker 1: we're going to discuss the basic story. In nineteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: as Tolkien was finalizing Lord of the Rings, he was
Speaker 1: hoping to find a publisher who would agree to issue
Speaker 1: both Lord of the Rings and the Selm Million, and
Speaker 1: so he basically told the entire history of Middle Earth
Speaker 1: from the very beginning all the way to the end
Speaker 1: in this letter and the Waldman Letter. Yeah. Now, what
Speaker 1: we have in the Waldman Letter is not the entire
Speaker 1: Waldman Letter, all right, So what we have in this
Speaker 1: introduction right here is not the entire Waldman Letter. You
Speaker 1: can read the entire Waldman Letter if you get letters
Speaker 1: the Letters of Jered are Tolkien. This bad boy right here,
Speaker 1: which I highly recommend. Okay, one of my favorite Tolkien books.
Speaker 1: For sure. It's more than just a reference. There's some
Speaker 1: just so so good, so good. If you want to
Speaker 1: understand the mind of Tolkien, you need the Letters of
Speaker 1: Jared Orre Tolkien. But the Waldman Letter contained in its
Speaker 1: entirety there and here, it's really just focused on the
Speaker 1: first and second ages, all right, So it stops when
Speaker 1: he gets to the third age. Okay. Waldman was worked
Speaker 1: for Collins Publishers, who was one of the publishers that
Speaker 1: he was talking to about publishing Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 1: and and so he was hoping to say, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: here's my Hobbit sequel. By the way, I'd really like
Speaker 1: it if you'd published the Selm Million along with it.
Speaker 1: And here's why you should. Right. Obviously it didn't work out.
Speaker 1: Now publishers might look back and say, well, kind of
Speaker 1: wish I kind of wish I had done that, right,
Speaker 1: But yeah, roll the dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Speaker 1: So the whole letter is quite worthwhile. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about Let's talk about something that I think is really
Speaker 1: important in this letter, and that's the themes. Okay, the
Speaker 1: themes that he calls out in this letter. There are
Speaker 1: three themes, three key themes of the Selm Million. The
Speaker 1: first theme is fall. Tolkien says that fall occurs in
Speaker 1: several modes, so we should understand this as having to
Speaker 1: do with a fall from grace or from an exalted
Speaker 1: state or a happy moral state. There are numerous instances
Speaker 1: of characters falling. Sometimes the fall is from goodness into
Speaker 1: a state of evil. Sometimes it's an impatient presumption, perhaps
Speaker 1: more understandable and defensible, yet with real consequences. Nevertheless, always
Speaker 1: we find Tolkien exploring how even the fall can be
Speaker 1: worked by good powers to bring about a happy outcome. Right. So,
Speaker 1: Tolkien's universe, although very dark, is not a fundamentally pessimistic universe. Okay. This,
Speaker 1: this is something I really want to emphasize because I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of a lot of the popular
Speaker 1: fantasy of our time tends to be very pessimistic, right,
Speaker 1: it tends to be very like focused on the violent,
Speaker 1: on the nihilistic. And I will say it, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at you, Game of Thrones, although I will say I
Speaker 1: don't know much about Game of Thrones, but everything I
Speaker 1: understand about it and what I've been told by others,
Speaker 1: is that it is very nihilistic and pessimistic. And I'm
Speaker 1: not there to put it down. I'm not there to
Speaker 1: say that there's no like you know that that's that
Speaker 1: we're not We're not getting to do an ethical discussion
Speaker 1: or a moralistic discussion about that. All I'm saying is
Speaker 1: that you need to understand that Tolkien's universe is not
Speaker 1: like that. Okay. Tolkien's universe, though often very dark, though
Speaker 1: often very violent, they often very brutal, is a fundamentally
Speaker 1: hopeful universe. Okay.
Speaker 2: What has to be right?
Speaker 3: Because I mean, if you've listened to any of our
Speaker 3: episodes or know even a little bit about Tolkien, you're
Speaker 3: familiar with the idea of you catastrophe, right, yep. So
Speaker 3: I mean that's got that was just a fundamental.
Speaker 2: Piece of his what of his storytelling?
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, while we're at it, Greta,
Speaker 1: tell tell the listeners what you catastrophe is?
Speaker 3: Uh, you catastrophe simply put, is translated as the happy turn. Okay,
Speaker 3: It's just when you know it's the whole, when everything
Speaker 3: looks like it's done and it seems like the evil
Speaker 3: and darkness is going.
Speaker 2: To prevail, it's the happy turn. Right, It's the it's
Speaker 2: the light shining through the darkness and.
Speaker 3: Happy catastrophe, happy catastrophe, exactly, exactly. And I think Tolkien
Speaker 3: himself says that the greatest you catastrophe of history is
Speaker 3: the resurrection, right just when it appears that you know
Speaker 3: that all is lost, God is dead, you know, we
Speaker 3: have Easter. So yeah, I mean that can't you can't.
Speaker 3: I mean that's just a fundamental piece of of of
Speaker 3: Tolkien's creations.
Speaker 1: You're you're one, right, And so as you read, as
Speaker 1: you read Tolkien, I'd encourage you to read it through
Speaker 1: that lens, right. So it is it is a universe
Speaker 1: that even when things seem dark, even when things see
Speaker 1: things seem like they're you know, it's just tragedy or
Speaker 1: you know, evil is winning out that somehow good will
Speaker 1: come right. The good will come all right. And in
Speaker 1: some ways that's kind of the challenge, I'd say, Tolti
Speaker 1: might even have seen it this way, that the challenge
Speaker 1: of the fantasy writer in his mind, the writer of
Speaker 1: the fairy tale, the challenge is to get their protagonists
Speaker 1: into such a mess that it's like, how can they
Speaker 1: possibly escape from this? Right? And when you're just like, well,
Speaker 1: they're done, they're toast, right.
Speaker 2: And then here come the eagles, yep, right.
Speaker 1: And then here come the eagles swooping in. All right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn about a lot about eagles on this, y'all.
Speaker 1: We learned a lot about eagles. Mortality. Second theme, mortality,
Speaker 1: he says, especially as it relates to creative desire. So
Speaker 1: why do we have this impulse to create? Why does
Speaker 1: it often seem to lead to a spirit of possessiveness?
Speaker 1: This will also be manifest and the immortality of elves
Speaker 1: and the mortality of men. Why these two paths for
Speaker 1: creatures that are so similar? Is immortality really the favorite
Speaker 1: gift that we mortals often think it would be. So
Speaker 1: there's a couple of aspects to this with what Tolkien says.
Speaker 1: First of all, we have elves and men. Elves immortal
Speaker 1: by nature. Now that doesn't mean they can't die. It
Speaker 1: just means that they won't naturally die, right, men, not
Speaker 1: so much as we all know, right, Tolkien. There's a
Speaker 1: bit of a speculative idea in this, right, like what
Speaker 1: would it be like if we did live forever? Right,
Speaker 1: if we were immortal creatures? Okay? And Tolkien explores that idea,
Speaker 1: and he finds that well, actually, in a fallen world,
Speaker 1: it may not be the blessing that you think it is, right,
Speaker 1: and the fallen world, it may not be the blessing
Speaker 1: that you think it is. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: that tension that Tolkien is exploring with this. And then
Speaker 1: under this subject, under this theme of mortality, is this question,
Speaker 1: this question of like the creative desire? Right, why do
Speaker 1: we have this impulse to create? And I think Tolkien's
Speaker 1: getting it maybe a few things with this right he
Speaker 1: wants to he wants us to understand, like, first of all,
Speaker 1: where does the like kind of creative desire come? From right,
Speaker 1: if we live in a universe, it's like brutal and
Speaker 1: just kind of beholden to nature, right, just just purely
Speaker 1: beholden to like the kind of nature and death and
Speaker 1: the rule of death. Then why do we have this
Speaker 1: desire to create? Right? Why do we have this impulse
Speaker 1: to want to leave behind beautiful things, to want to
Speaker 1: make the world a more beautiful place? And why does
Speaker 1: that often seem to lead to a spirit of possessiveness? Right?
Speaker 1: Why does that cause us to have this like selfish
Speaker 1: desire as a result the impulse of creativity? That The
Speaker 1: philosophy of creativity is a very important one to Tolkien.
Speaker 1: He lived it because he because he was incredibly creative.
Speaker 1: He lived it throughout his life. But he also just
Speaker 1: wondered about why we have this and where it came from.
Speaker 1: One of the easiest things, one of the easiest ways
Speaker 1: to start with understanding his view on that is to
Speaker 1: understand that he viewed human beings as subcreators. Right, that
Speaker 1: we make because we are because we are made by
Speaker 1: the ultimate creator. Right, we are made to do so
Speaker 1: by the ultimate creator. Right, So we are made right
Speaker 1: by God and he made us human beings specifically to
Speaker 1: have this similar creative desire that he has right, that
Speaker 1: the that that God, that that the ultimate deity has right.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk about that a lot, and it actually
Speaker 1: works its way into the legendarium itself. There's a lot
Speaker 1: about creativity within the story of the Selm Marilli in itself.
Speaker 3: So and you think about this, the Silm Moriiles being
Speaker 3: kind of the focus of all these stories, they themselves
Speaker 3: were created objects, right, So.
Speaker 1: It all kind of fits together, and that whole theme
Speaker 1: of possessiveness also comes up with the right exactly. And
Speaker 1: then finally the third theme actually kind of carries over
Speaker 1: from this theme of creativity. Machine, or as Tolkien would say,
Speaker 1: would also refer to it magic, right, So machine is
Speaker 1: the modern form of magic. Here, magic is the shortcut
Speaker 1: opposed to true art. So you know, when you think
Speaker 1: of true art, think of like elvish, like what the
Speaker 1: elves do, right, Like the elves, the elves seek to
Speaker 1: take the natural world and to develop it further in
Speaker 1: like to develop its nature further, right in a very
Speaker 1: organic way that doesn't violate what what we've been given, right,
Speaker 1: like what what we've kind of found there. Okay, Whereas
Speaker 1: you think of like you know, just think of like
Speaker 1: what Suron does, right, or Saramon when he's creating you know,
Speaker 1: he's creating the Roukai, right, He's he's.
Speaker 2: Like, it's a mockery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's mock mocking things. Right, He's he's tearing down
Speaker 1: the natural world in order to do this. He's not
Speaker 1: beautifying the natural world. He's not further developing, and he's
Speaker 1: just tearing it up. He's burning it right in order
Speaker 1: to make it fuel. Right. Tolkien was not a fan
Speaker 1: of cutting down trees, so that that's maybe a little
Speaker 1: way to put this, but he would have much preferred
Speaker 1: that like people built like cool like tree houses, tree
Speaker 1: palaces right out of them. Right. So anyway, that's that's
Speaker 1: the idea here. We might also take this one step
Speaker 1: further and understand that Salon, in creating the One Ring, right,
Speaker 1: creating his rings of power, that he was creating these machines.
Speaker 1: He was creating these magic machines that he could use
Speaker 1: to manipulate and rule over people. Right, So tools of domination. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the machine is the falsification of true art, right,
Speaker 1: and that it seeks to dominate, doesn't seem to beautify,
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to glorify and to bring to further
Speaker 1: bring out the natural essence of a thing and beautify it,
Speaker 1: but to dominate it and to use it for a
Speaker 1: means to further power, right yep. So so those are
Speaker 1: the three themes that we're really looking at when we
Speaker 1: look at the Silm Rellion. There's a whole lot more
Speaker 1: in this introduction if you're up for it, I highly
Speaker 1: recommend reading it before you dive into Inolindela, though, don't
Speaker 1: feel like you have to. It can actually be a
Speaker 1: really good introduction to the history of the Silm Million
Speaker 1: and kind of ground yourself in it. But again, if
Speaker 1: you're just the type of person who doesn't want to
Speaker 1: spend your time with an essay before you dive into this,
Speaker 1: you can always come back to it later too. We
Speaker 1: will be referring to it frequently, like just different parts
Speaker 1: parts of it throughout because there's some clarifying statements that
Speaker 1: you know that that Tolkien makes throughout it, that the
Speaker 1: Waldman letter. Y yeah, so you know, do what you
Speaker 1: will with it. If you're the type of person just
Speaker 1: wants to dive right into the stories, go for it.
Speaker 1: If you want to read the Waldman letter, it's worth
Speaker 1: your time.
Speaker 2: Personally, I'm a dive writing kind of person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think most people probably are. I think I probably.
Speaker 1: I think I probably do write in the first time
Speaker 1: I read it, but then when I went back and
Speaker 1: went back and read this thing, I was like, this
Speaker 1: is awesome. So all right, so let's jump ahead to
Speaker 1: the supporting material. So that's the introductory material. Let's now
Speaker 1: look at the supporting material appendices and references. All right,
Speaker 1: So we've got five tables, or really six tables if
Speaker 1: you count the the the Elves table as one of those.
Speaker 1: So let's jump ahead here, and these are on the back.
Speaker 1: These are in the back after the main chunk of
Speaker 1: the stories. Catcha, all right, we gotta kind of turn
Speaker 1: it this way, Greta, Yes, we do. All right. So
Speaker 1: the first table that you're gonna see is Fenway, right,
Speaker 1: the House of Fenway and the Noldoran descent of l
Speaker 1: Rond and l Ros. Okay, hey, you recognize the name there,
Speaker 1: l Rond, Right, you see l Rond Yep, by the way,
Speaker 1: look up where it says l Rond at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the page, bottom right of the page there go
Speaker 1: up about ten to maybe one o'clock from there. Follow
Speaker 1: it up and you see another name you're going to recognize, Gladrail. Right,
Speaker 1: So two names you recognize right there. Okay, we have
Speaker 1: l Rond and Gladrail on this table. So this shows
Speaker 1: that both l Rond and Gladrail are descended from an
Speaker 1: individual named Fenway. All right. Fenway is the king of
Speaker 1: is the high king of a group of elves called
Speaker 1: the Noldor. All right, he's the high king of a
Speaker 1: group of elves called the Noldor. And we're gonna learn
Speaker 1: a lot about the old or then Old Door kind
Speaker 1: of the main group of elves along with the Sindarron
Speaker 1: that we're going to be very focused on in this story.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn where the Nooldor come from, what their
Speaker 1: tendencies are, and we're gonna learn a lot about many Noldor. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right. The next table we have here is the
Speaker 1: descendants of Oldway and Elway. All right, So these are
Speaker 1: what a group of elves called the Tillary. Okay, The
Speaker 1: Tillary at some point split into the Tillary and the Sindarn. Okay.
Speaker 1: You will also see here that el Rond is in
Speaker 1: this table as well as is glad rail. Okay, and
Speaker 1: you'll look down a little further and who do we see?
Speaker 1: There are Wind and what boom? We know them, yeah,
Speaker 1: we know them. Okay, So starting to see how okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I can see this. This is like an ancient history
Speaker 1: of like actual characters that I already do know. All right,
Speaker 1: So yep, there you go, all right? Table three here
Speaker 1: move your h I know is headphone cord? Here?
Speaker 2: There we go, we.
Speaker 1: Go, all right. So Table three is the house of
Speaker 1: Bayor and the mortal descent of l Rond and el Rose. Okay,
Speaker 1: so again we're getting a lot of history on where
Speaker 1: l Ron came from. Beyor is a man, okay. Beor
Speaker 1: is a mortal, and he is one of the heads
Speaker 1: of the great houses of men that come into the
Speaker 1: story later on in the Selm Marillion. Okay, and l
Speaker 1: Rond is descended from him as well, right, because remember
Speaker 1: l Rond is half Elvin. L Rond is half elf,
Speaker 1: half human, half man, right, So that shows his descent
Speaker 1: from the men's side.
Speaker 2: I also real quick want to mention that in both
Speaker 2: of those last two tables that you mentioned, there's also Luthian.
Speaker 1: Luthian.
Speaker 3: Yes, so if you are familiar with John's first book.
Speaker 2: Here's your first one, yep, yep, that which is focused
Speaker 2: on the story of Baron and Luthian. Then that's another
Speaker 2: name that you would know.
Speaker 1: Boom.
Speaker 2: Also my favorite story in the summer Early.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, mine too, and it's a great story. I
Speaker 1: can't wait till we get to it. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little while. But if you if you want to
Speaker 1: check out my book, it's called Tolkien's Requim. It's also
Speaker 1: you know, some people have actually used that as an
Speaker 1: as an introduction into the world of the summarily because
Speaker 1: it kind of collect connects a lot of the threads
Speaker 1: and it's a very short read. So yeah, you can.
Speaker 1: You can actually get a copy of that if you
Speaker 1: sign up at the five dollars level on Patreon, and
Speaker 1: or you can buy a copy of it from trumanspress
Speaker 1: dot com, or it's available on Amazon.
Speaker 2: Aimless self promotion.
Speaker 1: Well you did it.
Speaker 2: I did. I totally opened the door, open the door
Speaker 2: to I own it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well done, all right, well done, grita all right.
Speaker 1: Table four the House of Hador of dor Lomin Uh
Speaker 1: and this is Uh and then we also have five
Speaker 1: the people of Halleth the Halidin of Breathel. So it's
Speaker 1: not explicitly called out here, but we see Aarendale there
Speaker 1: at the very bottom of this table. And Erindale is
Speaker 1: the is the father of l Rond, right, so, uh,
Speaker 1: that's how this all connects to everything else. But this
Speaker 1: is another table of men here as well. All right,
Speaker 1: This last table we have is uh, is kind of
Speaker 1: different from the other tables, and that it's not like
Speaker 1: a direct assent. But what this does is it shows
Speaker 1: all of the different names of the groups of elves
Speaker 1: and how they look like to one another. It is
Speaker 1: very helpful. It's going to look like gibberish at first,
Speaker 1: but let's break it down, all right. The Quindy Quindy
Speaker 1: is the overall name for the elves, right, they are
Speaker 1: the Quindi all elves. They're broken out into two main groups,
Speaker 1: the Eldar on the left and the Avari on the right.
Speaker 1: They Avari and the Eldar are distinguished by what happens
Speaker 1: in one of the early chapters of the Selmer Million.
Speaker 1: The basic question do they accept the summons to Valenore
Speaker 1: or do they reject the summons to Valin or? Okay,
Speaker 1: the Eldar accept the summons. The Avari reject the summons, right,
Speaker 1: so they are the unwilling. The Avari are the unwilling,
Speaker 1: and you can kind of see there's not a whole
Speaker 1: lot more said about them, right, Not not that there
Speaker 1: won't be more set about them, and there's not stuff
Speaker 1: said about them otherwise, but that's that's kind of where
Speaker 1: they're left behind. It's all. It's all defined by what
Speaker 1: happens in terms of the journey to valleen Or. Early
Speaker 1: in the book, the Eldar are broken out into three
Speaker 1: main groups. So these are the people that do that
Speaker 1: do accept the journey. They're broken out into the Vanyard,
Speaker 1: the Noldor, and the Tillary. Okay, the Vanyard and the
Speaker 1: Noldor all eventually complete the journey to Valinor. The Tillary
Speaker 1: end up breaking into some different groups, Okay, the Tillary,
Speaker 1: and they're actually a very large group of elves. Some
Speaker 1: of the Tillary do make the journey, right, They make
Speaker 1: the journey on along with the Vanyard and the Noldor,
Speaker 1: and they arrive in the Blessed realm. The groups of
Speaker 1: elves together that become that arrive in the Blessed realm
Speaker 1: are the Calaquindi, right, That's why the Vonnyard, the Noldor
Speaker 1: and part of the Tillary kind of add up to that.
Speaker 1: Elves of light, that's what that means, literally, elves of light,
Speaker 1: the high eleves. They came to Aman in the days
Speaker 1: of the Two Trees. Now let's go back up to
Speaker 1: the Tilary. The Tilary break up into those who become
Speaker 1: the Calaquindi part of the Calaquiniti, and then we have
Speaker 1: the Sindar, the gray elves. These are the elves that
Speaker 1: remain balariond Okay, They're gonna play a big part in
Speaker 1: the story of the Summarillion. And then we have the
Speaker 1: non Door, those that left the march of the Tillarry
Speaker 1: east of the Misty Mountains. Misty Mountains. Hey, that's also
Speaker 1: something from that we recognize from the Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings and some million. Yes, but the non Door are
Speaker 1: they're they're left further behind, right, so, and and the
Speaker 1: Misty Mountains do not show up on that map right
Speaker 1: of Valerions, Okay, yep. So they will come back into
Speaker 1: the story because they feed into it much later on,
Speaker 1: because they feed into the la Quindy, the green elves
Speaker 1: of Assyrian Okay, and then the oman Yar the Elder
Speaker 1: who were not of Aman Okay. So the non Door
Speaker 1: are kind of interesting because we can think of them
Speaker 1: as you know, the source for some of like many
Speaker 1: of the elves that maybe we don't like. So so
Speaker 1: when we think of like Legolists, for example, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of throwing this out there. I want to double check
Speaker 1: this because I didn't look this up beforehand, but I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure Legolists and his father thron du Will are
Speaker 1: non Door, right. That would make sense because they live
Speaker 1: east of the Misty Mountains and the Third Age. So
Speaker 1: I'm double checking it here using trustee resource of Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings wiki. Let's see here they might They're
Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as the Sylvan elves. Right, and looking
Speaker 1: for Legolis's name, not seeing him there, let's look up less.
Speaker 2: So all of these groups, they are the Cindar and
Speaker 2: the non Door. They both left. They they both quit
Speaker 2: the journey.
Speaker 1: They both quit the journey, but at different points, at
Speaker 1: different points, that's correct, gotcha? Uh? So let's see here
Speaker 1: thron du Will. Uh yeah, thron Duill was the only
Speaker 1: son of oo Fair, king of the Woodland realm. He
Speaker 1: was born during the First Age and lived in doriy
Speaker 1: Off at the some point prior to the second kin Sling. Well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't spell out whether it's a nondor
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure he is. Of course, we got
Speaker 1: our live Q and A. We got a correspondence to
Speaker 1: correct me. You're gonna hear me say that a lot,
Speaker 1: because there's so much there's so much lore. There's so
Speaker 1: much to this legendarium that there's often things that even
Speaker 1: I knew at one point and I've forgotten or I'm
Speaker 1: just not sure if I'm getting that quite right. So
Speaker 1: and it's important to me to make sure we get
Speaker 1: it right. So help me out if if I'm wrong
Speaker 1: about that. All right, So that is the table of
Speaker 1: the Elves.
Speaker 3: So this relates to the sundering of the chapter or
Speaker 3: wait is this this?
Speaker 1: This is just the name of the table, the sundering
Speaker 1: of the elves and some of the not a chapter. Right, So,
Speaker 1: by the way, so we have cal it all kind
Speaker 1: of winds up. Kla Quindi are those who make the
Speaker 1: journey because they are the elves of the light. We're
Speaker 1: gonna understand why that is. And then we're gonna understand
Speaker 1: why uh, and understand the same time the mora a quindi,
Speaker 1: which means the elves of the darkness, right, That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're evil. That just means that they don't have
Speaker 1: the light, get.
Speaker 2: An't enter into the light. That's the land of light,
Speaker 2: that's right.
Speaker 3: I mean, just going over this table is making me
Speaker 3: really glad that I'm going to have you and the
Speaker 3: rest of our listeners with me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because just this one table is blowing my mind.
Speaker 1: It does. There's a lot to this table for sure, hm.
Speaker 2: And it's just a very very very tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 1: All right. A couple of other useful things here in
Speaker 1: the supporting and the supporting content. We have note on pronunciation.
Speaker 1: So most names are not pronounced in a typically American
Speaker 1: or even British dialect. Right, this guy will help you
Speaker 1: figure out the right way of saying certain names. So
Speaker 1: a good example would be cured on of the Gray Havens, right,
Speaker 1: which is pronounced keared on right. You might look at
Speaker 1: that and want to pronounce it as seared on right,
Speaker 1: but it's actually cure done. Whenever you see a ce
Speaker 1: by itself like that, it is pronounced as a heart
Speaker 1: is a k sound right, kuh kredn of the Grey Havens.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of examples in here like that.
Speaker 1: It's worth just taking a few minutes and reading through
Speaker 1: this so you can understand how to pronounce the names
Speaker 1: that you that you see throughout the story.
Speaker 3: Speaking of pronunciation, are you aware of a good maybe
Speaker 3: audiobook of the Filmarillion?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So, I mean, there's definitely the one on audible.
Speaker 1: I have one on Audible that I listened to from
Speaker 1: time to time.
Speaker 3: I just find that helpful when I'm reading something where
Speaker 3: I feel like it's hard to pronounce names.
Speaker 1: Now, I can't promise you that they pronounce everything correctly
Speaker 1: in that this is the thing. So but if I
Speaker 1: remember from what I listened to it before, I thought
Speaker 1: it was pretty accurate.
Speaker 2: So good to know.
Speaker 1: And hey, at the end of the day, there's sometimes
Speaker 1: I could be wrong about certain things, so you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, well I try to be I try
Speaker 1: really hard. I try really hard to get these things right.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's even a little confusing with what's written
Speaker 1: in the in these guides.
Speaker 2: But again, that's why we have you guys, that's right.
Speaker 2: We have lots of people that that's.
Speaker 1: Why we have each other, one big, happy fellowship exactly right,
Speaker 1: exactly all right. And then we have an index of names.
Speaker 1: This is exactly what it says, helpful for determining meetings
Speaker 1: of various names. Okay, so you can go in here
Speaker 1: and you can find let's see, for example, Menas Tirith,
Speaker 1: Tower of Watch. There you go. We have Mythrondier, the
Speaker 1: Gray Pilgrim aka Gandalf right, So yeah, cool things like
Speaker 1: that that can tell us the actual meanings of certain
Speaker 1: names and places. And then the last thing is the
Speaker 1: appendix elements in Quinya and Sindar in names. So this
Speaker 1: is if you really want to nerd out on languages,
Speaker 1: this is a good place to go. Right. So, no
Speaker 1: book by Tolkien would be complete without something like this,
Speaker 1: right without a philology reference. So there you go. Boom awesome,
Speaker 1: boom awesome, awesome. All right. Maps, maps, all right, So
Speaker 1: we've talked about the map already a little bit. Here's
Speaker 1: the deal. This map is of bealariond. You're Bellarion is
Speaker 1: Middle Earth, okay, but it's not the Middle Earth you're
Speaker 1: familiar with. You'll understand how bil Areon relates to the
Speaker 1: rest of Middle Earth. As you get into the story.
Speaker 1: You can see my map of the Third Age of
Speaker 1: Middle Earth behind me. Right here, Bellarion lies to the
Speaker 1: west of what you see of Middle Earth. Right now,
Speaker 1: you're like, how can that be right because it looks
Speaker 1: like it's continuous. Well, we'll find out why that is,
Speaker 1: all right, Stay tuned, stay tuned, all right, And it's
Speaker 1: in the map of Belarion. Is not even going to
Speaker 1: be relevant until it's not going to be relevant in
Speaker 1: the first ten chapters. Right. There's a couple of parts
Speaker 1: where it actually is a little relevant early on, but
Speaker 1: it's not for very long. Most of the action in
Speaker 1: the first ten chapter happens in this place called the
Speaker 1: Blessed Realm, and we don't have a map for that.
Speaker 1: We don't have an official map for that. However, we
Speaker 1: will provide some links in the show notes to show
Speaker 1: some other artists renderings of the Blessed Realm and maybe
Speaker 1: just kind of how the whole world looks at that point.
Speaker 1: And don't forget, there's this great reference called the Atlas
Speaker 1: of Metal Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad, And this thing
Speaker 1: is extremely useful. It's really well put together. I think
Speaker 1: it had Christopher Tolkien's blessing, but it's regardless, it is
Speaker 1: pretty accurate it and it does a great job of
Speaker 1: like showing lots of locations throughout the first age. It's
Speaker 1: great even if you're just a fan of the Third Age.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's like so many great maps in this thing,
Speaker 1: so I highly recommend picking up a copy. We'll also
Speaker 1: put a link to that in the show notes. So, Greta,
Speaker 1: that's it for the That's it for this introduction to
Speaker 1: this film. Million all your questions answered.
Speaker 2: Yep, I it has been wedded.
Speaker 1: Your appetite has been wetted. That's what I like to hear.
Speaker 3: I feel ready, right on, ready to tackle the Summarillium
Speaker 3: for the second time.
Speaker 1: Boom, ready for this journey.
Speaker 2: This was a good refresher.
Speaker 1: On the next episode, we'll be diving into delay the
Speaker 1: creation story of Middle Earth. And make sure to check
Speaker 1: out tolkien Road dot com for show notes and a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of very helpful links. Or if you're watching
Speaker 1: on YouTube, you can check the uh you can check
Speaker 1: the the notes down there, and if and if you're
Speaker 1: looking at watching or listening on a podcast app, you
Speaker 1: can probably see a lot of the notes in there
Speaker 1: as well. Dude.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we never did our air five.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, we weren't getting a lot of
Speaker 1: ups back on on our YouTube channel, so you know why.
Speaker 1: It was an experiment. You know, we got a few
Speaker 1: over time, but if you want to bring it back,
Speaker 1: you just got to start doing. You got to start.
Speaker 2: Wow throwing down the YouTube. All right.
Speaker 1: Well, you know we try different things over the years.
Speaker 1: It's here and there see what people have fun with
Speaker 1: trial and error and speaking of experiments, one thing we
Speaker 1: did for a long time that people really liked and
Speaker 1: we stopped doing it. We're going to start doing again.
Speaker 1: Haiku hiku. So I did a I did a you know,
Speaker 1: this is intro. So you know it wasn't really one
Speaker 1: I thought we would do like a big haikus. I
Speaker 1: didn't ask credit to do one for this week, but
Speaker 1: I did do one. I did do one just because
Speaker 1: I want to kind of set the haiku tone. So
Speaker 1: here you go. You ready for this credit? All right?
Speaker 1: The silm Million not an easy book to read challenge scripture.
Speaker 2: Like I thought Silmarillion was five syllables.
Speaker 1: The Silma Rellion, I.
Speaker 2: Thought it was Silma Rellion.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm speaking in American style here, So okay, we
Speaker 1: can just say selm million not an easy book to read,
Speaker 1: challenge scripture like Boom fixed, I'll accept it. Well, the
Speaker 1: International Haiku Authority has accepted my haiku. This is an
Speaker 1: acceptable haiku.
Speaker 2: Oh I expect better next time.
Speaker 1: Very well? Yeah, well you better bring it pretty argoing.
Speaker 1: If you want to start out all critical like that,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be critical back at you.
Speaker 2: Challenge accepted, all right?
Speaker 1: All right, you want your hikup red in a future episode?
Speaker 1: Hook us up with your haiku. Each episode will be
Speaker 1: picking one out, one lucky listener to have their haiku
Speaker 1: red on air, So go ahead and get them in. Asaph,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad we.
Speaker 2: Do win this again.
Speaker 1: Me too too. It'sna be fun. So the deadline for
Speaker 1: I New Lind Delay is January fifth, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: So this episode releases on January third, though if you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube, you'll probably see it before then, and
Speaker 1: our patrons will see it before then. So hook us
Speaker 1: up with your haiku right January fifth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Even if you're not sure, still try to get it
Speaker 1: in and we'll you know it could we might not
Speaker 1: record that soon, and then our deadline for Valaquenta is
Speaker 1: January ninth, twenty twenty two, and we'll keep you posted
Speaker 1: as other deadlines them up, so just kind of stagger
Speaker 1: it based on a week after that. So probably the
Speaker 1: next one after that is January sixteenth, and even if
Speaker 1: we don't get them in on that particular episode, we'll
Speaker 1: probably get him in on our live Q and A. Right,
Speaker 1: we'll probably try and do a you know, go back
Speaker 1: and look at some haiku on our live Q and
Speaker 1: a Q and a later cool, cool, live high Q
Speaker 1: and a nice All right, y'all, so leave us a
Speaker 1: rating and review, subscribe, rate and review us on iTunes
Speaker 1: or the platform of your choice. If you are a
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Speaker 1: word out about The Tolkien Road, which helps us to
Speaker 1: keep on everring on and correspondence. So we're gonna save
Speaker 1: our correspondence. You know, in the past, we've done correspondents
Speaker 1: at the end of most episodes in order to make
Speaker 1: sure we get these episodes really right. We have a
Speaker 1: time time for we don't feel rushed. I want to
Speaker 1: save our correspondence, and you know, I'm gonna to be
Speaker 1: like picking the best correspondence that we receive and you know,
Speaker 1: really saving that for our monthly discussions, right, So our
Speaker 1: monthly Q and A, and we're going to respond to
Speaker 1: notes who receive and that kind of thing on the episode.
Speaker 1: I'm also going to do a better job of just
Speaker 1: keeping up with the shorter nice notes that you guys
Speaker 1: send us and everything. You might make it on the air,
Speaker 1: you might not, but no matter what, we always appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And I you know, Greta will tell you we get
Speaker 1: awesome notes from people all the time that I just
Speaker 1: forward to her and I'm just like, this is an
Speaker 1: awesome note. Yeah, right, yeah, because it puts the wind
Speaker 1: in our sales.
Speaker 2: To hear from y'all, it really does.
Speaker 1: So yeah, drop us a line. You can correspond with
Speaker 1: us in a number of ways. YouTube comments on any episode,
Speaker 1: tolkienrooad dot com, comments in private contact form, email Tolkien
Speaker 1: Roadpodcast at gmail dot com, Twitter at Tolkien Road, and
Speaker 1: you can also find us on Instagram and Facebook. So yeah,
Speaker 1: looking forward to these live Q and A episodes we do.
Speaker 1: So let's let's make the correspondence awesome, folks, let's do
Speaker 1: it all right, Yes, okay, So this most livestream I
Speaker 1: think right now if I to go and put this
Speaker 1: out there, so I believe we have it scheduled for
Speaker 1: uh let's see here the nineteenth, So Wednesday, the nineteenth
Speaker 1: of January at seven pm Central Time, at eight pm Eastern,
Speaker 1: five pm Pacific. And that's going to be our plan.
Speaker 1: Become a if you want to join in that, make
Speaker 1: sure you become a patron of time and we will
Speaker 1: be sending out the link for that to our patrons.
Speaker 1: So sound good.
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited to be long for the rat.
Speaker 1: As am I as am I all right? Speaking of patrons,
Speaker 1: thank you to these amazing patrons. John R.
Speaker 4: Caitlin of t with Tolkien mis Anonymous, Andrew T. RedHawks,
Speaker 4: Shannon S. Brian O, Emilio P Zeke F, James A,
Speaker 4: James L. Chrisell, Chuck f izv Ish of the Hammer,
Speaker 4: Teresa C.
Speaker 1: David of Pines with Jack Jonathan D, Eric S.
Speaker 2: Eric B.
Speaker 1: Johanna T. Mike M, Robert H.
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Speaker 1: Julia and as well as those celebrating their patron anniversary
Speaker 1: in January of twenty twenty two, twenty two, Tyler W,
Speaker 1: Mike M, Eleena Vee, Richard K, Melanie Scott W, Jason T.
Speaker 2: David G.
Speaker 1: And John R. Thanks guys, Thanks y'all, and we will
Speaker 1: We enjoyed this episode. We're looking forward to this journey
Speaker 1: and we will talk at you next time.
Speaker 2: Bye y'all, good bye,