The Hobbit (Pt. 1)

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to B and C Book Club. I'm Kristen. [00:00:04] Speaker B: And I'm Summer. The purpose of B and C Book Club is to bring you all the comfort and gossip of a regular book club. But just between you, me, and her. [00:00:13] Speaker A: You may be wondering what the B and the C stands for. Well, the B stands for bears and. [00:00:18] Speaker B: The C stands for canoodling. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Sure. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Does canoodling start with the C? [00:00:25] Speaker A: Yes, it does. [00:00:28] Speaker B: I wasn't sure there actually, if I'm being honest. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Obviously we are well versed in what this podcast is about, but what have you been up to lately? [00:00:39] Speaker B: I hung out with my mom today. Yeah. So that was nice. Until I got dropped off at home because she's currently borrowing my car, so. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:00:51] Speaker B: I don't. [00:00:51] Speaker A: I haven't had. [00:00:53] Speaker B: She has a car, but she also now has a 16 year old daughter who has a license. [00:01:00] Speaker A: I forgot. Your sister. Yes. Yeah. [00:01:03] Speaker B: So she takes the car and then mom doesn't have a car and so we've been lending it since I've been working from home. I don't need it. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Right. [00:01:10] Speaker B: Yeah. What about you? What's going on today? [00:01:12] Speaker A: I hung out with my nieces and nephews since I am staying with them for a while. But I also am in the middle of making my sister a blanket, so I've been knitting a lot. It's about a third of the way right now. I'll send you a picture. Anyway, today we are starting with the Hobbit by John Ronald Rao Tolkien. [00:01:35] Speaker B: I've never heard that name before in my life. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Never in your life? No. [00:01:39] Speaker B: And I'm never gonna hear it again. No one calls him that. [00:01:43] Speaker A: No, I. It wasn't until I looked it up for this that I knew what his actual name was. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah. But why are we reading this book? Tell us. [00:01:54] Speaker B: We're reading this book, Kristen, because my husband's obsessed with Lord of the Rings and I wanted to kind of share an interest with him because of my interest is in books and his is in Lord of the Rings very specifically. And he doesn't like books, so I tried to find a bridge between the two. So now we're here. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Yes. And I also wanted us to get into more classics. So I don't know if you made me read these or if it was just weird. I was there and you're like, hey, I'm gonna read these. And I was like, sure, I'll read them with you. I can't remember which one it was. [00:02:31] Speaker B: We. It was me making you because we sat on my couch and I was Like, I just want you to know that I pinky promised Sid to start these books on this day, very specifically so. And you wanted to start the podcast that week. And I was like, I'm not reading anything but this book. And you were like, fine, I'll read it. And I was like, that's true. Okay. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Well, I had said that I had previously read the Hobbit, which, as I was reading this book, I realized that I did not actually remember any part of this plot. It was this and probably the one Hobbit movie that I did watch and the half of one Lord of the Ring movie that I also watched that got me confused with what this plot was. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Honestly. Makes sense. I had never seen any of the Hobbit movies until I read this book, and then my husband made me watch the movies. So once I got halfway, we could watch the first movie at least, because the whole first movie is based on the first book, even though there were things that were. That were different and not always for the best. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So let's get into a little bit of the history about this. John Ronald Raul Tolkien wrote this book. It took him seven years to write this project. It started in 1930 and ended in 1937 when he published it. And the alternate title was There and Back Again. He actually wrote this book, basically for his children. It was a way for them to be entertained as he did it as, like, a bedtime story for them. And it is still considered one of the best children's fantasy novels to this day. [00:04:10] Speaker B: It was a bedtime story, basically. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:13] Speaker B: That's crazy. So he would, like, tell his kid, and then just, like, once the kid was asleep, he'd be like, all right, I gotta go write this down. This is pretty good. This is pretty good. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah. He actually said that one of his kids was, like, his best editor because he would stop the book for the day, and then he would pick it up again, and he would say, like, oh, so and so is doing this, or so and so is doing that. Or, like, now we find them here in this. And his son would be like, weren't they here in this place? Or wasn't he wearing a red cloak instead of a blue cloak? Or, like, wrong. You're wrong. [00:04:47] Speaker B: You're wrong. Honestly, that's very kid of him. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. [00:04:54] Speaker B: I love that for him, though. [00:04:56] Speaker A: So he. Yeah, that's what I heard. Was that his kid? I think he was his oldest, John, who was like, 13, was the one that was editing him the most. [00:05:07] Speaker B: That's so cute. What's crazy to me is that didn't he write the Hobbit book and then, like, it was, what, 17 years later or something crazy like that, that he wrote the actual Lord of the Rings books. And then in the. In the beginning of my book, it actually mentions to me, it. It gives a little background on the text. It didn't say the children' book thing. So that's kind of crazy. I wish I'd known that reading that. But I can definitely see how it would be construed as a children's book. It mentioned that he actually went back and rewrote parts of the Hobbit in order to fit the storyline better for Lord of the Rings. So he had, like, different publishings and it would be different, like certain things added in or something changed, you know, something like that, so that it fit the rest of his books a lot better. Which is kind of crazy. [00:06:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that is kind of crazy. And actually I had heard something about Gollum that people, when they first read the Hobbit, they thought that he was, like, big and scary and people would draw him like that. And so Tolkien had to go back and either add something to it or made specifically a point to describe Gollum when they're in the Lord of the Rings books. I can't remember which. [00:06:25] Speaker B: I have a very specific opinion about the Hobbit Golem. And we'll get to that later. Okay, we're going to get to that one later. [00:06:37] Speaker A: So you hadn't read this book before? You didn't think anything of it? Did you even know anything that it was about? [00:06:44] Speaker B: I've never seen the movie the Hobbit. I never obviously read the book the Hobbit. I guess my initial thoughts were that it was the relative to Frodo in Lord of the Rings. I have seen Lord of the Rings because my husband made me, but also my mom's obsessed. [00:07:06] Speaker A: I was going to say your mom made me watch Lord of the Rings, which is how I got halfway through the first one. [00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I just avoided it every time she would put it on. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Covid is hard to avoid things. Okay. [00:07:19] Speaker B: That's very true. [00:07:20] Speaker A: She also made me watch two of the three Indiana Jones movies. [00:07:24] Speaker B: Those aren't bad. You can't. [00:07:26] Speaker A: I just watched the third one, like, last year. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Isn't there a fourth one and. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Yes, there's a fourth one and a fifth one now. [00:07:34] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. I think I only watched the first one. Like, if I acknowledge any of them, it's just the first one. That's just how I do It. I don't think I've seen the last one either. [00:07:48] Speaker A: This is the one that just came out, like, last summer. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, we're getting off topic. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Sorry. Yeah, that was on me. [00:07:54] Speaker B: So I've watched them, so I know. I know what happens in them. I don't, like, really sit there and be like, oh, my God, this certain character has a deep background or, like, you know, like, hook on every word said in the movie, like a lot of fans do. So I don't understand it as well as normally people who pay really close attention would, but I know the general gist, so I knew the general gist of the Hobbit too. I just have never actually, like, watched it or read the book. [00:08:25] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I thought I had read this, and then as I was reading it, I was like, I don't know if I've read this. I. Okay, I read it in an audiobook on my way to go see you guys. So I had three hours, and I read my audiobooks at 2.5 speed, and it was just enough time for me to get through it. I think it took me two out of my three hours. But the problem was when I was re. Listening to the book this time for this, I found out that it's kind of like a play. It's spoken like a play. So you don't get he said, she said, or like, specific. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:09:01] Speaker A: You can't, like saying, keep track of the characters. Exactly. So I was realizing this as I was reading it of, like, oh, and even listening to the audiobook of like, oh, no wonder I didn't absorb this, because I didn't actually get all of the information that I needed in order to absorb this. It would be great if I already knew the story and I was listening to it. But because I don't know the story, just listening to it wasn't enough. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Right. And I think for me at least, that's. That's how all audiobooks are. Like, you don't grasp the same information. You might actually get different information than you would if you had read it, but you don't grasp the information the same way either. [00:09:39] Speaker A: No, that's true. Unless it's a really good audiobook. I've. I've had some really good audiobooks where I could probably still recite basically everything that happens in that book. [00:09:48] Speaker B: Even really good audiobooks, though, are a different experience than just reading the book. Because reading the book, you're creating images, whereas audiobooks, if they're doing, like, that voice, somehow morphs the image in your head. You know, that's true. [00:10:03] Speaker A: Anyway, the best audiobooks that I've read. Sorry, this is also off topic. The best audiobooks that I've had have a cast, and they usually have more than one person. [00:10:11] Speaker B: Exactly. So that cast, that specific voice you're hearing for a specific character, kind of like morphs your image of that character. Like, Alison heard a Rune Dannon from Crescent City. She heard his audio and hated him specifically because he sounded like a frat boy. And everything he said really does kind of sound like something a frat boy would say. But then I, like, showed her a picture and I, like, told her what I thought of him as a character after, like, reading the books. And we had completely different opinions because the voice ruined it for her. [00:10:49] Speaker A: I mean, when we were on our road trip and we were reading Caraval, we were both like, this is so cringy. This is so weird. [00:10:57] Speaker B: And that's why I want to reread those books because, like, I'm going to have a completely different opinion. I can already feel. Feel it. And I'm like. I remember what I was imagining as, like, the scenes that were taking place and the, like, location they're in. I remember seeing that in my head and being like, oh, that's kind of creepy. But, like, now that I'm gonna read it, I'm gonna get a lot more details and there's gonna be, like, a different image that projects in my head, you know? [00:11:20] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. [00:11:21] Speaker B: Anyway, just. [00:11:22] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Very interesting. So into the book. We start the book off in a way that I really like. I really like the way that they used the humor in this book. He was just being a hobbit. And Gandalf shows up and he's like, hey, tea's tomorrow. Like, you can come. I don't want to go on your adventure, but you can come to tea. And then he forgets about the invitation. And then right before he gets there, he's like, oh, my God, I invited Gandalf to tea. I have to get things ready. And he starts cooking a bunch of little sweets for them for just the two of them. And then these dwarves just start showing up. And he's like, counting their. Their hoods hanging by his door. And he's like, I guess I just have to keep serving them all my food and my entire house. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I don't know how it act. If that many people showed up to my house. I feel like I would have lost it much sooner than he lost it. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Oh, you're not getting through the door. [00:12:16] Speaker A: No. Like, excuse me, who are you? Who said, yeah. [00:12:20] Speaker B: But he was just like, I need a host. I need to be a gracious host. [00:12:23] Speaker A: And I again, didn't remember that. This is how it happened. For some reason, I thought you sought it a little bit more. And it wasn't just a, like, hey, Gandalf is just passing by. [00:12:34] Speaker B: This is. [00:12:34] Speaker A: You're the first person I see. You're looking for an adventure. No. Okay, well, I'm gonna give you one anyway. [00:12:40] Speaker B: I chose you. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Yeah. It'll be fine. You'll be fine. [00:12:45] Speaker B: That is kind of how it feels. That's. Yeah, I agree with that. And then, even then, all the Dwarves are there and they're like, having this party and they're just really stressing him out and they're not giving him anything. But Gannon's just like, you're our burglar. That's who you are. And it's. It's going to work out. It's going to be fine. And he was like, I might need some information. They were like, we're going to leave super early, so be ready. And then he wasn't ready and just thought they had left. And then he was like, ah, I can actually clean this house. They kind of ate all of my food, but at least they're gone. And then Gandalf was like, what the hell are you doing? Did you not get the note? You have somewhere to be in 15 minutes. [00:13:26] Speaker A: And he just goes. [00:13:27] Speaker B: And he was like, oh, no, bye. And just ran out the door. Didn't grab a single thing. Didn't need anything, I guess, to take. Although he really missed his handkerchief. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Because Gandalf ends up packing for him and bringing him a bag. [00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:42] Speaker A: Honestly though, I would have already given up. I wouldn't have even gone. I don't know. Like, he doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't want to really be on adventure. I would be like, I don't have clothes. I don't have anything. I mean, I like camping, but I need to be clean at some point. [00:14:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, walking out of the door with nothing to go on. This adventure is wild. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:08] Speaker B: And he didn't even second guess it. He was like. Gandalf was like, there's a note. You have to be at this tavern in 15 minutes or they're going to leave without you. And Bilbo was just like, oh, my God, no. And, like, ran out that door. Stressed. Fully stressed. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Stressed. He's still only half sure that he even wants to go. [00:14:26] Speaker B: He was not he was sure he didn't want to go at that point. He was like, thank God they left without me. Oh wait, they're waiting for me. Okay, I guess I'm going. [00:14:35] Speaker A: I guess I have to go. [00:14:37] Speaker B: It's rude. So then we go from him, which by the way, in the movies they. And this is where I say it like kind of falls in with like. They obviously were doing the movie to fit more of the. Because the Hobbit movie was made after all the Lord of the Rings movies. Right, right. And the Lord of the Rings movies don't have that children's book tone to it. And. And that's a good reason that the book was so fun to read is because they're children's books. But when you're watching the movie, it's not as fun because they wanted it to fall more in line with the actual Lord of the Rings movies, which is a little bit more of a serious tone. And so in the movies, when you're watching that scene, it's not funny like that. It's not like, oh, I guess I'm going like, hahaha. He. It's like, oh, this is what's happening. You gotta be there. And then he like leaves with a packed bag and he's like, okay, I'm going. And he's very sure about it. Which obviously this guy was not sure in the book. [00:15:38] Speaker A: No, not even a little bit. He passes out the night before because he's so scared and stressed about everything that's happening to him and all these people in his home. [00:15:46] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:47] Speaker A: And then how is he going to be a burglar who's going to steal something for you from a dragon? [00:15:53] Speaker B: No clue. This guy is. This guy is not a good burglar. And they show that. [00:16:00] Speaker A: And everything that he says at this point. [00:16:02] Speaker B: Well, they show that he's not a good burglar. In the very next part, the next chapter, chapter two, where they have this troll encounter and it's like the first time they're seeing anyone out on the road and there's trolls. And so they're like, you should go rob them. And he was like, do I really want to do that? And they were like, you're a burglar, you're gonna do it. [00:16:23] Speaker A: I don't even think that he was supposed to rob them. They could hear them coming, I think. And so they. Or they sat. Saw a light. [00:16:30] Speaker B: They saw them. Yep. They saw fire. [00:16:32] Speaker A: They see a light in the distance. They are like, we, we should check it out. Actually. You are supposed to Go places undetected. You need to go check it out. And then while he's over there, he sees that they're trolls and still decides that he's going to try and steal something from their pockets. And that's when he gets caught. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Dumb. Because he's just dumb. [00:16:50] Speaker A: He's just dumb. [00:16:50] Speaker B: And he gets caught. And then he doesn't get caught at the same time because he's the only one who doesn't get tied up with all of the rest of them. [00:16:58] Speaker A: Yeah, he somehow gets caught. And then they, like, throw him around and then he gets uncaught when everybody else shows up to help him and. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Then they all get caught and he's like, hiding, and he's like, okay, bye. But basically. And then he's just stressed. He's stressed trying to help them once they all get caught trying to help him. And then Gandalf shows up and he's. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Like such a decent ex machina. They always have somebody come in at the very last second as they're about to be the end for everybody. And then Gandalf shows up, like, three separate occasions. [00:17:31] Speaker B: And they're not even sure Gandalf is, like, there anymore. They're like, when he's gone, they're pretty sure he's just left them. [00:17:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:38] Speaker B: And yet he still shows up and saves the day every time. [00:17:41] Speaker A: And after that is when they go to the troll's cave and they find the weapons that Gandalf gets. Thorn gets a sword. Gandalf gets a swarm. They're both Elven swords. And Bilbo gets a sword. Yeah. [00:17:57] Speaker B: And then he puts it in his pocket and he never goes back to it again until later in the book. [00:18:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:04] Speaker B: That's when they get to the last homely house and they see Elrond. And then two weeks goes by. Yeah, it's like two pages, but two whole weeks goes by. And that's. And I was like, what is. Actually, that's not even the whole chapter. [00:18:22] Speaker A: Honestly, that is one of my biggest complaints about this book is that in every chapter, they're like, and they stayed here for five days. And they stayed here for three weeks. And they stayed here for this long. And I'm like, what are you doing? Is there not a timeline on this? What is happening? [00:18:38] Speaker B: That's exactly what I was thinking. I was like, first of all, he takes one sentence to tell us that it's been two weeks. We don't get events. We don't get, oh, during these two weeks, this. And this. And this happens. This is why we Stayed here for two weeks. It's just two weeks passes and then on our last day, we're enjoying our time with Elrond. And he's like, these are Elven swords. Goodbye. [00:19:03] Speaker A: He's like, these are Elven swords. They killed a lot of goblins. Also, it looks like you have extra moon letters on your map. They say that you can look at the keyhole from the Lonely Mountain at a certain time. Okay, bye. [00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I have a theory, though, that we got that encounter in the very original writing of the book. The first publishing is. We got that. The thing we didn't get was him mentioning the swords and they're like Elvish descent. I. I have a theory that's what he added in later so that it made relevance in the Lord of the Rings books. I'm pretty sure now, I could be wrong, that the knife that Bilbo has, that becomes like a short sword for him, is given to Frodo. [00:19:51] Speaker A: No, it's given to Frodo. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So Frodo has this Elvish. [00:19:56] Speaker A: That's not an Elvish sword. The other two were elf swords. [00:19:59] Speaker B: Sword glows when it. When you're around a goblin. [00:20:03] Speaker A: I don't think that's true. [00:20:04] Speaker B: It does when. That's how he knows there's goblins around. When he's in the riddles in the dark with Gollum, his sword glows. And he needed a reason to have a, like, special magical sword. And so I'm pretty sure Tolkien, like, went back and added that in this book to give a reason as to why he already had this sword, that. [00:20:25] Speaker A: It was an Elvish sword, specifically, knife. [00:20:28] Speaker B: I keep saying sword, but it's a knife. Right? [00:20:30] Speaker A: Okay. So the only reason I'm not sure if it was an Elvish sword was because he didn't have a name, that that sword didn't have a name. And so I thought, because other swords are always named, that it wasn't an Elvish sword because he names it after the spider thing. And that's how it becomes Sting. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Now he drew it out. It shone pale and dim before his eyes. So it is an Elvish blade, too, he thought. And goblins are not very near and yet not far enough. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So when Elrond was talking about it, he only talked about the other two. [00:21:04] Speaker B: You know why? [00:21:06] Speaker A: Why you're saying you think Scott, to. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Mention it in the Hobbit, the version that I read, Bilbo forgets that he has this blade in this Elvish blade. So he never took it out for Elrond to see. He had it on his person the whole time and never took it out to show Elrond. So he never said, oh, this blade is named this. But it's an Elvish blade. And it shows you when you're near a goblin. Because they insinuate that all Elvish blades do that. So then we go from Elrond's house, last homely house. And then we go to the mountain where basically Gandalf tries to save. He does. Gandalf saves the day again when the goblins attack in the cave. Because that's what Gandalf does is he disappears and then comes back last second. [00:21:59] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. He's very much deus ex machina in, like, every single chapter. Or they have a deus ex machina of some sort. Like, the eagles become one. Like, it is just somebody coming to rescue them at the exact perfect time that they need rescuing. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Right. And then I thought it was hilarious that. So Gandalf, like, comes and rescues them from the goblins. And Bilbo, his legs are too short because he's shorter than everyone else. So he's slower than everyone else. So he has to ride their backs. [00:22:29] Speaker A: I know could not be depicted in movie format because there's no way that they're gonna have a grown man got on another grown man's back. But it would have been so funny. [00:22:39] Speaker B: I can confirm they did not add that into the movie. I was upset about it, actually. It would have been so funny. [00:22:48] Speaker A: I think the proportions worked better for, like, Hobbit versus other. Other, like, Dwarves and things because, like, you didn't have to be around them all the time. But it's very hard to force perspective with, like, only one short person. Like, everybody else being normal. You know what I mean? [00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:03] Speaker A: But, yeah, the reason they get in trouble, even with the goblins here is because they have the swords. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:10] Speaker A: And this is also where they kill the Goblin King. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Yes. So they kill the Goblin King and then they run away. Then they run away and he's riding backs. And then one of the. One of the Dwarves that he's riding gets, like. Basically, like, they trip him and he falls off his back. Yeah. And then. [00:23:35] Speaker A: And then he hits his head. [00:23:37] Speaker B: And he hits his head so he doesn't make a noise. And then the guy just keeps running, like. Is like, screw him. By. [00:23:43] Speaker A: They talk about it later. And they're like. Well, I mean, Gandalf had said, like, come this way. And so I just went that way. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I thought he was following me. [00:23:51] Speaker A: I thought he was right behind me. [00:23:53] Speaker B: And poor, poor, poor Bilbo is knocked out unconscious. And then he like wakes up and. [00:24:01] Speaker A: This is like the third time he's been knocked unconscious too. Like from the beginning of this book. It's only chapter four. He's been knocked unconscious three times. [00:24:09] Speaker B: And then that's where he meets the famous Gollum who obviously is very famous among Lord of the Rings. [00:24:18] Speaker A: So one thing I heard, this is what I say earlier, but then we got off topic was that actually that when this book was first written because he basically only describes like his eyes and kind of like how he like paddles and everything. He like describes him, but it doesn't describe the how big he is. So I guess when people were making fan art, people started drawing him as like really big. And so then when he's noticed that people were saying that Gollum was really big, then he like went back and was like, no, he's a spinely, small little creature. Do not draw him like that. [00:24:49] Speaker B: What's hilarious is reading the description of Gollum and then reading the chapter about Gollum, basically because they dive into his history a little bit. I was like, this guy is honestly just a little cute guy who just wants friends and has none and has no one to talk about or talk to. And I told this to Sid and he was like, what are you talking about? And I was like, you know, Gollum's just a little guy. Like he just wants friends. Like, no, no. Gollum is evil and he is psychotic and he has multiple personality disorder. And I was like, he's just a little guy and he has that disorder because he just wants someone to talk to. Just give him a friend. [00:25:40] Speaker A: No, unfortunately he has a disorder because of the Ring. But we don't find that out here. Not fully. [00:25:47] Speaker B: No. [00:25:48] Speaker A: No. Here he does kind of just seem like a little guy who needs a friend. [00:25:51] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying. At first he's just a little guy. [00:25:56] Speaker A: Just a little guy. It says that he eats people, but it's fine. He's just a little guy. If he had some companionship, it would be better. [00:26:03] Speaker B: He eats goblins, first of all. I'd eat goblins too if I were him. [00:26:08] Speaker A: He was going to eat the Hobbit. The only reason he didn't eat the hobbit is because the hobbit reminded him of somebody he knew long ago. [00:26:15] Speaker B: Wasn't he? He used to be a hobbit. That's what they tell us. [00:26:19] Speaker A: He used to be Hobble esque. [00:26:22] Speaker B: Yes, because he was the pre. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Pre Hobbit. Hobbit, yeah. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Yeah, he was fun. And then that scene with the riddles. So much more fun in the book than in the movie. Yes, it's in the movie. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Still, I was going to say, isn't it pretty accurate to the book, like the riddles, at least I'm like, I fairly remember that part of the movie. That's one of the few parts that I have like a vague recollection of. [00:26:49] Speaker B: It's in the movie. It's exactly the riddles that are in the book. Except the book just is so much better and you can pay attention more to the riddles and like, kind of play along. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:04] Speaker B: And that's where, like, when you mentioned the, like, children's book aspect comes more into play. Because he gave these to his kid as he was reading and now I can like, imagine the kid like trying to guess what it is. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Like I was when I was reading. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Along and also could not guess them. [00:27:25] Speaker B: I think I got one of them, actually. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Really? Okay, that's good. [00:27:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm just better than you. I have to tell you. [00:27:32] Speaker A: I think I only tried the first two and then I was like, yeah, I'm not getting this. Let me just read. [00:27:37] Speaker B: And then in that chapter two, and this is a big point for me because like I said, he's the famous Gollum. Like, everybody knows who he is. I actually don't even know him as Gollum. I call him Schmingel because that's his other personality. That's his real name, isn't it? Schmegel? [00:27:52] Speaker A: Yeah. This is Schmeegel. [00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Real name is Schmeegel. And then his other personality is Gollum. [00:27:59] Speaker A: Yes. [00:28:00] Speaker B: But what I found really interesting is in the book, the author says very specifically that's how he got his name referring to Gollum. Because of the noises. [00:28:09] Speaker A: Throat sound. [00:28:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he makes with his throat. But he always called himself my precious, which is really interesting because as everybody knows, he calls the ring my precious. But he also refers to himself as my precious. So that kind of changes my perspective on him a little bit because he's calling himself my precious. That's just so cute. He's just a little guy, Kristen. [00:28:36] Speaker A: And I'm saying I think this is more of a reflection of him becoming one with the ring and finding it as such an extension of himself that because he thinks that the ring is precious, he is also now my precious. [00:28:52] Speaker B: I guess that makes sense. But I just want him to be just a little guy who thinks he's precious and deserves the Love he deserves. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Well, I got the quote that. Where he both calls it my precious and himself my precious. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Because it's lost it. My precious. Talking about himself like he's saying I lost it. My precious. Like referring to the other personality inside of himself, which is my precious. Lost. Lost. Curse us. Precious. My precious is lost. So then he's also referring to the ring as my precious in the same breath. Basically. [00:29:26] Speaker B: You could think of it that way. I choose to think of it the other way. [00:29:32] Speaker A: I mean, I know that he just found it on the ground. The rain. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:37] Speaker A: But also, tell me how. Well, I have more of an idea from reading the first half of Lord of the Rings because I feel like they go into the lore a little bit better with the rings specifically. But if you have a theory for just this book, let me know. But it's just so weird that he just finds it on the floor. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah. In a way it's interesting because if Gollum is so obsessed with it, how would he let it out of his sight? It has to be magic. Like not even knowing anything. It has to be magic. It has to be. [00:30:12] Speaker A: That's exactly what I was thinking. [00:30:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:13] Speaker A: And the other interesting part that I had in that chapter actually to that of like, if it's so precious to him, why did he lose it? But it said he used to wear it until it tired him, and then he kept it in a pouch until it galled him. And now he left it in a hole in a rock. He used it to hunt or when he felt like he really needed to wear it. Which is so interesting to me that it is the most precious thing in the world to him. But it started to tire him. [00:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:45] Speaker A: Just by. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Take a toll on him. But still he admires it and will. He sold his life for it, basically. [00:30:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:53] Speaker B: So that's where like the. The mentioning of it being called his birthday present. He said, this is my birthday present. It's kind of interesting because I was like, what do you. Your birthday present? [00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:06] Speaker B: Because they never really dive into that and they just kind of leave it at that. But they specifically mention my birthday present, which also makes me believe that that was added in after hand. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Especially because it is kind of as this is already. As Bobo has escaped and accidentally put the ring on and as Gollum is trying to find him and looking around and basically leading him out of the tunnel just by looking him. This is when he's like, it's my birthday present. Like, where is it? And then he just starts like talking and talking and Talking. So he could have very well added it in. Because it is kind of just like a throwaway line. It isn't in the middle of them having this entire discussion. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. And then they finally make it out. So he like uses the ring himself and then hops over Gollum to get out of there. And then the buttons fly off as he's getting away from the goblins. Finally. And then we're finally back with the rest of the group. He had one chapter by himself, which I did not hate. Like he need. He's the main character. Of course he should have a chapter by himself. And then we get into. Basically they're like running. [00:32:24] Speaker A: And he finds his friends. They're running. They're trying to get away still. Then the wolves slash wargs find them. Yeah. Who are in league with the goblins. And they were supposed to have a meeting that night. And it just so happened that these Dwarves are also here. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Just so happens. [00:32:41] Speaker A: It just so happens that the dwarves are also here. [00:32:44] Speaker B: And then that fun scene of all the fire. He's just lighting pine cone. They run up the trees and Gandalf is like, here we go. And starts lighting pine cones on fire and just throwing them at wolves. [00:32:57] Speaker A: Mm. Crazy. Of course the forest is gonna catch on fire. What did you think was going to happen? [00:33:05] Speaker B: Like, you're surrounded by a bunch of plants that are very flammable. [00:33:11] Speaker A: And they said there was over a hundred wolves. So it's not a small amount of wolves that are getting caught on fire. [00:33:18] Speaker B: It was not a small meeting. And then of course, they're saved by the eagles. [00:33:23] Speaker A: The eagles. And the eagles just so happen to be curious that night. Sometimes they don't care about things. Sometimes they do. And so they're just gonna go lolly all. What's. What's going on with the goblins and the wolves? I don't know. [00:33:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Basically they're like, hey, what's happening over here? Save them. And then they put them in their nests. They have like little nests that they go to. [00:33:48] Speaker A: And then they have a full conversation. [00:33:50] Speaker B: And they just leave them. Yeah, they leave them there. They go somewhere else. And we're like, what are we going to do with these guys? And they decide and go pick them up. [00:34:02] Speaker A: It's funny, this happened so many times of like one of the creatures, like them telling them the story and then the creature going off and then like deciding amongst themselves and then coming back and being like, oh, you guys are okay. It's fine. It's fine that you're here. Exactly. I'VE decided that this is one of the few times I'm gonna let you go free. [00:34:19] Speaker B: Exactly. And then they, I guess, speak with. I almost called him Dumbledore. They speak with Gandalf. And Gandalf is like, take us as far as you can. This way. And they're like, okay, we won't go any further because we don't want to get into a war with the people over there. But we're going to drop you off right here. [00:34:45] Speaker A: Here? Yeah. [00:34:46] Speaker B: So there you go. [00:34:48] Speaker A: But they made it past the mountains that they needed to make it past the misty mountains. Finally. [00:34:55] Speaker B: And then, Kristen, we get into my favorite scene. [00:35:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:35:01] Speaker B: The chapter is called Queer Lodgings. And it's when we meet my favorite character, Bjorn. [00:35:08] Speaker A: Bjorn. [00:35:09] Speaker B: I love that guy. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Another person. I'm sorry, just to say, another person who they told him the story. He had a great time. It was super entertaining. Then he leaves and is like, oh, I was just checking out your story. Just making sure it's true. Now that I'm back, super happy. Is true. Super happy. I don't have to kill you guys. [00:35:31] Speaker B: The meeting of Bjorn especially is the best part of this book because Gandalf goes into this and is like. He's like, this guy doesn't really like Dwarves, but we're gonna just make him. So I need you guys to hide here, and every five minutes, two of you are gonna meet me and you're gonna start it, what I say. And then he just is like, all right, let's go. Let's go, Bilbo, we're gonna go meet this super scary bear guy. Drags him over there. And then every 15 minutes, this story just so happens to include a couple more. And he's like, what do you mean, a couple more? And then they show up and they're like, what up? [00:36:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Every time he's like, oh, this three isn't a few. What do you mean, three? Oh, two more. [00:36:23] Speaker B: Here they are. What do you mean? The party of you two people is not a party? And then we get into, like, him just going along with it. Like, if that were me, I would be like, you've been lying to me since the very beginning by hiding all of these people. But Bjorn, Bjorn's totally fine with it. This is fun for him. [00:36:45] Speaker A: He's so wrapped up in the story that he did not care, that 15 people somehow showed up at his house unannounced. [00:36:52] Speaker B: Fifteen people. And he's like, what is going on? Stop lying. But also, I'm having a great time. So then we like, meet all of his animal friends and they make breakfast and they just send them on their way. And he's like, oh, by the way, just a side note. [00:37:15] Speaker A: Well, they were there for two days while he was gone. Checking this out, actually. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Yes, you're right. But the animals are taking care of him this entire time, too. [00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:24] Speaker B: And it's just wild to me. That's why he's part of my friends. Because all of his friends are animals. He doesn't have any other friends. They're all little animals that help him out and help make breakfast and clean. And then we get to the forest and all that happens there and he's like, oh, by the way, that water, don't touch it. You'll forget everything. But here's some ponies that you need to discard at the gate. [00:37:51] Speaker A: And this is when Gandalf is finally like, I'm out. I took you guys long enough. You guys got to do the rest of this yourself. And they're like, what about gold? We'll give you gold. And he's like, I got you far enough that I should already get gold, so. [00:38:06] Speaker B: Right. And this whole time he's been telling these guys, I'm not staying for the duration. I never said I was. I told you I'd get you this burglar and then dip. I came along for fun. [00:38:19] Speaker A: Yeah. He's like, I got other shit to do. Excuse you. [00:38:22] Speaker B: Excuse you. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And then they get to the water. They finally go through the little forest and then they get to the water and they find a boat very conveniently. And they're able to mostly get past. [00:38:36] Speaker B: The water, except for Bumper. [00:38:38] Speaker A: Bumper? Yes, Bumper falls in. [00:38:42] Speaker B: I bring that up mostly because they. From this point on, for the rest of everything that I read, at least keep fat shaming this man. [00:38:52] Speaker A: I mean, they fat shamed him from the beginning. Because even when they saw Bjork Bjorn, he was like, you have to come alone because you are enough for two people. Yeah, you're the biggest and you have to come last. And then even when they're going in the boats, he was like, you have to go only with one other person and you have to come last. And he's like, I'm already getting sick of this. Exactly. After they have to carry him for six days, they're like, no more bumper. [00:39:17] Speaker B: This poor guy got fat shamed so much. And I just. I wrote it down. I said, poor fat shaming Bomber. Finally, this is where we start seeing the respect of Bilbo a little bit more. They respected him. It Starts as them, like when he makes it out of the cave. And they're like, how did you get here? And he's like, I'm badass. And they're like, okay, accepted. Then we get to the forest and he starts helping them more with the ring. And they accept him just that much more. [00:39:53] Speaker A: Well, because they keep on getting into scraps with. No, he doesn't really. He doesn't use the ring until they are with the spiders. [00:40:01] Speaker B: Yep. Which is in the forest. [00:40:03] Speaker A: But they have to leave the path for that. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Which is right after the water. [00:40:06] Speaker A: Well, six days after the water. [00:40:08] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, but like we've already talked about. The way he writes is like. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Well, I was just going to say that so many people, we're like, don't stray off the path. Don't stray off the path. Don't stray off the path. It happened so many times that I wrote. When are they going to stray off the path? Because it's going to happen at some point, obviously. So they stray off the path and have a lot of run ins. They have the run in with the snake. This is when he names his sword Sting. [00:40:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:40:34] Speaker A: And Thorin gets kidnapped by the elves in the forest as well because they're. [00:40:39] Speaker B: Trying to ruin the elf party. Which I will say they were hungry. [00:40:42] Speaker A: They had no food and they were going to go and ask for food. And then as soon as they step into the ring, everyone leaves. [00:40:49] Speaker B: That's what I'm saying is obviously they had a right to go ask for food because they're hungry. But at the same time, like out of every story we've read so far in the Hobbit, that one's just out of nowhere. [00:41:02] Speaker A: And that's the reason that they move off the freaking path is like, oh, we randomly see lights. Okay, this is the problem is they randomly saw lights in the forest. And then Bumper was like, that reminds me of my dream where there was a lot of food. And so they're like, good enough for us. Let's go. [00:41:18] Speaker B: Accepted. I accept this. [00:41:21] Speaker A: They do this three times. [00:41:24] Speaker B: From that on, obviously Bilbo rescues them with his ring and his wits. And then we go on. So then we find out Thorin from his own little page that he's been taken to the Elf King. [00:41:44] Speaker A: Yeah, the Elf King. [00:41:45] Speaker B: And so then, because these are Wood. [00:41:48] Speaker A: Elves, they're a different type of elf. They are very distrustful of people. And so when Thorin comes into the Elven ring the third time, they decide to kidnap him and ask why him and his little group is there. [00:42:03] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:04] Speaker A: And he refuses to tell them anything. And they decided to take him prisoner. [00:42:08] Speaker B: Back into, like the just foundations of this book. This is one of those chapters when we're from his perspective, basically. And he's like, I've been taken because they want to know what happened, why we were interrupting their parties. Right. And then all of a sudden the author just goes into like third, fourth wall breaks. I noted it. It's page 156, he says, but that belongs in the next chapter and the beginning of another adventure in which the Hobbit again shows his usefulness. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Yes. [00:42:44] Speaker B: And you're like, what is going on? We're fourth wall breaking. We're jumping characters sometimes because sometimes there's. At the very beginning, I want to say the troll scene or from Bilbo's perspective, basically. Yes. It's still like third party watching over the whole scene. But for the most part we're following along with Bilbo. [00:43:07] Speaker A: But then randomly a narrator that is comes in and out. [00:43:12] Speaker B: Exactly. Yes. And then randomly we'll jump to Gandalf's perspective and what's happening with Gandalf. And he doesn't explain why or he doesn't even like, take a break between the two. He just jumps. Jumps from one paragraph to another. And that's where I was like, it's kind of crazy. You won't see a author like today doing that. Just jumping from different perspectives. Yeah. Even as a third party narrator. [00:43:42] Speaker A: And I know that. I already knew that this is a children's book. But honestly, when I even just this conversation about it and talking about how it's a children's book, all of these things that I'm like, why is he doing this? It makes more sense when it's like a children's book that he read to his kids. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:58] Speaker A: Just so much sense. Everything, like the buttons on the end of chapters, things like that of like, oh, well, that's a story for tomorrow. Like, do you know what I mean? It's not something that is like, really, when you read a book, you expect things like that. Or if he's telling it to his kids, he can just switch a voice and so they know that he's now into blah, blah, blah, instead of like it just randomly switching in his book. [00:44:21] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Yes. There were times where I had a problem with the narrator specifically. But also I felt like he sometimes gave me too much information about something and then simultaneously not enough information about other things that I wanted information about. I was like, why am I getting the entire backstory of the backstory. Of the backstory here. Because I don't know if I necessarily need it. I know that some people love it. And yes, there are, like, people who really, really dive into this. But as it's just a tangent. [00:44:53] Speaker B: He just goes off on tangents. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Yeah, he goes off on a lot of tangents. [00:44:56] Speaker B: I completely agree. [00:44:58] Speaker A: And I'm like, what is the actual plot of this? I feel like there's not a lot of, like, substantive plot. It's not a very complicated story. And it just has so much. This entire book is just side plots, like, side tangents. I don't know. I understand that's kind of how a story works. Like little things that get you to the big thing. But it just felt very. This is a little thing that we're doing. This is a little thing that we're doing. Nothing actually has consequences. Nothing matters. We can be here for three weeks and it doesn't actually affect anything outside of our little realm. [00:45:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Or we can skip just. When you're reading, you can. You can read chapter and then skip three weeks in real life and then read another chapter and be brought right back into the story. Because it doesn't have very much relevance other than we're further along in this journey. [00:45:47] Speaker A: Right. I mean, this is made in the 30s. So it is just also, I feel like the books that we read now are just so fast. [00:45:56] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:57] Speaker A: And so it is a little hard sometimes to slow down and be like, yeah, I would agree. Join the story for the journey. Literally the journey. This is what it's all about. [00:46:07] Speaker B: There and back again. [00:46:09] Speaker A: There and back again. Exactly. [00:46:13] Speaker B: What's your favorite part so far? [00:46:15] Speaker A: So far, I did like the Bjorn's part. I like the Gollum part, and I like the beginning. Everything else, for me, it's just. [00:46:24] Speaker B: It's just adding on. [00:46:26] Speaker A: Adding on. [00:46:26] Speaker B: How about you? I. I mean, I already said it. I love the Bjorn part. I don't know why. It was just so fun to read for me. So it felt like it was definitely a mini story within the story. But I really liked it. [00:46:39] Speaker A: We just talked about chapters one through eight. We will go through chapters hopefully nine through 19 the next time that we chat. But so far, what are your feelings with where we ended so far? [00:46:53] Speaker B: You know, I'm having fun. It's making a lot more sense now that we've talked about it being a children's book. I. I really like the different little games he plays, like, with the weight and calm and the riddles and the things like that. That's really fun for me. And it makes the reading just so much easier to get through, especially since so much is happening that you have to take in. What about you? [00:47:24] Speaker A: I will say that I'm very happy that I'm taking notes while reading this because this is the type of book that I I mean, I have already done. I've overlooked it. I've read it and basically absorbed none of it. And so taking notes actually allows me to absorb for, which is nice. I like it. I like it for what it is. It's a nice children's book. It's fun. It's funny. I am able to read it quickly. [00:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:51] Speaker A: And I like that about books. [00:47:54] Speaker B: Same. All right. Thank you guys for joining us this week. We will talk to you next week. [00:48:00] Speaker A: See you then. [00:48:01] Speaker B: Bye.