Glittering Caves

Frodo warns Gollum that his road to recovery is endangered by his lust for the Ring, but exercises Providential prudence in choosing to follow him on a new path. Andrew and Patrick discuss the challenges of being kind and tolerant without being stupid. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.  

Sam focuses on the immediate dangers of following Gollum through the treacherous Dead Marshes, while Frodo is absorbed in his interior battle with the Ring and Sauron. Patrick and Andrew discuss Gollum's surprising psychological strength amid rupture, which elicits Sam's fear and disgust and Frodo's spiritual tenderness.  Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast .  Support the sh...

Frodo struggles with frustration as he tries to lead Sam towards Mordor and Sauron. Andrew reflects on the spiritual insight of Frodo's stern pity towards Gollum, while Patrick experiments with his Gollum voice.  Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast .  Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.

If you're following along, we're now halfway through The Two Towers! We hope you're getting more out of The Lord of the Rings with each chapter. In this bonus episode, Andrew and Patrick take a break from The Two Towers to uncover the story behind the story. Listen to learn more about how and why J. R. R. Tolkien began writing his famous trilogy and other tales of Middle-earth. Submit your questio...

Andrew and Patrick discuss the power of the Palantir, which has overcome Saruman, communicates a demonic temptation to Pippin, and makes Gandalf long to look back in time to the golden age of the Elves. Aragorn, whose hour to claim the kingship of Gondor is coming, asserts his right over its dangerous power. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus...

Patrick and Andrew explore the persuasive power of Saruman’s rhetoric of half-truths as he plays victim, arouses fears, promises rescue, nearly severing Theoden and Rohan from Gandalf’s leadership. But Gandalf’s laughter proves more powerful, and his merciful risk almost overcomes Saruman’s pride. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate...

Patrick finds a foretaste of heaven in the triumph over Saruman, while Andrew rejoices  in the hobbits’ Catholic-like enjoyment in food and drink, smoke and laughter. They marvel at the Ents’ power revealed in the massive destruction of Isengard. Andrew likens his feelings of pity for Wormtongue to Dante’s pity for the souls in hell. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Sup...

Patrick rejoices in the return of the hobbits to the narrative and in the joyful, humor-filled reunion of the Company. He and Andrew discuss the Glittering Caves of Aglarond and how the different reactions of Gimli and Legolas are like their own different reactions to The Lord of the Rings . They reflect on the futility of Isengard’s pretentious flattery of Mordor, which still gives a fearsome ant...

Andrew helps Patrick to appreciate some of the moving scenes of the battle - Aragorn’s challenge to the orcs, the horns echoing, the King’s desperate but glorious charge, Erkenbrand’s sunrise attack. They discuss the importance of leaders communicating courage, confidence, and joy to their soldiers. Andrew notes the many artistic renditions Tolkien’s descriptions have inspired and directed. Submit...

Andrew finds great political and human interest in this chapter: what a corrupt political order is like, the sadness of old people losing their judgment, the threat of despair, the power of lying half-truths. Patrick is reminded of drama triangles and the choices presented at the beginning of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. They reflect on the spiritual importance of courtesy. Submit your questi...

Patrick questions Andrew about Gandalf’s resurrection, who has been sent back with new powers to lead the final war against Sauron. Andrew admires Aragorn's humility in recognizing Gandalf’s superiority. They reflect on Gandalf’s claim that Sauron cannot imagine anyone rejecting the Ring. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.

Patrick marvels at Tolkien’s playful imagination of what it would be like for a tree to wake up while still being a tree, and confesses that he now looks at trees differently. Treebeard gives us a new look at Elves and Men and invites us to look more deeply inside other creatures. Andrew highlights the wise warnings implicit in the sad story of the Entwives. Submit your questions and comments at a...

Tolkien’s mastery of multiple narratives and perspectives is on display as we share the hobbits' chaotic experience of captivity. Patrick wonders at the quarrelsome factions among the orcs, whose ugly, vicious way of life is in stark contrast to the peaceful life that gives strength to Merry and Pippin. Andrew witnesses that the Lord of the Rings helped him to dream of better life that he could sh...

The Hunt for Merry and Pippin begins. Patrick extols the manifestation of Aragorn’s greatness as he declares his titles before Eomer of Rohan. Facing the imminent threat of war, Eomer chooses to trust Aragorn. Andrew dwells on Legolas and the beautiful power of Elvish magic. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.

Patrick and Andrew discuss Boromir’s shame and repentance and the new appreciation of him that Tolkien gives us through the songs of Aragorn and Legolas, expressing Gondor’s longing for its heroic captain who will never return. Aragorn fights his own sense of failure in making a Providential choice to try to save Merry and Pippin from the Orcs. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/po...

Patrick is surprised by the dramatic fall of Boromir to the Ring’s temptation. Andrew remarks on how Boromir’s reasoning is corrupted by his desire, while Frodo is able to recognize how his emotions are keeping him from making the decision he know he has to make. Patrick admires the insight which Sam has because of his sincerity, humility, and deep loyalty. Submit your questions and comments at ad...

Patrick connects the travels of the Fellowship with his experience of hiking in the Smoky Mountains, which he found often boring yet also therapeutic, a time of silent thought yet also of growing closer to his companions. The hobbits encounter the awesome and terrible Gates of Argonath, their first experience of the greatness of the civilization of Gondor. Andrew dwells on the magical passage of t...

Patrick and Andrew discuss each of the gifts that Galadriel gives to the Company - for aid, for remembrance, and for hope. As the Company returns to the ordinary world, they bear with them the memory of the healing beauty of Lothlorien but also a terrible sense of loss and longing. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.

Andrew and Patrick admire how Galadriel sympathetically wins over Gimli, question why she tempts each of the members of the Company, analyze her own temptation for the Ring, and celebrate her humble renunciation of all she loves. They also dwell on how the hobbits and the Galathrim share similar loves for their lands.  Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show a...

Patrick and Andrew share a post from Grace Steele of Tending Roses about how she got through The Lord of the Rings , followed by thoughts on Faerie Tales from Jonathan Pageau of The Symbolic World on fairy tales. Learn more about Grace Steele at Tending Roses www.gracesteele.net/blog/lord-of-the-rings Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/do...

Andrew considers this one of the hardest chapters to get into, especially for readers with little experience or love of the natural world. Still he urges readers, especially those who are obsessively mission-driven, to lend themselves to Tolkien’s pacing and experience the healing contemplative encounter with the preternatural beauty of ordinary things which is the special charism of the Elves.  S...

Patrick and Andrew discuss Gandalf’s possibly foolish choices, Aragorn’s rational leadership, Frodo’s and Sam’s courage under fire, Gimli’s reverence for his fallen people, the Balrog as a match for Gandalf, and the Secret Fire. Submit your questions and comments at adeoatus.com/podcast . Support the show at adeodatus.com/donate.

Tolkien ramps up the excitement in this chapter; Patrick appreciates how his story alternates the restful with the stressful. They discuss Gandalf’s leadership style - his temper, his care, his power, his defense to the decisions of the Company, especially of Frodo. Andrew loves the magic of the Gates, but Patrick is more taken with Frodo’s psychological struggle with despair and the need for all...

Andrew and Patrick use the map to review the journey, and reflect on the special harmony between Elves and the natural world, even those who, like the Dwarves, delight in using it to make beautiful things. They then consider each of the Fellowship, noting a range of maturity in the hobbits, Aragorn’s readiness for the defining mission of his life, Boromir’s strengths as a heroic captain, and the t...

Andrew gives the backstory of the Wizards, who are incarnate emissaries of the angelic governors of the world, sent to encourage and aid those who resist Sauron. They must resist their own temptation to coerce others to do the good; Gandalf’s extraordinary patience saves him where Saruman falls. Patrick is struck by Frodo’s Marian-like “Fiat” in accepting the mission to destroy the Ring, whose hum...