Small, Strange Chances: The Quest for Erebor | JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings | 221

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you've seen or read Tolkien's The Hobbit, then you know that Gandalf convinced Thorin and the Dwarves to take Bilbo Baggins, a simple Hobbit from the Shire, on a quest to reclaim Arobor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But you may not know why Gandalf chose Bilbo in the first place, or how Gandalf and Thorin met, or how Gandalf received the map and key that he could pass along to Thorin.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And still yet how unlikely the whole story is, and how the tale is tingled up in the larger fight against Saron.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Today we explore the tale called The Quest for Arobor, from J.R.R.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's check the map so we know where we are for today's story.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If none of this makes sense, feel free to listen to a previous episode or two to catch back up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It is the third age of Middle-earth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Last episode we covered the dwarves, and primarily their chief house, Durin's folk.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We explored the founding and fall of Kazadume, and the founding and fall of Arab War, the Lonely Mountain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We touched on the last of the seven rings of power that were given to the dwarves and scrutinized a chance meeting between Gandalf and Thorin that started the quest for Arobor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But there's more to that tale and even different versions of it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So let's wander.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get too far, you first need to understand that I am drawing on different versions of the tale.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We owe a lot to J.R.R.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's son, Christopher, who did the Herculean task of compiling his father's unpublished notes, and to a book we know as unfinished tales.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The tale known as the quest for Arobor has at least three different versions, plus the little bit that has included in the appendix for the Lord of the Rings.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Various details are inconsistent with each other, though the framing of the tail is consistent.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This tail is told from Gandalf's perspective, as Frodo, Pippin, and Gimli, Pepper Gandalf with questions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At Ministerith, after Sauron has been overthrown, and Erugorn has been crowned King.

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[SPEAKER_00]: An early version of the tale gives us the setting like this.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, Gandalf was very merry, and though we asked him questions about all that came into our minds, his patience seemed as endless as his knowledge.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but I would love to sit for days with a patient Gandalf answering all my questions about Middle-earth.

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[SPEAKER_00]: During this question and answer session, Gimli makes remark that the Shire is hollowed land, because not only did the recovery of the lonely mountain from smog the dragon begin in the Shire, but also the fall of Sauron and the recovery of the kingdoms of men.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then he says, quote, both were strangely woven together, strangely very strangely.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gimli then turns to Gandalf and says, quote, but who wove the web?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Did you plan all this then Gandalf?

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[SPEAKER_00]: A fair question from Gimli.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As it seems that Gandalf had some foresight or knowledge of what would happen on the dwarves' trip.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I'll know that Bilbo would find the one ring.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I'll know that the one ring could be found at all.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And in his questioning, Gimli furthers the theme of unlikely chance.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Chance, that seems trivial on the surface.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yet has profound impact as if it were by design.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Over the chances that the one ring would be found by Hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And later, that a Hobbit would be chosen as the ring bear to enter Motor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf considers the question in silence for a moment, then says that he does not know the answer, but he cites somewhere as he said to Frodo one year before, quote, Bilbo was meant to find the ring, and not by its maker, and you therefore were meant to bear it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf doesn't plainly say who it was, who meant for Bilbo to find the ring, who meant for Frodo to bear it, or who meant for Gandalf to guide him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But he does leave a curious statement hanging in the air that gives a clue to who it was, quote, O' Lauren I was, in the west that is forgotten, and only to those who are there shall I speak more openly.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So it would seem to me that Gandalf is hinting that the Valar

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[SPEAKER_00]: either one of them individually or all of them collectively, or the orchestrators of the great web that brought about Saran's downfall.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We know that Olmo, the Valar over the waters, never abandoned Middle-Earth to its fate.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He, having helped found Nargothround and Gondolin in the first stage.

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[SPEAKER_00]: One way, the hiking and the Valar over the winds was closest to the heart of the creator of Middle-earth, Eluvitar.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Gandalf didn't want to guess or assume in front of these mortals that the Valar had a part, but it's the best theory I have.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf think goes on to explain what was his actual motivation at the time, for sending the dwarves to reclaim Eramor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and it's a motivation that we've explored before.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf knew that Sauron was preparing for war and he believed Sauron's first strike would be against Rivendell and Lothlorian.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf also knew that the defenses in the northeast of Middle-Earth were essentially non-existent, and to further the matter, Smog the Dragon could likely be persuaded by Sauron to join the war.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thus, to Gandalf, the primary problem was how to throw out Sauron's plans and, secondarily, how to rid himself of a dragon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At this point in the third age, Gandalf had very little dealing with the dwarves, though he was sympathetic to the exiled dwarves from Arobor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But then came the so-called chance meeting between him and Thorin.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In some versions, this meeting is at an inn in Brie, probably the Prancing Pony, and another version it's on the road to Brie.

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[SPEAKER_00]: No matter how they met, Gandalf could quickly see that Thorin longed for vengeance against Smog.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and needed no convincing to take up his father's charge and to try to reclaim Arobor for the dwarves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, Thorne wanted large armies to march against the dragon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I'll persuade him against the idea, saying, quote, your own ideas are those of a king, Thorne can shield.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But your kingdom is gone, if it is to be restored, which I doubt, it must be from small beginnings.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and so Gandalf suggested a different strategy.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Stealth, and even more so, stealth from a creature that a dragon had never before known.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At this point, Gloin, father of Gimli and friend of Thorn, objects against Gandalf's idea, quote, one of those simple tins down in the shire, what use on earth, or under it, could he possibly be?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Before I get to Gandalf's response to Gloin's accusation, I want to quickly point out why Gimli wasn't on the trip to reclaim Eribor.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hobbit movie fans will remember a fun scene when the elves have captured the dwarves in the forest and Legolas asks Gloin about a sketch in a frame.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And what is this horror creature?

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[SPEAKER_00]: A goblin mutant?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And Gloin retorts?

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's my wee lad, Gimley!

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[SPEAKER_00]: Himalayas turns out wanted to go with Thorne on his quest to the Lonely Mountain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But says quote, I was not allowed to go on the quest, too young they said, though at sixty-two I thought myself fit for anything.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, sixty-two years old is too young for doors to participate in deadly battles against dragons.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But who knows, maybe there was more than mere chance in Gimli's being forbidden to go.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thorin, Philly, and Keely, and more were slain in the Battle of Five Armies.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If Gimli had been there, would he have fallen to?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if so, what of his contributions as one of the nine mockers of the company?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the Valar had a part in this too.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless, let's get back to Gandalf convincing the dwarves to take a Hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf defends his idea, citing the tremendous courage that Hobbits can display in a pinch, and not only that, Hobbits are marvelously quiet, far more so than dwarves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At this point I want to remind you of a line from the prologue to the fellowship of the ring on concerning Hobbits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, they possessed from the first the art of disappearing, swiftly and silently.

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[SPEAKER_00]: When large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by, and this art they have developed until to men it may seem magical.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill

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[SPEAKER_00]: That hereditary and practice, and a close friendship with the Earth, have rendered immutable by bigger and clumsier races.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This stealthiness is also on full display in Amazon's Rings of Power series.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The harfots, precursors to the Hobbits, are shown as being close to the earth, even startling some humans in the first episode.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But there was another reason the Gandalf suggested a Hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: A reason for his own mission, quote, the Hobbits had begun to forget.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Forget their own beginnings and legends.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Forget what little they had known about the greatness of the world.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was not yet gone, but it was getting buried.

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[SPEAKER_00]: the memory of the high and the perilous.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf also recognized that he couldn't force all the hobbits to remember their place in the world, not all at once, so he had to begin with one, one small place to start, but which one?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And this is how he landed on Bilbo Baggins.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf had been away from the Shire for around twenty years before his chance meeting with Thorin.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But as the plan began to be formed, Gandalf knew he needed a hobbit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He started to put a checklist together of the ideal hobbit for such an adventure.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He needed quote a dash of a took, but not entirely a took, as we know that Pippin is often referred to as full of a took.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So to balance out the tookishness, Gandalf wanted a more steady character, someone from the Baggins family.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That led Gandalf to think of Bilbo.

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[SPEAKER_00]: His father was a baggons, and his mother was a took, and even more helpful.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo had been in admirer of Gandalf's from a young age, and loved maps, and to further the choice.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo had not yet gotten married, which for his age as a hobbit was unusual.

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[SPEAKER_00]: began off had a guess as to why Bilbo hadn't yet settled down in marriage, quote, I guess that he wanted to remain unattached for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself, or would not acknowledge for it alarmed him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted all the same to be free to go with a chance came.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And the chance for Bilbo to go on an adventure came, but before and after his chance came, Gandalf still needed to persuade the dwarves to take him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It was Ballin, actually, who first guessed Gandalf's intentions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Ballin becomes convinced when he thinks that Bilbo is a trained treasure-seeker.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, can they still be found?

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[SPEAKER_00]: He asked Gandalf, who replied that he thinks they can, for a feat.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then, with some level of foresight given Gandalf, he says to Thorin, quote, if you persuade this Hobbit to join you, you will succeed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you do not, you will fail.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, Gandalf persuaded the dwarves to take Bilbo, and the dwarves persuaded Bilbo to come with them to the lonely mountain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So Gandalf's strategy takes shape.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He needed to prevent Sauron's first strike and remove a dragon.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He had an exiled dwarves' king who would take up the challenge, and his stealthy hobbit burglar who would join them.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But how could they achieve their quest?

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[SPEAKER_00]: The key, yes, pun intended, came in the form of a map and key, which by chance came into Gandalf's possession.

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

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[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done yet.

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

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

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hobbit movie fans will remember the scene during Bilbo's unexpected party, where Gandalf reveals a map and key to Thorin.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thorin asks how Gandalf came by them, and he merely says, quote, it was given to me by your father, Thrain, for safekeeping.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf reveals the tale to Frodo, Gimli, and Pippin, calling his possession of the map, and Key, a quote strange chance that had put them in my hands.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Nearly one hundred years before Gandalf convinced Thorin to the quest, Gandalf had entered into Dole Gouldor by disguise.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Dogle Dore is an evil fortress in the southern half of the forest of Merkwood.

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[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, an evil necromancer controlled Dogle Dore, who would later turn out to be Sauron.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This was unbeknownst to Gandalf at the time.

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[SPEAKER_00]: In the fortress, Gandalf found, quote, unhappy dwarf dying in the pits.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The dwarf was crazed, but managed to mention repeatedly that he possessed a great ring, quote, a last of the seven, he said, over and over again.

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[SPEAKER_00]: After a time, the dwarf produced a map and key that appeared to be associated with Durin's folk.

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[SPEAKER_00]: He handed the map and key to Gandalf, and just before he died, told Gandalf that they were, quote, for my son.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But he did not tell Gandalf who he was, or his son's name.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf concluded his business in spying out Dogal Door, and he, quote, stowed the things away.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And by some warning of his heart, he kept them always with him, safe, but soon, almost forgotten.

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[SPEAKER_00]: This dwarf, Gandalf later surmised, was Thorin's father, Thrain, who nine years before had left his people to attempt to reclaim Arobor with a small band of dwarves.

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[SPEAKER_00]: As they neared Dogal Door, however, Thrain had been captured, and Gandalf found him when he had been in the dungeons for at least five years.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Gandalf had a guess as to why Thrain was able to possess the map and key, when everything else had been taken from him, including his sanity.

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[SPEAKER_00]: His guess was that Sauron, in torturing Thrain, desired only to reclaim the ring of power that Thrain possessed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And once he had obtained it, Sauron had flung Thrain into the pits without a second thought.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Of this mistake on Sauron's part, Gandalf has this to say, quote, a small oversight, but it proved fatal.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Small oversights often do.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's examine this claim for a moment.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Sauron's small oversight to not check train for more than a ring of power proved fatal to him.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Pretend for a moment that Sorn had found the map and the key on Thrain.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What would Thrain have given Gandalf?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Without the map and key, how could Gandalf have convinced Thorin to go on the quest?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And even if he had, how would Thorin and the dwarves attempt to enter Arobor through the dragon's front door?

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[SPEAKER_00]: That would have been disastrous.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But even more important, if Thor had never attempted the quest, Bilbo never would have left the Shire.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If Bilbo never left the Shire, he never would have found the one ring deep under the mountains.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If the one ring hadn't been found, or if it had stayed in Gaulam's possession, or had it been found by an evil creature like an orc or even a bowrock.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Then the free peoples of Middle-Earth never would have had a chance to destroy it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If the ring hadn't been found by Bilbo, then it's likely that it would not have been destroyed.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then, Sarm would not have been overthrown.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And Middle-Earth would have fallen into darkness.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, Saran's small oversight led to his downfall.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think a line from El Rond is worth repeating here, quote, yet such is off the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Small oversights and small chances can have vast consequences.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wondering with me today.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Please join me next time where we will explore some timeline trivia and what Amazon's Rings of Power got wrong about time in Middle-earth.

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

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[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on Facebook or Instagram at more of the Reads podcast.

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

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