Aug. 20, 2025
When Bilbo Met Gollum | JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit | Archives 228
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The dangers of adventure, an encounter with goblins, and the power of Gandalf. We continue our exploration of JRR Tolkien’s the Hobbit, by wandering through chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill.
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Embark on an immersive journey through the captivating realms of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, where the epic sagas of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and more come to life. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of Tolkien's masterful storytelling, drawing intriguing comparisons between his literary works and the cinematic adaptations crafted by Peter Jackson. Be at the forefront of the latest developments as we explore the highly anticipated Rings of Power series from Amazon. Prepare to be enthralled as we uncover hidden connections, untold tales, and delve into the depths of Middle-earth lore. Tune in now and become part of our fellowship on this extraordinary journey!
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WEBVTT
00:00.412 --> 00:02.373
[SPEAKER_00]: lost in the dark and without hope.
00:02.774 --> 00:15.142
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo makes an unlikely discovery that has enormous ramifications for the fate of Middle-earth, meets a slimy creature who may not be all that different from himself, and wins a riddle game accidentally.
00:15.822 --> 00:24.628
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Lore of the Rings episode, and today we want to ring and riddles as we explore chapter five riddles in the dark of J.R.R.
00:24.648 --> 00:27.029
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's The Hobbit, or there and back again.
00:27.630 --> 00:28.170
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's wander.
00:30.648 --> 00:33.269
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump right to the pivotal moment of this chapter.
00:33.789 --> 00:38.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Although Tutalkin and original Hobbit readers, it probably didn't seem so critical at the time.
00:39.630 --> 00:45.391
[SPEAKER_00]: While groping around in the dark, quote, Bilbo's hand meant what it felt like a tiny ring of cold metal.
00:45.951 --> 00:49.512
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.
00:50.672 --> 00:59.954
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the greatest understatement of Middle-Earth history, not only is finding the ring a turning point for Bilbo, but this is the turning point of the third age.
01:00.574 --> 01:08.600
[SPEAKER_00]: The third age of Middle-Earth has been puck marked by battles, framed by the decline of both kingdoms of Numinorian descent and rising unchecked evil.
01:09.261 --> 01:17.227
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo's finding of the ring is the most unlikely event that has the most significant downstream ramifications for Middle-Earth.
01:17.947 --> 01:21.750
[SPEAKER_00]: No doubt the ring felt the stirrings of evil and the call of its master.
01:21.950 --> 01:29.096
[SPEAKER_00]: When it slipped away from Golum, it's likely intention was to be picked up by a goblin and started to wait back to sauron.
01:29.716 --> 01:39.902
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily for Middle-earth, Bilbo found it instead, but at that moment, he doesn't know what it is, so he mechanically slips it into his pocket without thinking much of it.
01:40.763 --> 01:47.087
[SPEAKER_00]: Later after the little game, we're told that the ring, quote, was a ring of power, and it could make the bearer invisible.
01:47.667 --> 01:51.750
[SPEAKER_00]: However, full sunlight could still produce a faint shadow of the bearer.
01:52.530 --> 01:56.473
[SPEAKER_00]: This ring has a will of its own, as Golem says, quote, it slipped from us.
01:57.217 --> 02:02.781
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Bilbal puts his hand into his pocket, the ring, quote quietly slipped onto his grouping finger.
02:03.501 --> 02:09.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the Silmariles from the first age, these artifacts of great power act of their own volition.
02:10.090 --> 02:12.692
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo doesn't understand the mechanics of the ring.
02:13.072 --> 02:19.536
[SPEAKER_00]: He begins to understand only as Gola mutters to himself about how Bilbo will quote, be there but not seen.
02:20.197 --> 02:25.240
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo certainly understands, quote, it seemed to him that the ring he had was a magic ring.
02:25.720 --> 02:26.681
[SPEAKER_00]: It made you invisible.
02:27.241 --> 02:34.145
[SPEAKER_00]: He had heard of such things, of course, in old tales, but it is hard to believe that he had really found one by accident.
02:35.106 --> 02:36.407
[SPEAKER_00]: Or was it by accident?
02:37.053 --> 02:41.055
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a passage from fellowship, when Gandalf is giving Frodo the history of the rings.
02:41.975 --> 02:44.236
[SPEAKER_00]: There was more than one power at work, Frodo.
02:44.836 --> 02:47.257
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring was trying to get back to its master.
02:47.838 --> 02:49.798
[SPEAKER_00]: It could make no further use of Golum.
02:50.399 --> 02:54.120
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as it stayed with him, he would never leave his deep pool again.
02:54.881 --> 03:04.685
[SPEAKER_00]: So now, when its master was awake once more, it abandoned Golum, only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable, Bilbo from the Shire.
03:05.405 --> 03:11.029
[SPEAKER_00]: I can put it no planer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the ring, and not by its maker.
03:12.070 --> 03:17.775
[SPEAKER_00]: And Alphair is referring to other powers in Middle-earth, other powers that manifest in very subtle ways.
03:18.515 --> 03:19.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Evil clearly was at work.
03:20.417 --> 03:25.861
[SPEAKER_00]: Saran's will was only beginning to call all evil things to him, including his one ring.
03:26.501 --> 03:28.863
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring felt the call and attempted to leave Golum.
03:29.352 --> 03:31.833
[SPEAKER_00]: but did not intend, for Bilbo, to pick it up.
03:32.673 --> 03:34.334
[SPEAKER_00]: One last insight about the one ring.
03:34.914 --> 03:40.016
[SPEAKER_00]: The great rings of power have a way of activating the core desire of the person who bears it.
03:40.516 --> 03:43.357
[SPEAKER_00]: For the elves, their desire was to heal and preserve.
03:43.857 --> 03:48.579
[SPEAKER_00]: For the kings of men to have power and to cheat death, for dwarves, to hoard gold.
03:49.219 --> 03:50.920
[SPEAKER_00]: But what was Golem's chief desire?
03:51.360 --> 03:54.421
[SPEAKER_00]: What did the ring enable Golem to get above all things?
03:55.103 --> 04:01.505
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring, most of all, hid Golem so that he could feel safe as he obtained food for himself.
04:02.185 --> 04:04.246
[SPEAKER_00]: Fish and the occasional goblin.
04:04.826 --> 04:13.389
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting then that his core desire was food, not conservation, power, everlasting life, unending gold or dominion over others.
04:14.130 --> 04:17.931
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing this gives us a little insight into Golem's origins.
04:19.676 --> 04:22.157
[SPEAKER_00]: Our introduction to Golem can be summed up in one word.
04:22.697 --> 04:23.337
[SPEAKER_00]: Slimey.
04:23.977 --> 04:27.098
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's four phrases used to describe Golem, spot the pattern.
04:27.458 --> 04:30.499
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are other things more slimey than fish.
04:31.160 --> 04:36.421
[SPEAKER_00]: Deep down here by the dark water lived old Golem, a small slimey creature.
04:37.181 --> 04:39.902
[SPEAKER_00]: Golem lived on a slimey island of rock.
04:40.782 --> 04:45.664
[SPEAKER_00]: But Bilbo felt he could not trust this slimey thing to keep any promise at a pinch.
04:46.743 --> 04:49.665
[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly, we're meant to think that Golem is a dreadful creature.
04:50.205 --> 04:53.687
[SPEAKER_00]: Slime is gross and nasty and thrives in darkness.
04:54.447 --> 04:59.190
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien has introduced us to a slime creature who lives in the darkest depths of the world.
04:59.811 --> 05:03.833
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's evident that not even he knows the origin story of this creature.
05:04.412 --> 05:08.855
[SPEAKER_00]: and only seems to discover Golem's backstory as this chapter goes along.
05:09.395 --> 05:14.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien first tells us, quote, I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was.
05:15.179 --> 05:20.203
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien seems just as surprised and bewildered to find Golem down here as a billbow and we are.
05:21.101 --> 05:30.283
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we discover a little more, quote, riddles had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago.
05:30.844 --> 05:38.646
[SPEAKER_00]: Before he lost all his friends and was driven away alone and crept down, down into the dark of the mountains.
05:39.606 --> 05:41.446
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of things are going on in that passage.
05:41.966 --> 05:45.988
[SPEAKER_00]: Golem used to play riddles with other funny creatures sitting in their holes.
05:47.048 --> 05:47.728
[SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting.
05:48.276 --> 05:53.181
[SPEAKER_00]: especially given the first line of this book, quote, in a hole in the ground, they're lived a hobbit.
05:53.882 --> 05:57.185
[SPEAKER_00]: This is followed by a description of a clean, comfortable hobbit hole.
05:57.766 --> 05:58.887
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are hobbits themselves?
05:59.447 --> 06:01.910
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we could certainly think of them as funny creatures.
06:02.550 --> 06:12.040
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it appears that Golem was part of a community, a community that placed a high value on friendship, but he was expelled from this community and have isolated in the wide world.
06:12.907 --> 06:15.388
[SPEAKER_00]: The next tent about Golem's past is in the riddle game.
06:15.868 --> 06:22.051
[SPEAKER_00]: In the riddle about the sun, we learn that Golem had, quote, lived with his grandmother in a hall in a bank by a river.
06:22.751 --> 06:27.273
[SPEAKER_00]: In another riddle, Golem remembers, quote, teaching his grandmother to suck eggs.
06:28.093 --> 06:32.175
[SPEAKER_00]: So Golem had a grandmother, interesting that his parents are not mentioned.
06:32.837 --> 06:35.179
[SPEAKER_00]: Could golem perhaps have been in orphan as well?
06:35.739 --> 06:40.162
[SPEAKER_00]: This is another reference to living in a hole, and this one, particularly by water.
06:40.742 --> 06:44.545
[SPEAKER_00]: So we may surmise that golem was used to boats and navigating the water.
06:45.325 --> 06:55.392
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you see where I'm going with this, but as the narrator learns and reveals these pieces of golem's backstory, we begin to see the uncanny resemblance that golem has with Bilbo.
06:56.188 --> 07:02.670
[SPEAKER_00]: Both lived in holes with other silly creatures in communities that placed a high value on friendship and food.
07:03.070 --> 07:05.811
[SPEAKER_00]: Both are skilled in the art of stealth and being quiet.
07:06.311 --> 07:08.491
[SPEAKER_00]: Both have an innate sense of direction.
07:09.071 --> 07:14.193
[SPEAKER_00]: Even being far underground, quote, they do not easily lose their sense of direction underground.
07:14.993 --> 07:18.474
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of this doesn't even mention the most striking similarity of all.
07:18.994 --> 07:20.414
[SPEAKER_00]: They're shared little game.
07:21.055 --> 07:22.855
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get to that right after this break.
07:27.640 --> 07:28.301
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not done yet.
07:28.641 --> 07:31.383
[SPEAKER_00]: If you like this episode, please leave a review and share with your friends.
07:31.683 --> 07:33.485
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember to subscribe if you haven't already.
07:33.745 --> 07:34.345
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back.
07:55.710 --> 07:59.191
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did Golem even bother with talking with Bilbo in the first place?
07:59.811 --> 08:03.392
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not reach for the ring and have done with Bilbo without all the conversation?
08:04.233 --> 08:09.034
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason hits a theme that we've been exploring in nearly every chapter of the Hobbit so far.
08:09.614 --> 08:17.757
[SPEAKER_00]: Hobbits are so obscure that even the legendary creatures evolved, like trolls and goblins, don't know what they are.
08:18.517 --> 08:20.158
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same is true for Golem.
08:20.763 --> 08:27.647
[SPEAKER_00]: When Bilbo stands at the edge of the lake, wondering what to do, Golem is on his island, quote, wondering a lot about Bilbo.
08:28.207 --> 08:30.749
[SPEAKER_00]: For he could see that he was no goblin at all.
08:31.549 --> 08:37.673
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Golem, a stretched, corrupted form of a hobbit, doesn't recognize Bilbo for who and what he is.
08:38.313 --> 08:45.277
[SPEAKER_00]: Golem, though not immediately hungry, decides that Bilbo will make, quote, a choice feast, at least a tasty morsel.
08:45.838 --> 08:47.839
[SPEAKER_00]: But decides to play a game with him first.
08:48.650 --> 08:52.111
[SPEAKER_00]: And here is another lifeless in for all the kids reading the Hobbit.
08:52.651 --> 08:54.212
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't play with your food.
08:54.872 --> 08:57.853
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you never know when your food might best you in a riddle game.
08:58.393 --> 09:02.775
[SPEAKER_00]: Draw a sword on you, or unwittingly steal your most prized possession.
09:03.575 --> 09:08.257
[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, the first riddle is asked, which billbow answers handily, and the deal is struck.
09:09.017 --> 09:13.499
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is that the answers to these riddles generally fall into two categories.
09:13.979 --> 09:17.680
[SPEAKER_00]: Natural phenomena, like mountains, wind, sun, darkness, time,
09:18.376 --> 09:21.618
[SPEAKER_00]: and food, teeth, eggs, fish, and eating fish.
09:22.318 --> 09:28.282
[SPEAKER_00]: The one riddle that breaks that categorization is the last one, where a Bilbo asks, quote, what have I got in my pocket?
09:29.162 --> 09:32.644
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer to which is another food, nor a natural phenomena.
09:33.244 --> 09:41.349
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, even talking derides Bilbo a bit for not adhering to the laws of riddle games, in that Bilbo's final riddle was actually a question.
09:42.029 --> 09:45.992
[SPEAKER_00]: However, two interesting details justify Bilbo's question as a riddle.
09:46.855 --> 09:56.521
[SPEAKER_00]: First, after Bilbo is saved by pure luck in guessing time, Golem is pressing him for the next challenge and says, quote, it's got to ask us a question, my precious.
09:56.981 --> 09:58.602
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes, yes.
09:59.423 --> 10:01.224
[SPEAKER_00]: Just one more question to guess.
10:02.385 --> 10:06.988
[SPEAKER_00]: This little slip-up by Golem opens the door for Bilbo to tweak the rules slightly.
10:07.008 --> 10:09.209
[SPEAKER_00]: A technicality, perhaps?
10:09.669 --> 10:13.292
[SPEAKER_00]: But the next detail that justifies the question is that Golem accepted it.
10:14.000 --> 10:16.922
[SPEAKER_00]: He took it for a riddle and did not challenge Bilbo.
10:17.522 --> 10:28.088
[SPEAKER_00]: From the prologue to the Lord of the Rings, quote, the authorities, it is true, differ whether this last question was a mere question and not a riddle according to the strict rules of the game.
10:28.768 --> 10:34.952
[SPEAKER_00]: But all agree that after accepting it and trying to guess the answer, Golum was bound by his promise.
10:36.004 --> 10:45.353
[SPEAKER_00]: In compensation, Bilbo generously offers three attempts, but indeed answers four of Golem's guesses, so there's some rule bending going on from both contestants.
10:46.614 --> 10:51.378
[SPEAKER_00]: The outcome of this real game, as we know it today, was revised from Tolkien's original story.
10:51.719 --> 11:01.588
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tolkien.CRO.net, quote, in the original, in the original, in the third edition of The Hobbit, Golem was genuinely willing to bet his ring on the real game.
11:02.195 --> 11:04.997
[SPEAKER_00]: The deal being that Billum would receive a present if he won.
11:05.637 --> 11:10.060
[SPEAKER_00]: Golum, in fact, was dismayed when he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing.
11:10.420 --> 11:14.562
[SPEAKER_00]: He showed Billum the way out as an alternative, and they partied courteously.
11:15.363 --> 11:27.750
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as Tolkien was compiling the Lord of the Rings, he began to feel the weight of Billum's discovery, and the ring took a deeper, heftier, and darker significance in the story of Middle-earth.
11:28.610 --> 11:30.712
[SPEAKER_00]: So Tolkien went back and revised this chapter.
11:31.152 --> 11:36.676
[SPEAKER_00]: He changed the stakes of the riddle game and showed us how corrupt and nasty the ring had made Golum.
11:37.277 --> 11:45.283
[SPEAKER_00]: Since the ring was the most sought after powerful object in all middle-earth, Tolkien simply couldn't let Golum trade it away in a riddle game.
11:46.204 --> 11:51.948
[SPEAKER_00]: This change lessens Bilbo's claim to the ring, but does highlight its evil and corrupting nature.
11:53.475 --> 12:01.406
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think that's enough exploring for one day, but I have one more insight to share from this chapter, the power of a journey into darkness.
12:02.126 --> 12:03.809
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll save that for our next episode.
12:04.369 --> 12:06.873
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wandering Middle-Earth with me today.
12:16.091 --> 12:21.236
[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know by subscribing, leaving your review and sharing with your friends.
12:21.276 --> 12:24.359
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on Facebook or Instagram at more of the Reads podcast.
12:24.959 --> 12:27.922
[SPEAKER_00]: For feedback on the show, please email me using the link in the show news.
12:28.343 --> 12:31.766
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next Thursday, remember, at all those who want to, are lost.
00:00.412 --> 00:02.373
[SPEAKER_00]: lost in the dark and without hope.
00:02.774 --> 00:15.142
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo makes an unlikely discovery that has enormous ramifications for the fate of Middle-earth, meets a slimy creature who may not be all that different from himself, and wins a riddle game accidentally.
00:15.822 --> 00:24.628
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Lore of the Rings episode, and today we want to ring and riddles as we explore chapter five riddles in the dark of J.R.R.
00:24.648 --> 00:27.029
[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien's The Hobbit, or there and back again.
00:27.630 --> 00:28.170
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's wander.
00:30.648 --> 00:33.269
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's jump right to the pivotal moment of this chapter.
00:33.789 --> 00:38.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Although Tutalkin and original Hobbit readers, it probably didn't seem so critical at the time.
00:39.630 --> 00:45.391
[SPEAKER_00]: While groping around in the dark, quote, Bilbo's hand meant what it felt like a tiny ring of cold metal.
00:45.951 --> 00:49.512
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.
00:50.672 --> 00:59.954
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps the greatest understatement of Middle-Earth history, not only is finding the ring a turning point for Bilbo, but this is the turning point of the third age.
01:00.574 --> 01:08.600
[SPEAKER_00]: The third age of Middle-Earth has been puck marked by battles, framed by the decline of both kingdoms of Numinorian descent and rising unchecked evil.
01:09.261 --> 01:17.227
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo's finding of the ring is the most unlikely event that has the most significant downstream ramifications for Middle-Earth.
01:17.947 --> 01:21.750
[SPEAKER_00]: No doubt the ring felt the stirrings of evil and the call of its master.
01:21.950 --> 01:29.096
[SPEAKER_00]: When it slipped away from Golum, it's likely intention was to be picked up by a goblin and started to wait back to sauron.
01:29.716 --> 01:39.902
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily for Middle-earth, Bilbo found it instead, but at that moment, he doesn't know what it is, so he mechanically slips it into his pocket without thinking much of it.
01:40.763 --> 01:47.087
[SPEAKER_00]: Later after the little game, we're told that the ring, quote, was a ring of power, and it could make the bearer invisible.
01:47.667 --> 01:51.750
[SPEAKER_00]: However, full sunlight could still produce a faint shadow of the bearer.
01:52.530 --> 01:56.473
[SPEAKER_00]: This ring has a will of its own, as Golem says, quote, it slipped from us.
01:57.217 --> 02:02.781
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Bilbal puts his hand into his pocket, the ring, quote quietly slipped onto his grouping finger.
02:03.501 --> 02:09.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the Silmariles from the first age, these artifacts of great power act of their own volition.
02:10.090 --> 02:12.692
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo doesn't understand the mechanics of the ring.
02:13.072 --> 02:19.536
[SPEAKER_00]: He begins to understand only as Gola mutters to himself about how Bilbo will quote, be there but not seen.
02:20.197 --> 02:25.240
[SPEAKER_00]: Bilbo certainly understands, quote, it seemed to him that the ring he had was a magic ring.
02:25.720 --> 02:26.681
[SPEAKER_00]: It made you invisible.
02:27.241 --> 02:34.145
[SPEAKER_00]: He had heard of such things, of course, in old tales, but it is hard to believe that he had really found one by accident.
02:35.106 --> 02:36.407
[SPEAKER_00]: Or was it by accident?
02:37.053 --> 02:41.055
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a passage from fellowship, when Gandalf is giving Frodo the history of the rings.
02:41.975 --> 02:44.236
[SPEAKER_00]: There was more than one power at work, Frodo.
02:44.836 --> 02:47.257
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring was trying to get back to its master.
02:47.838 --> 02:49.798
[SPEAKER_00]: It could make no further use of Golum.
02:50.399 --> 02:54.120
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as it stayed with him, he would never leave his deep pool again.
02:54.881 --> 03:04.685
[SPEAKER_00]: So now, when its master was awake once more, it abandoned Golum, only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable, Bilbo from the Shire.
03:05.405 --> 03:11.029
[SPEAKER_00]: I can put it no planer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the ring, and not by its maker.
03:12.070 --> 03:17.775
[SPEAKER_00]: And Alphair is referring to other powers in Middle-earth, other powers that manifest in very subtle ways.
03:18.515 --> 03:19.856
[SPEAKER_00]: Evil clearly was at work.
03:20.417 --> 03:25.861
[SPEAKER_00]: Saran's will was only beginning to call all evil things to him, including his one ring.
03:26.501 --> 03:28.863
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring felt the call and attempted to leave Golum.
03:29.352 --> 03:31.833
[SPEAKER_00]: but did not intend, for Bilbo, to pick it up.
03:32.673 --> 03:34.334
[SPEAKER_00]: One last insight about the one ring.
03:34.914 --> 03:40.016
[SPEAKER_00]: The great rings of power have a way of activating the core desire of the person who bears it.
03:40.516 --> 03:43.357
[SPEAKER_00]: For the elves, their desire was to heal and preserve.
03:43.857 --> 03:48.579
[SPEAKER_00]: For the kings of men to have power and to cheat death, for dwarves, to hoard gold.
03:49.219 --> 03:50.920
[SPEAKER_00]: But what was Golem's chief desire?
03:51.360 --> 03:54.421
[SPEAKER_00]: What did the ring enable Golem to get above all things?
03:55.103 --> 04:01.505
[SPEAKER_00]: The ring, most of all, hid Golem so that he could feel safe as he obtained food for himself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Fish and the occasional goblin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting then that his core desire was food, not conservation, power, everlasting life, unending gold or dominion over others.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing this gives us a little insight into Golem's origins.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Our introduction to Golem can be summed up in one word.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Slimey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Here's four phrases used to describe Golem, spot the pattern.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But there are other things more slimey than fish.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Deep down here by the dark water lived old Golem, a small slimey creature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Golem lived on a slimey island of rock.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Bilbo felt he could not trust this slimey thing to keep any promise at a pinch.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Clearly, we're meant to think that Golem is a dreadful creature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Slime is gross and nasty and thrives in darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien has introduced us to a slime creature who lives in the darkest depths of the world.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But it's evident that not even he knows the origin story of this creature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and only seems to discover Golem's backstory as this chapter goes along.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien first tells us, quote, I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Tolkien seems just as surprised and bewildered to find Golem down here as a billbow and we are.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we discover a little more, quote, riddles had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Before he lost all his friends and was driven away alone and crept down, down into the dark of the mountains.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of things are going on in that passage.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Golem used to play riddles with other funny creatures sitting in their holes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: especially given the first line of this book, quote, in a hole in the ground, they're lived a hobbit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is followed by a description of a clean, comfortable hobbit hole.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And what are hobbits themselves?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we could certainly think of them as funny creatures.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it appears that Golem was part of a community, a community that placed a high value on friendship, but he was expelled from this community and have isolated in the wide world.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The next tent about Golem's past is in the riddle game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the riddle about the sun, we learn that Golem had, quote, lived with his grandmother in a hall in a bank by a river.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In another riddle, Golem remembers, quote, teaching his grandmother to suck eggs.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Golem had a grandmother, interesting that his parents are not mentioned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Could golem perhaps have been in orphan as well?
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is another reference to living in a hole, and this one, particularly by water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So we may surmise that golem was used to boats and navigating the water.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you see where I'm going with this, but as the narrator learns and reveals these pieces of golem's backstory, we begin to see the uncanny resemblance that golem has with Bilbo.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Both lived in holes with other silly creatures in communities that placed a high value on friendship and food.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Both are skilled in the art of stealth and being quiet.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Both have an innate sense of direction.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even being far underground, quote, they do not easily lose their sense of direction underground.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And all of this doesn't even mention the most striking similarity of all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're shared little game.
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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.
07:31.683 --> 07:33.485
[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]: Why did Golem even bother with talking with Bilbo in the first place?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Why not reach for the ring and have done with Bilbo without all the conversation?
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[SPEAKER_00]: The reason hits a theme that we've been exploring in nearly every chapter of the Hobbit so far.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hobbits are so obscure that even the legendary creatures evolved, like trolls and goblins, don't know what they are.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the same is true for Golem.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When Bilbo stands at the edge of the lake, wondering what to do, Golem is on his island, quote, wondering a lot about Bilbo.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For he could see that he was no goblin at all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even Golem, a stretched, corrupted form of a hobbit, doesn't recognize Bilbo for who and what he is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Golem, though not immediately hungry, decides that Bilbo will make, quote, a choice feast, at least a tasty morsel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But decides to play a game with him first.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And here is another lifeless in for all the kids reading the Hobbit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Don't play with your food.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because you never know when your food might best you in a riddle game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Draw a sword on you, or unwittingly steal your most prized possession.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, the first riddle is asked, which billbow answers handily, and the deal is struck.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is that the answers to these riddles generally fall into two categories.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Natural phenomena, like mountains, wind, sun, darkness, time,
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[SPEAKER_00]: and food, teeth, eggs, fish, and eating fish.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The one riddle that breaks that categorization is the last one, where a Bilbo asks, quote, what have I got in my pocket?
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[SPEAKER_00]: The answer to which is another food, nor a natural phenomena.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, even talking derides Bilbo a bit for not adhering to the laws of riddle games, in that Bilbo's final riddle was actually a question.
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, two interesting details justify Bilbo's question as a riddle.
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[SPEAKER_00]: First, after Bilbo is saved by pure luck in guessing time, Golem is pressing him for the next challenge and says, quote, it's got to ask us a question, my precious.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes, yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Just one more question to guess.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This little slip-up by Golem opens the door for Bilbo to tweak the rules slightly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A technicality, perhaps?
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the next detail that justifies the question is that Golem accepted it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He took it for a riddle and did not challenge Bilbo.
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[SPEAKER_00]: From the prologue to the Lord of the Rings, quote, the authorities, it is true, differ whether this last question was a mere question and not a riddle according to the strict rules of the game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But all agree that after accepting it and trying to guess the answer, Golum was bound by his promise.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In compensation, Bilbo generously offers three attempts, but indeed answers four of Golem's guesses, so there's some rule bending going on from both contestants.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The outcome of this real game, as we know it today, was revised from Tolkien's original story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to Tolkien.CRO.net, quote, in the original, in the original, in the third edition of The Hobbit, Golem was genuinely willing to bet his ring on the real game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The deal being that Billum would receive a present if he won.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Golum, in fact, was dismayed when he couldn't keep his promise because the ring was missing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He showed Billum the way out as an alternative, and they partied courteously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as Tolkien was compiling the Lord of the Rings, he began to feel the weight of Billum's discovery, and the ring took a deeper, heftier, and darker significance in the story of Middle-earth.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Tolkien went back and revised this chapter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He changed the stakes of the riddle game and showed us how corrupt and nasty the ring had made Golum.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Since the ring was the most sought after powerful object in all middle-earth, Tolkien simply couldn't let Golum trade it away in a riddle game.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This change lessens Bilbo's claim to the ring, but does highlight its evil and corrupting nature.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think that's enough exploring for one day, but I have one more insight to share from this chapter, the power of a journey into darkness.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'll save that for our next episode.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for wandering Middle-Earth with me today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: My friends, if you enjoyed this episode, let me know by subscribing, leaving your review and sharing with your friends.
12:21.276 --> 12:24.359
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me on Facebook or Instagram at more of the Reads podcast.
12:24.959 --> 12:27.922
[SPEAKER_00]: For feedback on the show, please email me using the link in the show news.
12:28.343 --> 12:31.766
[SPEAKER_00]: Until next Thursday, remember, at all those who want to, are lost.
