Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Jared’s choice of topic: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. Introduced casually as a relative of Bilbo’s at the end of The Hobbit – one who Bilbo has a mutual unappreciation society with thanks to some missing spoons – Lobelia appears at the start of The Lord of the Rings as something of a chief antagonist, a status-obsessed hobbit eager to claim Bag-end first with her husband and then, after his death, their son Lotho. As part of Frodo’s plan to leave the Shire he happily sells Bag-end to her and departs on the eventual quest to destroy the One Ring, only to discover upon his return about both Lotho’s role as a puppet of Saruman slain by his orders as well as Lobelia’s reaction to Saruman’s ruffians that leads to her imprisonment, resulting in the end in her change of heart towards Frodo and the society she kicked against. At once a brilliantly memorable example of a pointed portrayal of the petty bourgeoisie and a surprisingly gentle moment of redemption after grave loss, Lobelia is a minor character on the one hand but one with surprising depths on the other. What does it mean to resist destructive forces in a society, and is Lobelia’s seeming to come around late in the game on that front both an example of privilege and finally reaching a breaking point? Can comparisons be made to some of Tolkien’s other older women characters in his works, in particular the Minas Tirith nurse Ioreth, in how such figures are generally portrayed in a generally male-focused society? What does it say about Lobelia that she arguably is one of the few people who could compare experiences with Frodo at being imprisoned without hope due to the forces that Sauron and Saruman seek to exploit for their gain? And did Wormtongue really make a meal out of Lotho in the end?

Jared’s doodle. You’ll pry it from her cold dead hands, you will!

Amazon’s formal Rings of Power season 3 announcement via TheOneRing.net

Also from TheOneRing.net, their report on the Australian debut of the Lord of the Rings musical. 

The Wheel of Time season 3, heck yeah. (Listen to Tar Valon or Bust!)

As noted, The War of the Rohirrim is now on Max – here’s our episode on it.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins per Tolkien Gateway. (We object to the character portrait.)

“Welcome to the resistance.”

Our Scouring of the Shire episode, as well as our general Shire episode.

Jane Austen! George Eliot! Charles Dickens! Thomas Hardy! They’re worth your time.

Moms propping up idiot sons? Wouldn’t know about THAT. 

Vita Sackville-West had some understandable concerns with Salic law.

Ioreth! She rules of course. (And Zamîn, though we don’t have as much from her.)

A BBC report on the Dutch teens who seduced Nazis precisely to get ‘em killed.

Salut to the Umbrella Movement and everything in its wake, including as happened in Seattle.

Amazon and James Bond and whatever.

And yes, for our next episode, this might be your best listening option in advance…

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