Glittering Caves

Andrew and Patrick speak with Grace Steele, a literature teacher at Vandamme Academy, about her experience teaching the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in an elementary school setting. 

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Patrick and Andrew review their different experiences of the great story and the podcast, their favorite chapters, their favorite characters, and lasting effects.

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Andrew and Patrick discuss the contributions the Four Travellers make to the renewed Shire - Merry and Pippin’s Lordliness, Sam’s beautiful family life and dedicated leadership, Frodo’s writing of the great story of their adventure. Sam’s healthy wholeness contrasts with Frodo’s lingering wounds which can only be healed by leaving the Shire for good.

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The Hobbits find the Shire has become a land of Rules and ugliness, but they are ready to ignite and direct a holy spirit of revolt. Patrick and Andrew focus on Merry’s military acumen and draw spiritual insight from Frodo’s Gandalf-like leadership, especially in dealing with the malice of Saruman.

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The long journey home leads Patrick and Andrew to discuss how the hobbits have been changed by becoming used to being friends with Kings and Queens, Elves and Wizards. Will they find coming home difficult or are they, as Gandalf says, ready to handle any troubles they might find there? Will Frodo, whose sufferings have left scars on him, be able to find rest in the Shire?

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Patrick and Andrew revel in the joy of the Eagle’s psalm of victory and Aragorn’s triumphant coronation. They discuss ways that the last three chapters can help readers enter into the spirit of Holy Week and Easter. Andrew waxes eloquent on Faramir’s courtship of Eowyn.

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The discussion begins with Gandalf's awareness that Quest has been achieved, the role of the Eagles, and the drama of Sauron's demise. Patrick and Andrew then delight in the eucatastrophic joy experienced by Sam, Gandalf's fountain of laughter, and the minstrel's singing of Frodo and Sam's accomplishment. They reflect on the taste of heavenly joy Tolkien gives his readers while still remembering that it is only temporal.

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In this epic climactic chapter, Andrew and Patrick discuss Sam's will to endure, Frodo's dark night of suffering, and the moments of grace that see them through. Sam's pity for Gollum enables the Quest to be achieved; Frodo's heroic resistance to the Ring, though overcome, earns a return to peace and an enduring gift of humility.

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The roles of Frodo and Sam are reversed after the escape from Cirith Ungol. While Frodo, without hope, can only will to go on, Sam, finding hope in light, water and the beauty of a star, becomes the resourceful and resilient leader. Patrick and Andrew note the doubt that afflicts Sauron in spite of his mighty empire, which in the end is doomed to self-destruction.

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As they begin the final book of The Lord of the Rings, Andrew and Patrick marvel at Sam's fidelity and hardihood, and reflect on the plain hobbit-sense that allows him to overcome the tempting fantasies aroused by the Ring. This gives them a glimpse of what Frodo will be suffering as they move forward on the long road to Mt. Doom. They contrast the petty squabbling that destroys the orcs with the commitment to the common goal that leads the Free Peoples to take up the task even when they have lost their leaders.

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