What if the wisest person you know has never had an original abstract thought in his life?

Farmer Maggot barely appears in the movies. In the books, he's a gruff, dog-owning, trespasser-hating farmer who Frodo is more scared of than the Black Riders themselves. Tolkien could have cut him from the story entirely and lost nothing of the plot.

So why didn't he?

The last session in our Forgotten Characters series argues that Farmer Maggot is Tolkien's answer to a question we still haven't figured out: what's the difference between being smart and being wise? JP traces it through Proverbs, through Gandalf's own words about Saruman, and through a character who never once reasons his way to anything; he just knows, in his bones, how the world actually works.

Part of our series working through the characters of The Lord of the Rings at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati where we read fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology looking for the Gospel hiding inside the story.

You don't need to believe anything to belong here. Just bring your curiosity.