Hey, everyone, and welcome to episode 1 of Tolkien Talks! It's happening guys.
It's finally happening. I'm finally reading it! Lord of the Rings being it.
it's happening. I read chapter 1 and now I'm gonna talk about it.
So let's get started with a little recap of chapter 1: A Long Expected Party,
which, as you can see, I have notes on and everything, but I'm not gonna read them
for the recap because if that would be cheating. This is my own show. I make up
my own rules. It's not cheating, but it would take too long.
Keep in mind, I did not read the prologue. I didn't realize there was a prologue
because in this edition there's like a lot of stuff before so I just kept
flipping to chapter 1 instead of seeing what was there before. It was a bunch of
essays and then a prologue, so keep in mind I did not read the prologue, but it
was basically a recap of what happened to Bilbo a little bit and it's a recap
of how the Rings were forged, I believe, because that was the prologue in the
movie as well. Oh, and then it's an explainer on hobbits. That's what the
prologue is. You can read it if you want, I'm not gonna.
So! For the recap. So
basically what happens in chapter 1 is Bilbo Baggins is about to turn eleventy-one, or
111, and he's gonna have a party as all hobbits do in the Shire. All hobbits have
parties and give out gifts so that's basically the whole of it. But there's
more to it, obviously. So the chapter opens with people kind of talking -
first it opens with the narrator talking about Bilbo Baggins and then it jumps to
the shire-folk, the other hobbits, talking about Bilbo and how he hasn't aged and
how enormous his wealth is and how he's such a curious
creature but it's all good. And we get introduced to Sam's dad which is nice. We
never saw any family of Sam's in the movies that was cool to see. Yeah, it's
just a lot of talk about the strange goings-on and how peculiar Bilbo is for
a hobbit. And then it jumps to Gandalf arriving about a month before the party.
All the kids are excited, but Gandalf is strictly there for Bilbo he's
not going to talk to anyone, he's not gonna do anything,
he's on strictly party business. So then he goes and he chats with Bilbo and
Bilbo seems to have a plan of some sort - during - that's going to happen during
the party and it is a joint birthday party with Bilbo and Frodo because they
have the same birthday. So then, that's all of the lead-up to the party and then
the party happens. There are a lot a lot of hobbits invited to the party, and
everyone's very happy with their gifts, but there is some are a little bit
critical, as people are with things that make other people happy, because
they came from out of town, which I do think is an important detail because it
shows that Bilbo is still in contact with out-of-towners, which most people
from the hob- people from the Shire are not in touch with the people from out of
town. And that clearly alludes to Bilbo's adventures in the hobbit and all
of that good stuff. I think that's an important detail that the gifts Bilbo is
giving out are very different than the gifts
hobbits would usually get during one of these parties. So then the party's
happening, everyone's having a grand old time
Gandalf is there doing some fireworks, everyone's finishing up eating, or
filling up the corners, as they call it. I think it's like the post-dessert. It's
like it's like - this is like after like a family friend dinner get-together sort
of thing, like after dinner we've played a few card games we've had some fun and
then like someone's like "so cha, anyone?" and
everyone's like "Yes, we want cha," 'cause that's just how Indians work. And then
everyone's munching on something and drinking some tea and it's a good time.
And that's what it sounds like filling up the corners is. And then Bilbo
gets up and begins his Speech with a capital S and make some backhanded
compliments towards the the hobbits, and the hobbits don't quite get those
compliments. Or or they don't they're not sure whether they're insults or
compliments, which is the point, because I read that sentence three times and I
couldn't get it. Which is Tolkien. He's an English scholar. This is what he
does.
He's [Bilbo's] like I haven't gotten to know half of you as well as I want to
and like is pretty pretty nice even to the Sackville-Bagginses, who lost out on
Bag End pre-book, post-Hobbit. They lost out
to the property of Bag End. He's talking, being fairly nice to people, and
everyone's having a jolly good time and then he's like "despite the fact that I
don't know you as well as I want to and I want to spend more time with you, this
is the end." And then he disappears and then we switch finally to Frodo's
perspective, where Frodo is a bit lost for words. He knew this was gonna happen,
he knew this was the big plan - the big surprise at the end that Bilbo was going
to leave, but all of a sudden he's just filled with so much affection for his
uncle and the person who raised him and he is just quite sad and a little
despondent and he's not talking to any of the party guests or anything. And then
that's all we see of Frodo, and then we cut to the inside of back end again
where Bilbo is preparing to leave he's reappeared in Bag End
no Hobbit has seen him and Gandalf is there and they're talking about his
plans to leave and how Gandalf really wants Bilbo to follow through on all of
his plans and then Gandalf asks about a ring
it's called Lord of the Rings [tapping sounds] Bilbo's like "yeah yeah I put it in this
envelope on the mantle!" and then he's like "oh wait no, it's still in my pocket
but why should I get rid of it it's mine it came to me [gollum voice] my precious." Obviously you
can't hear the voice in this, and I think it it says that it came out in a strange
way but obviously not in this strangled [gollum voice] "my precious" sort of way that we see
with in the movies with a Bilbo at the beginning and then later when we meet
Smeagol / Gollum and that's where the voice comes from. Clearly I've been
influenced by the movies. Could you tell? Could you tell that I really like the
movies? In the end, Gandalf does end up getting the ring out of Bilbo's hands -
I can't remember how - and it ends up in the house
while Bilbo goes away. And then we get to the third act I kind of want to say or I
guess the fourth act. I guess it's still the third because like first act was
talked the lead-up to the party, second act was party and Bilbo disappearing and
the immediate aftermath of that, and then third act is what everyone gets now that
Bilbo is gone, and that's where Frodo inherits basically everything and yeah.
Frodo inherits basically everything but everyone is kind of left happy except
for the Sackville-Bagginses, who got like spoons and then I believe that's the end
of the chapter but let me double-check. [flipping pages] Yeah. Yeah. And in this part we also go
back to Frodo's perspective and we see that Frodo is still just very upset that
his uncle was gone and he he doesn't care about any of the stuff he's
received he just wants his uncle back and he really misses him,
and it's very sweet the end! End Recap. That - that took forever. Yeah, so that is
what happened in the first chapter. It was a lot. A lot happened. Or maybe I just
made it long-winded. But you know what? Tolkien makes it even more long-winded
so it's fine, I think, for me to make it long-winded. So yeah, that's what happened
in Chapter one in Lord - of Lord of the Rings. The way I kind of want to
structure this a little bit is I want to talk about my favorite parts and then my
less favorite parts and then do kind of a literary analysis sort of deal. Iff you
guys listen to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, something kind of like
exploring the book through - the the chapter through a theme or sometimes
looking at a specific passage that I really loved and doing a bit of close
reading literary analysis English major-y things that I really loved doing, and
then I will probably end off on a favorite quote. So first, I want to talk
about my favorite parts of this chapter. So my favorite part was probably sassy
Bilbo. Bilbo is so sassy and so backhanded and he's just - he's very - he's
just so - [frustrated sound] You know in the West Wing when it like Bartlet makes a joke or and or
just like - you know what? Any character in the West Wing 'cause so it's all just like
they're just on another kind of plane of intelligence. And it's all very fast
talking and like. Also Gilmore Girls like their jokes are very fast talking and
it's like a blink and you miss it sort of joke when you're listening to it.
But reading it, you can take your time with it which I really liked and Bilbo
is just - I could just sit and just appreciate the way Tolkien uses language
with Bilbo and how - how we don't hear a lot from Bilbo or even Frodo in this
chapter but we get such a good sense of their character based on
mostly the speech and what Bilbo wrote. So I kind of want to look at the
place where he writes his will. So this is his will where everyone gets
something - and you guys know how wills work why am I explaining this? Actually
all of the things that he was giving away were tagged with what everyone was
getting. So it says - So this is on page 37 of this 50th anniversary
paperback edition so this says "For Abelard took for his very own from Bilbo
on an umbrella Abelard had carried off many unlabeled ones." So it's just like -
It's one of those 'I see you' sort of things. Snd it goes on "'for Dora
Baggins, in memory of a long correspondence. With love, Bilbo.' on a
large waste paper basket. Dora was Droga's sister" ba-pa-ba-pa-ba "She had written reams
of good advice for more than half a century." And Bilbo was giving her a
trash can. Like can you imagine someone writes to you so much advice
would such a love and care, and you the last thing you want them to know about
you, the very last thing - the last memory they'll ever have of you is the
knowledge that you threw out every single thing they wrote to you.
It's savage. And then with the Sackville-Bagginses - He does for one of
those Sackville-Bagginses, he does give spoons because he thought that uh
that she stole all of his spoons so he was like you know what take him and then
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins was obviously offended but still took
'em. So it's just so great and like, aah, I wish I could be that savage.
Sassy Bilbo is [clap] brilliant. So good I probably should should have done the
Hobbit for a Tolkien Talks, shouldn't I .. have. Shouldn't I've? Shouldn't I have? So
the second thing I really loved about this chapter was the way the narrator
shows affection for characters because it's interesting because
the book is told in third-person but it's very clear that the narrator has a
perspective. Because the entire first paragraph is just the the narrator
speaking no one else is talking there's no dialogue there's no internal thought
monologue from anyone else. It's very clear that there is a perspective which
I really like. One way Tolkien actually does this is
with parentheticals. So just the final sentence in the second paragraph, the one
that starts with "Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar," it ends with "There were
some that shook their heads and thought this was too much of a good
thing. It seemed unfair that anyone should possess (apparently) perpetual
youth as well as (reputedly) inexhaustible wealth." It's very clear that the narrator
has some sort of bias just by that sentence. That the narrator is willing to
question what the hobbits believe is fact, what the people of the Shire
believe is fact, which is that he has inexhaustible wealth and that he has
perpetual youth. But it's also interesting that like it's not an
omniscient narrator that knows already about this ring that's giving him the
perpetual youth and his adventures that gave him the inexhaustible fortune. Or
at least the narrator is letting us figure that out ourselves. It's just a
really interesting narrator which I really like. It's also very clear that
the narrator has affection. I'm referring to the narrator as a "he" because there
are no female characters in these books except for like, one or two. And the guy
who wrote this was a guy. So I'm just referring to the narrator as "he" but feel
free to use they/them pronouns or whatever you want for the narrator
because we don't know who the narrator is. I don't believe the narrator becomes
a character. It's still a third-person narrator. It's
clear that he has a lot of affection for the hobbits because of both the things
the narrator chose to quote? I know this sounds weird but bear with me. So the
narrator decides to give voice to Ham Gamgee commonly known as the Gaffer. So
the narrator sides with Bilbo in the sense that he too has affection for Ham
Gamgee because the Gaffer aka Ham Gamgee is talking about Bilbo with affection
and that's the quote the narrator chose to include in the description of the
talkings between the hobbits. Obviously, there's a lot of chatter going around
about Bilbo and what's going on, but the narrator he took - he chose to paint
Ham and Bilbo in favorable lights, despite calling them peculiar at times,
which is why it says "'A very nice well-spoken gentle Hobbit is Mr. Bilbo
as I've always said,' the Gaffer declared." And then this is the narrator
talking, "with perfect truth, for Bilbo was very polite to him, calling him
Master Hamfast and consulting him constantly upon the growing of
vegetables." So this - that little section really - it zones in on how the narrator
just has a slant, has a perspective and sees the good in Bilbo and Ham, because
he chooses to treat them both with more dignity than say the Sackville-Bagginses,
who are just the worst they're greedy they just want Bag-End,
they steal silver spoons and I'm sure the the Sackville-Bagginses
have good things about them too but it's it's very clear that we're already
rooting for Sam Gamgee because of this first introduction of the Gamgees,
which is him speaking nicely about Bilbo. Because Bilbo has always treated him
with respect. Do you see do do you see what's going on
here? I think I think you guys will get it. [sigh] It's much - so this is so much easier
with a round table class and everyone talking at the same time and me just
like raising my hands and doing a little thought and then a little thought there, a
little thought there. It's hard with just a camera, but we're getting through it!
One more thing I wanted to talk about that was interesting, despite me not
reading the prologue, I found the opening of this story the first chapter to be
very similar to the opening of the first Harry Potter book and also many other
Harry Potter books open outside of the real story. So the real story of the
Sorcerer's Stone is obviously Harry discovering he's a wizard and going to
Hogwarts and defeating Professor Quirrell / Voldy. That's the main story
of Harry Potter - and also making friends. That's the main story, but it starts with
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number 4 privet drive were proud to say that they were
perfectly normal, thank you very much." and it describes the day the Potters died
from their perspective of Petunia and Vernon and that's how the story starts.
And it's very interesting that JK Rowling uses that method that Tolkien
uses in this book. The end of the first chapter of Harry Potter is Harry
appearing at their front steps and it's very interesting that the same thing
kind of happens here where this is probably one of the only chapters were
in there Shire and deep in the Shire politics of
Who's strange, who's greedy? And like this is the last time we'll see Ham
Gamgee, you know? Who is officially my favorite character. It's very interesting
that that happens where we're kind of outside of the world that the rest of
the story is going to take place in. But I think it's important because it's a
way into the story for the reader because I can relate to the goings-on of
the Shire. There is like, friendship politics all over the place. With every
friend group, everywhere. Like, I can [incoherent sound] like the gossip is everywhere and that's
the first scene of this book. It's gossip.
It's people chatting about Bilbo and how weird he is and how he's gonna have a
party. Everyone's been there and then everyone's
been at a party and it - as I said before I could so relate to the filling up the
corners thing because that's what we do, that's what brown people do we we eat
food we hang out and then we have like chai and dessert and loads of other
things that's what we do. But, it's a way into the story like with JK Rowling our
way into the story is through the muggles who, whose only wish and only
desire is to be normal and God if I haven't felt that way. They're places
we've all been, although maybe not to that level, where Petunia and Vernon
want to be normal to an extreme, but that's also because Petunia has been
through extreme circumstances, of her sister being a witch. And there's a bit
of an extreme with Bilbo disappearing but we've all had bad experiences at
parties and talked about it the next day, which is what's going on here. This first
chapter could have been a realistic fiction story, were not for the one
wizard in it. If Gandalf weren't there, this this could be the opening to any
story ever. It could have been a murder mystery!
It could have been there was this great party there's loads of gossip in the
town about this party beforehand, and then during the party everyone was
having a grand old time and then the host disappeared! What happened to the
host?! It's a very relatable thing that they both opened with and I thought that
was really interesting and really intelligent - as much as I'm tired of JK
Rowling right now I'll give her props for the original seven Harry Potter book
series I give her props for that. I just kept noticing it while reading
this chapter and I had to talk about it and I love Harry Potter guys it's great.
Oh and I didn't want to talk about another bit of foreshadowing before I
end this this is when Ham Gamgee is talking about his son Sam and how he's
always in Bag End hanging out with his buddy Frodo. "'Elves and Dragons!' I says to
him. 'Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in
the business of your betters or you'll land in trouble too big for you,' I says
to him." Foreshadowing! Sam you're gonna do better
than anyone else. You're the best, Sam. I love you. So now on to my not so
favorite things. One of my not so favorite things is the
Sackville-Bagginses. I kind of felt bad for them this chapter they aren't given
the nicest edit by the narrator. Those of you who watch The Bachelor
franchise like I do, know what an edit means, but for those of you who don't and
edit is when - like a bad edit is when someone is turned into the villain to
fit the storyline even though in real life they may not have been the villain.
They may have just been doing ordinary things maybe some not so good things, but
it's taken to an extreme with the way they are edited to appear on our screens.
And I feel like that's sort of happening with the Sackville-Bagginses and the way
the narrator is including them in this story. We're seeing the version of the
Sackville-Bagginses where all they want is Bag End and they're very greedy and they
steel spoons. However there were moments in here where
I felt bad for the Sackville-Bagginses because they were only invited to this
party to fill out the the amount of people Bilbo wanted at the party.
That's not a great feeling and yeah, maybe you really wanted that house and
that property but - but maybe you moved on and maybe it's Bilbo who's rubbing it in
a little bit, and who keeps rubbing it in and that's why you don't like Bilbo and
you see Frodo as the enemy because you hate Bilbo so much. There are justifications
to the way they are written that aren't in the story that are my brain going ding-ding-ding
I sense a bad edit. It's like Jordan, the male model in the last
season of The Bachelorette. He was a jerk according to us during that whole season
like he seemed awful. But then during Paradise, we saw a whole new side of him
where he was in love with this girl and he was listening to her and it was
beautiful, and I feel like the Sackville-Bagginses deserve a Bachelor
and Paradise Redemption. That's all I'm saying. Oh, this is what happens when I
don't script my videos. The second thing that was kind of my less favorite thing
was also the way the narrator was treating people. I thought it was
frustrating that the narrator kept talking down to the hobbits he was he
was very condescending toward the hobbits, and maybe it's justified maybe
they are just a simple-minded folk and that's all they are.
And given the gravity of the rest of the book I'm sure it makes sense, but
in the context of just this chapter, it's a little unfair. The area that it
frustrated me the most was when Ham Gamgee was talking about the queerness
of Bilbo and how he "drownded." And that's the only
time I'm reading a word that sounds like an English word just slightly altered to
make it sound dumbed down. Everything else is in regular English or yeah,
everything else in this chapter is in regular understandable English except
for that word. And then and then Gaffer says 'oh he drownded.' And then, "'Drownded?'
said several voices. They had heard this and other darker rumors before, of course,
but hobbits have a passion for family history and they were ready to hear it
again."
Aah the narrator's such a jerk in that moment these people are just having
a good time listening to stories that they've heard a million times. I tell
stories a million times people listen to my stories a million times if they're my
friends / family and they have to. And sometimes they enjoy hearing a story
again and again. Like, there's this hilarious story of this one Christmas
and Lata Mangeshkar is involved it's hilarious I've heard this story a
million times and I was there when it happened. It's still hilarious and we're-
people are allowed to enjoy themselves. And it's [sigh] I was just so angry at that
moment. Like, why are you raining on their parade? Why are you stopping them from
having a good time listening to just family history? Why are you stopping them
from doing that, and why are you using that word 'drownded,' dear narrator, when
everything else, every other quotation, every other thing is in regular English.
Like the only reason to use that version of the word drowned is to indicate how
uneducated they are and it frustrates me. It's - it's classist it's what it is. The
narrator is a - pretty classist. Not a little bit classist,
pretty classist. And it's like the way people make fun of AAVE,
african-american vernacular English. it's when people make fun of that type of
language because it's not real grammar and it's not regular grammar and
it's not following all the rules and like guess what? English evolves and
people like - I feel like as long as the person who is listening to you, as long
as your intended audience understands what you are saying, it does not matter
how you talk. To an extent, obviously like be nice to people and all that, but as
long as you're getting the point across, it's fine. It's fine a few sometimes say
words a little differently and I feel like this - the choice to use that term
was judgment placed on the hobbits and it was unfair judgment. I think there's a
lot of fair judgment of the hobbits in in this chapter, but this was an unfair
judgment. End Rant. Ok [sighs of relief] whoo! Exhausting. and I haven't even gotten to the fun part yet
of this, which is a little bit of literary analysis. I think I alluded to
this a little bit during my recap of this but I want to talk about the
concept of wealth in the Hobbit [laugh] [incredulous]The Hobbit. [normal] in the first chapter of Lord of
the Rings. It's getting late guys. A lot of this chapter has to do with wealth. One
of the first things you hear about Bilbo, other than the fact that he is well-preserved,
*before* even the fact that he is well-preserved and that he looks
great for eleventy-one is that he is rich. So let me just read you the first
two sentences. "When mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly
be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special
magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."
So establishing setting, establishing.. you know, that's an
establishing opening sentence. And then. The first description of Bilbo ever:
"Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar and had been the wonder of the shire for
sixty years ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected return."
"Bilbo was very rich" is the first thing we hear about Bilbo Baggins in this book.
And that's very important. I think it's important because, first of all, a lot of
this chapter revolves around the fact that Bilbo is wealthy and the fact that
he's giving things away to people and the fact that this party is magnificent
and there are riches that hobbits haven't seen before. But I also think
it's important because it establishes Frodo's role in Hobbiton. Frodo is the
upper class in Hobbiton. He is the 1%. Frodo is about to be richer than he ever
wanted to be, clearly, because he just wants his uncle back. But it's more than
that. It's establishing that Frodo is a very big fish in this small pond.
Everyone knows who Bilbo Baggins is. Everyone knows he owns Bag End which,
clearly, if the Sackville-Bagginses want it so much, is a pretty nice property.
And everyone knows that he came back with these riches and he hasn't aged at
all and - and Frodo has to be popular because of that. I don't think there's
any talk of like what sort of schooling these people go through when they're
young or anything, but to his fellow peers in grade school or whatever the
equivalent in the Shire is, Bilbo was probably a big deal. Everyone knows about
his his uncle his adoptive father and how rich he is. That's what everyone
knows about him. Bilbo is an eccentric billionaire. Bilbo is like Tony Stark
or [laughing] Mr. Lemoncello. I love that that's the first reference I can think of outside
of Tony Stark because I work at a children's book store. But yes,
actually, I think mr. lemoncello works actually better than Tony Stark.
Because Mr. Lemoncello is an eccentric billionaire who creates a library and
makes a contest that's very Willy Wonka-esque sounds like Bilbo a little
bit, right? Bilbo is the eccentric billionaire of the town he's the richest
guy there everyone wants to be invited to this party. Even the people who are a
little bit skeptical of him. Everyone everyone thinks he's a little weird.
Everyone thinks he's a little cuckoo things are queer up in here. But that
doesn't stop everyone from wanting to be there. That doesn't stop - just
because the Sackville-Bagginses don't like Bilbo doesn't mean they're not
gonna show up and be that last number in the gross that creates the 144 guests.
And that's so important when you think of the fact that later on in the ser- in
the story, Frodo's the one who volunteers to carry
the ring, because he thinks he can do it. Now obviously, we love Frodo. Frodo is
very humble and very sweet, but I think the Frodo
in this book. The Frodo that's being introduced here as the rich nephew and
the sole heir of the Baggins fortune is is the one that volunteers to take the
ring. Not the lovely humble one who just wants to help. Obviously, he also wants to
help, but there's a certain confidence to it that Sam Gamgee does not have, you
know? That Merry and Pippin don't have because they didn't grow up being Frodo
freakin Baggins, King of the Shire. Or the Prince of the Shire, you know. And I just
think that's very important. I was going to do a slightly closer reading of that
but this video is already long enough and I feel like I've given you guys
examples of the wealth in this chapter already I don't think I need to rehash
that, and I think I got my argument across which is the point in an English
paper. This isn't an English paper and I keep having to remember that. This is a
YouTube video. And it's just me chatting at my phone camera [siren starts] with a siren in the
background at 11 p.m.
Alright so yes, things are important. And finally I think you guys know my
favorite quote from this chapter already but this I I do want to end every
episode on my favorite quotation from the chapter. So. My favorite quotations
[singing] from this chapter. [normal] So this is on page 22 of my 50th anniversary one volume
paperback. So this is my favorite quotation from the chapter. "'But what
about this Frodo that lives with him,' asked Old Nokes of Bywater. 'Baggins is
his name, but he's more than half a Brandybuck, they say. It beats me why any
Baggins of Hobbiton should go looking for a wife away there in Buckland where
folks are so queer.' 'And no wonder they're queer,' put in Daddy Two-foot, the Gaffer's
next-door neighbor. 'If they live on the wrong side of the Brandywine River and
right agin the Old Forest. that's a dark bad place if half the tales be true.'
'You're right, dad,' said the Gaffer, 'Not that the Brandybucks of Buckland live
in the Old Forest, but they're a queer breed seemingly they fool about with
boats on that big river, and that isn't natural.'
'Small wonder that trouble came of it, I say." Yeah, yeah. So much queerness already.
[singing] It's so beautiful! [normal] I love it. So far I'm really enjoying this reread. I am
looking forward to chapter two. So guys I will see you again in two weeks for
chapter two of Lord of the Rings let's see what it's called. [flipping pages] What are you called?
What are you called? What are you called? What are you called? The long-expected party
it's pretty long. You are called, "The Shadow of the Past." But yeah, I will see
you guys next time. Guys, this is so much fun.
Alright. Bye! Special thanks to Jay Patel John E. Norem, Carl Reimann, Shrenik
Shah, and Chris Lawrence for being my patrons. If you would like to support my
video work, head on over to my patreon and check out the perks.
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