Throughout the Lord of the Rings, there are many works of a mysterious, wonderous and, despite Tolkien’s dislike of the concept, magical nature; the Elven blades that light in the prescence of Orcs, the staffs of the Wizards, and most prominent of all the One Ring. This weekend, the Hall of Fire is host to a discussion on a chapter from the Two Towers based on another one of these amazing objects from the history of Middle-earth:
Book III, Chapter XI: The Palant’r
When Wormtongue throws a black orb out from Saruman’s chamber in Orthanc to the ground below, no-one pays heed to it save Pippin who becomes immeaditely interested by it. Later that night when Gandalf and the rest of the company rest on their way to Edoras, Pippin finds a way to take the orb from Gandalf’s grasp and finally gets a chance to peer into it’s dark depths. What he gazes upon within it however is something he would ever desire to see. Soon, it becomes clear what the nature of the orb is: a palant’r.
This chapter not only gives us great insight into the nature of the palant’r, a mysterious and powerful creation from times before the Third Age, but also highlights the strength and resolve of Hobbits. We also see Aragorn take one step closer to accepting his destiny as he receives the palant’r from Gandalf. Join us this weekend for what should be a great discussion!
Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here.
Jennie writes: Here’s a link to an article in the Style section of today’s Washington Post about “The Far Side of the World”, the movie Billy Boyd (Pippin) is currently working on in Rosarita, Mexico. [