This Saturday at 6pm ET, Hall of Fire rejoins the four Hobbits on the Barrows Downs as we resume our Fellowship of the Ring read-through.
‘Splendid!’ said Frodo. ‘If we make as good going this afternoon as we have done this morning, we shall have left the Downs before the Sun sets and be jogging on in search of a camping place.’
FoTR Book 1, Chapter 7: Fog on the Barrow-Downs
Unfortunately for the four, dense fog closes in while they nap after lunch by an ancient standing stone on a bare hill. They lose each other in the clammy, misty conditions and fall into deadly peril when a Barrow-wight captures them.
Tom proves the saviour, but what of Frodo’s desperate, frightened courage? Is it here that we begin to see the inner-strength and determination that will later carry him and his burden all the way to Mordor? And what would have possibly happened if he had put on the Ring?
What of the Barrow-wights? What are they? Why do they hoard gold and jewellry? Who is the dark lord the Wight refers to? And what brought them to the downs? And just how much more do we learn about Middle-earth’s long, and often tragic, history here?
So us this Saturday, June 23 at 6.00pm ET (New York time), when we’ll discuss all this and much more as we continue our Fellowship of the Ring read-through!
The Barrow Downs by Alex Lioce.
Time zone conversions
Not sure what time the chat will be where you are? Our handy conversion table can help! Alternatively, this event announcement on Time and Date will tell you when it’s on in your city.
America:
6.00pm ET (New York)
5.00pm CT (Chicago)
4.00pm MT (Denver)
3.00pm PT (Los Angeles)
Europe:
11.00pm GMT (London)
Midnight CEST (Paris)
1.00am EEST (Helsinki)
Asia-Pacific
9.00am AEST (Sunday) Brisbane,
10.00am AEDT (Sunday) Sydney, Melbourne
Midday NZDT (Sunday) Wellington
How long do your topic chats go for?
Our chats usually last 45 mins to an hour, and are very newbie friendly. Simply drop in and join the conversation! However, our main room, #theonering.net is open 24 hours a day. We don’t always talk Tolkien there, but if you have a burning question, you’ll usually find one or two of “the regulars” up for a chat!
Where — connection details
Chat happens on #thehalloffire on irc.theonering.net — the TORn IRC server. You can connect instantly using our Mibbit client that works inside your web browser.
Alternatively, you can install a dedicated chat program such as mIRC on your computer and just plug in the following connection details.
Server: irc.theonering.net
Port: 6667
Channel: #thehalloffire
