We are going on an adventure! Love The Lord of the Rings? Why not read along with us as we consider the books from the writer's point of view! Taking it chapter by chapter, novelist Julia Golding will reveal new details that you might not have noticed and techniques that will only go to increase your pleasure in future re-readings of our favourite novel. Julia also brings her expert knowledge of life in Oxford and English culture to explain some points that might have passed you by.

(00:35) Introducing “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”
(02:40) Turning Away from the Black Gate
(06:50) Entering Ithilien and the Return of Hope
(10:40) Ruins, Lost Landscapes, and Tolkien’s Sense of History
(12:20) Ithilien as Tolkien’s Poetic Garden
(17:20) Sam’s Hunger and the Comic Relief of Cooking
(19:00) Sam’s Love for Frodo
(20:10) Rabbits, Hobbit Culture, and Sam’s Travelling Kitchen
(22:00) Gollum, Potatoes, and the Clash of Tastes
(26:00) The Cooking Fire and the Arrival of Faramir’s Men
(31:00) Faramir, Boromir, and the Hidden Rangers of Gondor
(36:30) The Skirmish in Ithilien and Sam’s First Sight of an Oliphaunt
(42:30) Wonder, Danger, and the Chapter’s Lasting Charm

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