The Prancing Pony Podcast

Episode 388 – All You Need is Love (Maybe)
Air Date: November 2, 2025
Hosts: Alan Sisto (A) & Sara Brown (B)
Special Guest: Jack “Jersey Jack” Guarnieri (C), Jersey Jack Pinball

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the fifth installment of a ten-part deep read on the story of Aldarion and Erendis from Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. Alan and Sara examine the warped love, communication breakdowns, and tragic misunderstandings in this famously troubled relationship, set against the lush backdrop of Númenor’s golden age. The hosts move from wisecracks and puns to incisive textual analysis, wrestling with themes of longing, loyalty, the price of progress, and the clash between personal desire and societal expectation.

Halfway through, Alan and Sara chat with “Jersey Jack” from Jersey Jack Pinball about the making of the 2014 Hobbit pinball machine, detailing the adaptation process of Middle-earth to arcade form.

Key Segments

1. Welcome & Series Context

[04:01-06:15]

• Alan opens with humor, referencing sleeplessness and self-effacing jokes about podcasting and Tolkien nerdery.
• Sara (“Shield Maiden of Rohan”) introduces the episode's main reading focus: the long and contentious betrothal/marriage of Aldarion and Erendis in Unfinished Tales.
• The hosts underscore their blend of deep lore, speculation, and light, pub-like banter:
  “While we take the work seriously, the same cannot be said about ourselves. We’re just a couple of friends chatting at the pub.” (B, 05:25)

2. Special Guest Interview: Pinball, Adaptation, and Middle-earth

[06:15–19:44]

The Hobbit Pinball Machine: Challenges & Lore

• Getting the License: Jack recounts winning the rights from Warner Brothers, rooted in his company’s success with Wizard of Oz.
• Adapting Three Films into One Game:
  “When I got it, it was two movies, and then somewhere in the middle, it became three movies. So it changed everything.” (C, 07:24)
• Physical and Digital Immersion: The game features custom speech, extensive audio and movie clips, and a wide-body cabinet to convey cinematic scope.
• Secret Struggles & Redesigns:
  “The big secret of the whole three movies was what is Smaug gonna look like?... We had to redesign the game. It took another year and a million dollars.” (C, 10:16–11:22)
• Adaptation Philosophy:
  “We stayed true to the story. We didn’t ad lib or add anything that wasn’t in the story.” (C, 13:47)
• Mechanical Marvels & Thematic Design: Resettable drop targets echoing the tactile lore, with every detail scrutinized by Warner Brothers.
  “Every week you have a phone conference with the stakeholders... Every square inch of the game is scrutinized.” (C, 15:46–16:14)
• Future Projects & Storytelling Needs:
  “We’re storytellers, basically. We’re telling the story through the game.” (C, 18:29) “You got to create a whole story... It takes longer to do that than even licensing something. So you’re better off licensing great property.” (C, 18:55)
• Link for Locating Machines:
  “You can go to Pinball Map, pinballmap.com.” (C, 19:34)

3. Close Reading: Aldarion & Erendis – The Betrothal’s Breaking Point

[19:52–84:57]

The Long-Awaited Conversation

[19:53–37:44]

• Eldarion, longing for the sea, plans another voyage despite his betrothal to Erendis. When she expects talk of marriage, he instead proposes another trip, suggesting she join him as queen—but at sea, which she dreads.
  • “It shall be now, he said. It shall be before this year is done. And then I will fit out such a ship... and you shall sail with me, Erendis, under the grace of the Valar...” (A reading, 21:29)
• Erendis responds with grief:
  • “But I shall never see [those lands], for I do not desire it. To the woods of Númenor my heart is given ... out of sight of land I should die. The sea hates me. And now it is revenged that I kept you from it...” (B reading, 21:48)
• Alan and Sara reflect on Aldarion’s self-absorption and Erendis’s fortitude and clarity:
  • “Why am I not surprised that even though it’s now been four years since they’ve been betrothed, Aldarion’s first topic of conversation is not the wedding... his first subject is himself.” (A, 22:23)
  • "She ends instead with a request to have pity on her. Please don’t make me wait as long as I’ve had to wait before." (A, 34:55)

Six Years’ Absence and Númenor’s Growing Discontent

[43:52–66:11]

• Aldarion delays his voyage for a year, then sails, leaving Erendis with little choice. Six years pass before his return, during which he is delayed both by disaster (the ruin of Vinyalondë, hostility from Middle-earth’s men, “rumors of some lord... who hated the men of the ships” [i.e., Sauron, 59:10]) and storms.
  • “He found even Almarian the Queen colder in welcome. And the venturers were fallen out of esteem, for men thought that he had treated Erendis ill.” (B, 45:50)
  • “The bough was covered in frost... I saw that it was withered.” (A, 45:50)
• Sara & Alan explore the growing theme of colonial harm and its consequences, drawing parallels with real world histories:
  • “When a bunch of people land in ships and then just destroy the woods, the forests around you... It’s gonna make you grumpy, right?” (B, 54:39)

Reunion & Emotional Reckoning

[66:25–80:29]

• Upon his return, Aldarion is at a loss for words. Erendis is pointed but polite, prompting him to defend the reasons for his extended absence. She accepts his explanations but notes the cost (“I thank them also that I did not come with you, for I should have withered sooner than any green bough.”).
  • “It is not yet chilled to the death, Aldarion. Alas, how can I dismiss you when I look on you again, returning as fair as the sun after winter. Then let spring and summer now begin, he said. And let not winter return, said Erendis.” (B reading, 67:03)
• The analogy of her love to the evergreen oilë tree is discussed (“her love is not yet chilled to the death”), foreshadowing future heartbreak.

4. The Wedding and Gifts from the Eldar

[82:56–110:48]

The Festivities & Elven Presence

[82:56–98:18]

• After 12 years of betrothal, Aldarion and Erendis are married in grand style—parades, music, and legendary feasts across Númenor, climaxed by a celebration in Andúnië attended by the Eldar.
  • “none were more fair than Erendis. And they said that her eyes were as bright as were the eyes of Morwen, Elethwen of old, or even as those of Avalonné.” (B reading, 84:57)
• Alan and Sara break down the symbolism of Erendis’s beauty, connecting her to Morwen, and muse on the presence of Noldorin and Telerin elves, and the gifts they bring.

The Gifts: Symbolism & Division

[98:23–110:48]

• The Elves bestow two central gifts:

  • To Aldarion:
    A sapling whose wood is untested. Aldarion’s first thought is its value as timber, missing its true beauty—a reflection of his priorities. “The wood of such a tree must be precious indeed. Maybe we know not, said they. None has ever been hewn.” (A reading, 100:52)
  • To Erendis:
    A pair of birds, inseparable and only singing together, symbolizing unity; the elves assure her they will never need caging. “If one were separated from the other at once they flew together, and they would not sing apart.” (A reading, 104:10)

• Sara draws out the pointed symbolism:

  • “If you are together, if you are singing in harmony... But should anything happen, then silence.” (B, 105:19)

• Symbolic Placement: The birds follow Erendis wherever she goes; together with the tree, their new home is adorned with these symbols of hope and harmony.
  “There the elven tree was planted, and the elven birds sang in its boughs.” (A reading, 110:03)

5. Analysis, Discussion & Listener Questions

Commentary on Tradition vs Progress

[112:06–115:52]

• Listener William from Missouri asks:
  How does the story explore the tension between tradition and progress in Númenor?

  • Alan and Sara dissect Númenor’s balance between Aldarion's drive for global expansion/technological progress and Erendis’s advocacy for natural preservation and rootedness.
    Duality in Númenor’s fate is foreshadowed—its progress is both salvation and downfall: “Colonialism could be couched in Aldarian’s terms as being progress... But of course, this is the slippery slope down which Numenor will eventually, to torture the metaphor, sink.” (B, 115:18)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“My shocked face, yes.”
(B, 22:54 – On Erendis's suppressed frustration with Aldarion’s self-absorption.)

“She ends instead with a request to have pity on her. Please don’t make me wait as long as I’ve had to wait before. That’s very reasonable... It’s more than he deserves.”
(A&B, 34:55)

“If one were separated from the other at once they flew together, and they would not sing apart.”
(A reading, 104:10 – The birds as an emblem of marital unity.)

“Aldarion catches that and he says it’s time for those warm weather seasons to begin. — 'Spring and summer.' — 'Oh yes. Yes. Because yay. I haven’t messed this up 100%'”
(A&B, 78:11)

“This is Aldarion we are talking about, a man who is so self focused...So self serving and self centered and many other things beginning with self”
(B, 26:09 – Summing up Aldarion’s tragic flaws.)

“Vignolande, hostile men, rumors of Sauron. But then he runs into bad weather again... Interesting, right, that everything seems to be against him.”
(B, 62:35)

“The caging of songbirds was thought an unkind deed...for those that were tame...would, for generations, dwell near the same house.”
(A, 107:48 – Quoting The Nature of Middle-earth for context.)

“He cannot appreciate the natural beauty of the tree for its own self. He can only think of how he might put it to use.”
(B, 101:20—On Aldarion's inability to see value beyond utility.)

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------------|------------------| | Main theme, episode intro | 04:01–06:15 | | Jersey Jack Pinball interview | 06:15–19:44 | | Aldarion & Erendis argument/betrothal impasse | 19:53–37:44 | | Aldarion’s six-year absence, colonial critique | 43:52–66:11 | | Reunion & emotional reckoning | 66:25–80:29 | | Wedding and Elven gifts | 82:56–110:48 | | Tradition vs. Progress listener question | 112:06–115:52 |

The Prancing Pony Podcast Tone

True to PPP tradition, Alan and Sara combine meaty, deep-diving textual exegesis with wry British and American wit, puns, and asides (“That flapping you hear is just the red flags in the breeze”). They shift with ease between scholarly discussion, listener empathy (“You, dear reader, will know what’s coming...”), and collective groans at the interminable Aldarion/Erendis saga (“So it’s only been 69 years since they first met, so…what’s the rush?”).

Summary

This episode masterfully interlaces an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at Middle-earth’s adaptation into popular culture (via pinball!) with a wise and sometimes scathing unpacking of one of Tolkien’s most psychologically acute stories. Aldarion and Erendis’s love story—riven by misaligned desires, incommunicable needs, and societal change—is dissected for both its human drama and its symbolic value, with the hosts teasing out every glimmer of metaphor in Tolkien’s layered prose. The elven presence at the wedding, their gifts, and the hosts’ chorus of exasperation at Aldarion’s foibles, all paint a picture at once beautiful, tragic, and darkly funny—a quintessential PPP experience.

For More

• Pinball locations: pinballmap.com
• Further reading: The Unfinished Tales, “Aldarion and Erendis”; Nature of Middle-earth; The Lord of the Rings (for Morwen and Lothlórien flower references)
• Next episode: The arrival of Ancalimë, and (predictably) Aldarion’s next departure...

End of Summary