Continuing “Tolkien Month”, in today’s episode I spoke with John and Greta Carswell from “The Tolkien Road” podcast, focussing on Tolkien’s work, The Silmarillion.
S3E43: “After Hours” with The Tolkien Road (Download)
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Time Stamps
00:00:00 – Introductory music
00:00:11 – Welcome
00:00:23 – Introducing John and Greta
00:02:59 – Drink-of-the-week
00:04:54 – Quote-of-the-week
00:05:22 – Patreon Toast
00:05:40 – John and Greta
00:07:03 – Discovering Tolkien
00:11:10 – Loving Tolkien
00:17:17 – Why start a podcast?
00:22:51 – How have you changed?
00:29:14 – John’s books
00:35:14 – Tolkien Reading tips
00:39:57 – Reading The Silmarillion
00:45:45 – Greta’s first impressions
00:50:05 – Silmarillion Overview
00:58:29 – Silmarillion Resources
01:03:55 – LTROnPrime
01:13:31 – “This vs. That” Quiz
01:23:56 – The Tolkien Road Info
01:24:26 – “Last Call” Bell
01:26:09 – Closing Remarks
YouTube Version
After Show Skype Session
Show Notes
• I shared some biographical details about John, Greta, and their podcast:
The Tolkien Road podcast was Launched in early 2015. On the show, co-hosts John & Greta Carswell journey chapter-by-chapter through The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, as well as Tolkien’s other works…often with the help of a few haikus. John has written several books about Tolkien. He is the author of Tolkien’s Overture, an exploration of Middle-earth’s creation story and the role of music in Tolkien’s tales. He has also written Tolkien’s Requiem, which is a contemplative journey through Tolkien’s most personal and pivotal Middle-earth tale, the story of Beren and Lúthien.
Biographical Details
• Since John and Greta often read haikus on their podcast, I welcomed them with one of my own compositions:
John, Greta, David
An unexpected party
Three is company
Opening Haiku
• My drink-of-the-week was PG Tips tea.
• The quote-of-the-week was road-related and came from Mere Christianity:
If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
• I toasted one of our Patreon supporters:
Daniel, since we’re talking about roads, may you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far…
Toast for Daniel
• To kick things off, I asked John and Greta to tell us a bit more about themselves. I asked them when they first discovered Tolkien and what it is they love about his work.
• I asked about the motivation to start a Tolkien podcast and how doing the podcast has changed their appreciation of Tolkien?
More Tolkien art can be found here.
• John had written two books about Tolkien: Tolkien’s Overture and Tolkien’s Requiem. He suggested that people read his works after they’ve read Tolkien’s.
• I asked them about their general advice for reading Tolkien.
• We then dug into Tolkien’s Silmarillion, it’s background and composition. We spoke about their first impression of The Silmarillion and why so many people struggle with this work. John and Greta gave us an overview of the work, so we can understand Tolkien’s framework.
• We spoke about tips and some traps we can fall into when reading The Silmarillion.
• John introduced us to the resources he has been working on to help people read The Silmarillion.
• We discussed Amazon Prime’s upcoming Middle Earth offering.
• I then gave John and Greta the “Tolkien Month” Pop Quiz:
- Tea or Coffee?
- Elves or Dwarves?
- Early Bird or Night Owl?
- Gandalf or Radagast?
- Call or text?
- Tom Bombadil: Wonderful or Wretched?
- iPhone or Android?
- Pippin or Merry?
- Shelob or Nazgul?
- Second Breakfast or Elevenses?
- Boromir or Faramir?
- Balrogs: Wings or wingless?
- Bagels or croissants?
- The movies or the book?
- Arwen or Eowyn?
- Rivendell or Lothlorien?
- Gollum or Jar Jar Binks?
- Tolkien or Lewis?
• More information at the Tolkien Road website. You can find out more Tolkien’s Overture and Tolkien‘s Requiem.
• I closed the episode with another haiku:
Tolkien and Lewis
Lovers of myth and legend
A great fellowship
Closing Haiku
