Scholars, critics, and readers of The Lord of the Rings have identified and discussed many of its themes in the decades since its publication. This episode is my take on several themes I read into Tolkien’s most popular work. It focuses on the first two books (The Fellowship of the Ring) and explores concepts such as the corruptive influence of Power and the One Ring, Tolkien’s use of Mythology, and a world in decline. It is the first of several episodes dedicated to exploring Tolkien’s themes.
This video is a re-uploaded version of the original due to a request from an artist not to use his work. Everything about the video is the same as the original except for the removal of one image and an added quote from Borormir I put back into the video.
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► Chapters:
0:00 – The Red Book Podcast Introduction
1:30 – The Fellowship of the Ring: Tolkien’s Themes
3:57 – Preface: Allegory, Symbolism, and Interpretation
5:49 – The Corruption of Power
23:18 – Interlude
23:48 – Good & Evil
30:55 – Mythology & History
34:16 – A World In Decline
37:35 – Home
40:17 – Friendship
44:08 – Artist Credits
45:18 – The Red Book Podcast Outro
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► Patreon & YouTube Membership Support:
A shout-out and massive thank you to those supporting The Red Book project on Patreon and through YouTube memberships.
Support the channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRedBook
Support the channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPOz2P0OxWp0ij0K4BsLsRw/join
Red Book Merch: https://www.redbookmerch.com
The Valar:
Oliver Flanagan (Melkor), Dovid Nachshon Albright, Joel Bion, Victus Shmmidtt (Mandos), Aelynn (Nienna), Grant Erickson (Tulkas)
The Istari:
Moses Gunn (Alatar), Lorden (Gandalf)
The Elves:
fet mar, Master of Dungeons (Círdan), John Piccolini, Miranda, Kevin Blanchard, Terry Stewart
Thorin’s Company:
Ryan Lampton (Balin), Peaches (Glóin), Plagueis (Dwalin), Alexander Prähauser (Bombur)
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All videos are the result of my research into the works of Tolkien. I do not claim the rights to any audiobooks, music, or artwork used in my videos. All scripts and editing are my own work. All artwork chosen is used with written permission from copyright holders or is pending approval. The Lord of the Rings Audiobook has been used with the permission of its creator Phil Dragash: https://phildragash.com/ & https://twitter.com/PhilDragash. Its use is for educational and entertainment purposes.
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► Podcast:
The Red Book Podcast can be found on Spotify:(https://open.spotify.com/show/1ie7z2PKCBJVpk1U8bk2Qo)
Listen to this episode on Spotify:
(https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nfrisvKQMnwVzR2IC3jdI?si=fce845912cd64308)
Listen to the Podcast on other platforms:
(https://anchor.fm/red-book)
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► Artwork:
All artists, images, and links to sources are found by following the link below. If you would like to see your artwork appear in videos or discuss the use of your artwork on the channel, please get in touch.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O6rb0RMqVeacKkOHPt0wnkGawz6Mg6cYxR88GdR-lSc/edit?usp=sharing
Maps used with permission from The Encyclopedia of Arda – https://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.asp
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► Thumbnail:
Saruman – AlMaNeGrA/Fantasy Flight Games (deviantart.com/almanegra)
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► Audio:
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Mittelalterliche Liebe by Frank Schröter
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9366-mittelalterliche-liebe
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frank.schroeter.52
Music: Thunderbird by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/4527-thunderbird
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://incompetech.com
#tolkien #lotr #fellowship #legendarium
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My favourite type of content to make: Tolkien analysis. I hope you enjoyed this one. I cut about 25 minutes from it but that could work its way into another thematic analysis episode. I may do TTT and ROTK then a final one that just discusses themes I left out from all 3. We shall see.
My community post explains why this was re-uploaded (https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx4lWaiXgJdfby-2wJFE6_lydteo5sADSt)
You can find the Podcast on Spotify at (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3hLnlP7uFGWsZrqWD4bmGi?si=b4605e0964cb4822)
Or you can find it on other platforms at (https://anchor.fm/red-book)
You can get early access to Podcast episodes and videos by joining Patreon (https://patreon.com/theredbook) or checking out YouTube membership on my homepage.
Ooh, nice. Like button activated before I listen. Go, Red Book!👍🌷
Is this a repost of the video you posted last week?
Running this and commenting for the algorithm. I hope you're doing well TRB. 🙌
Watching it again!
Love it.
Top quality Tolkien talk as always.
this one is better than the first one👌
Yes, please consider doing more chapters to this series! I loved it.
Time to watch this again, great video as always
Young Gandalf Team💪
The topic of "the corruption of power" is one of my favorites and perhaps one of the best discussion points to be found in LOTR, and Tolkien's ME writings. Unfortunately I think that we are mostly confined to examination of the written texts as I find the popular film adaptations lack much of what Tolkien wished to express on this topic.
The theme of friendship by contrast, does come across in the films, so I don't think they are a bad introduction to ME and the legendarium.
I'd love to see a video on your collection, or even just your preffered editions and versions of the books. ✌️
I loved this. Thank you. The depth of Tolkien's themes is an undercovered topic even though it's the most important to understanding his work. I'd request covering the theme of faith and trust in doing the thing motivated by virtue, even when it seems like it will lead to hurt or disaster. For example, to any sensible person Boromir's argument was right: the quest was hopeless and it was a fool's errand. The ring was being taken to Sauron, he would recover it, and the free world would fall to him. To all sense, Gollum should have been killed, if not by Bilbo then by Sam and Frodo. To all sense, Aragorn should have followed Frodo and left Merry and Pippin to their fates. Frodo should never have volunteered to go to Mordor, as he was the weakest and least likely to succeed. In each case, Tolkien allows the characters to make seemingly bad decisions motivated by nothing more than faith that eschewing some corrupt motive and trusting in the path laid out by some virtue would work out in the end, in some unforeseeable way. I think the tale gets most of it's beauty and power ultimately from this theme.
This is one my my favourite videos you've made. I haven't read the trilogy since 2010 when I was in 8th grade and I'm reading The Fall of Númenor before I start it again. I love listening to podcasts like these to pair strongly with my love of literary analysis. All your videos on Sauron and the One Ring are very enjoyable to me as last year I bought the 1:1 movie ring replica from Jens Hansen and I wear it around my neck every day.
I feel one of the strongest messages of The Lord of The Rings is the concept of change. You can never go back to how things were. So true of real life, and reminds us to cherish what we have while we have. But also, to try to find acceptance of the inevitability of change, and make the world a better place while you can. We all contribute to that change, for good or ill. Frodo ultimately made the world better, and so can we.
Making sure you get the view and comment you deserve, sir!
Thank you!
Great podcast for the algorithm.
Great video and commentary. It'll be great to hear a breakdown of major themes by book, but once you've covered all three individually, I think it would also be worthwhile to both revisit themes that didn't fit nicely into any specific one as well as cover themes that span across the entire story. As far as I recall, Tolkien had wanted LOTR to be one collection, so I would imagine the book-by-book dissection will cause a fair amount of arbitrary disjuncts (e.g., not being able to reference Denethor on this video). Thanks for the content!
I can't imagine anyone reading LOTR and finding it simplistic. Yes, there was clear good and evil. But there were always complex personalities and motives.