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The Prancing Pony Podcast

417 – I Am a Rock

14 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the significance of the watchstone brought to Barach's house?

0.031 - 13.137 Jack Wilson

Hello, this is Jack Wilson, the host of the History of Literature podcast. For the past 10 years, I've been talking to novelists, biographers, and scholars about the greatest books in the history of the world and the men and women who wrote them.

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13.818 - 32.08 Jack Wilson

Like our recent episodes on Dante and Love, a starter pack of 10 Indian classics, the pop culture that influenced Sylvia Plath, and a talk with scientist and novelist Alan Lightman about the wonders of nature. Join us at the History of Literature podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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32.65 - 46.329 Ashley Johnson

What happens when two people who grew up in a very strange corner of Los Angeles look back and realize just how bizarre their upbringings really were? They start a podcast, of course. I'm Ashley Johnson. And I'm Taliesin Jaffe.

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46.349 - 54.22 Don Marshall

Before we became the internet people we are today, we spent our childhoods as working actors, appearing in shows like Growing Pains and films like Mr. Mom.

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54.2 - 63.993 Ashley Johnson

In our podcast, Weird Kids, we're diving deep into our unique upbringings, our friendship with each other, and all the delightfully odd interests we still carry with us today.

Chapter 2: How do Aghan and Barach react to the threat of orcs?

64.573 - 73.525 Don Marshall

In each episode, we get to share stories of our youth, the things that bring us joy, the problems that we face, and occasionally, the friends we've collected along the way.

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73.657 - 80.433 Ashley Johnson

If you're a misfit, an outcast, or just a weirdo who loves all things nostalgic and unconventional, come take a seat at our table.

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80.453 - 113.83 Don Marshall

Each week, we'll be releasing previously members-only episodes on YouTube and all major podcast platforms, with new episodes dropping exclusively and ad-free on Beacon.tv. Good evening, little masters, and welcome to episode 417 of the Prancing Pony podcast, where Don has brought me ill news and must leave me for a while. But don't worry, though.

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114.05 - 131.813 Don Marshall

I have set up watchstones that happen to look just like me. Folks, pull up a bench in the common room and join us. I am Don Marshall, the obscure Lord of the Rings facts guy, and I am here with the man of the West who might want to avoid looking too closely at that watchstone, Mr. Alan Sesto. That's right.

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131.833 - 136.862 Don Marshall

I understand, Don, that you have left it with some of your powers, but I think that means it can just tell old jokes.

Chapter 3: What lessons do we learn from Aghan's experience with the watchstone?

138.184 - 161.323 Don Marshall

Anyway, folks, join us as we study one of the tales of Marvel about the Druidine and conclude our two-episode look at these mysterious folk from their chapter in Unfinished Tales and conclude this season's far too short five-episode run with my friend Don Marshall. It has been far too short a time, but I have always been glad to be here and look forward to hopefully coming back one day.

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162.424 - 180.09 Don Marshall

Folks, no matter whether you came to Middle Earth through the books, the films, the TV show, or something else, each of you is welcome here in our common room. The Prancing Pony podcast continues in our 10th season of reading and talking our way through Middle Earth with conversations, digressions, and even speculations.

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180.07 - 198.171 Don Marshall

Not to mention a few puns and bad jokes here and there, but our purpose is to dive deep into the lore, to discuss the story, talk about our favorite characters and themes, sometimes Tolkien's inspirations, and a whole lot more. And while we take the work seriously, the same, as you can probably already tell, cannot be said of ourselves.

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198.311 - 216.439 Don Marshall

We are just a couple of friends acting like we're chatting at a pub. We're so glad you've joined us. And I'm sure you'll be glad you joined as well. But before we get to today's chapter discussion, it's time to sit down with friend of the show, and if I'm being honest, a big inspiration behind the start of the show, the Tolkien professor himself, Dr. Corey Olson.

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Chapter 4: What are the characteristics and culture of the Drúedain?

216.479 - 236.191 Don Marshall

Welcome, Corey. Welcome back, I should say. Oh, always glad to be here with you guys. Great. Well, this episode is going to be releasing on June 14th. In less than two weeks, I'm going to be seeing you at the Enigmatic National Conference Center, also known as Moria Part 2, for the 13th annual Myth Moot.

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236.612 - 249.033 Don Marshall

Folks, if you're not going to be joining us in person, be sure to register for the online version. But I want to ask you about an even more special moot. Kiwi moot. It's sold out this year and man, it sold out before I could even think about getting a ticket.

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Chapter 5: How does Tolkien portray the relationship between the Drúedain and other peoples?

249.053 - 266.193 Don Marshall

Are you planning to host? That's the thing. So are you planning on doing it again? Tell us about this bucket list moot and how we can be ready for the next time. Definitely. Okay. So Kiwi Moot. So on the one hand, Kiwi Moot itself. So there's the moot itself. And then there's some extra experiences that we're building into it.

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Chapter 6: What parallels can be drawn between the Drúedain and other races in Middle-earth?

266.233 - 285.706 Don Marshall

So the moot itself is a rotation of our annual Oz Moot meeting. So we've been doing a three-day moot in Australia for the last few years. And there's a really wonderful community of Tolkien fans down in Australia and New Zealand who have really come together to Um, and Osmoot has been this really wonderful thing. Well, this year it's, it's been rotating around.

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285.726 - 304.623 Don Marshall

We've done Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne, and we did Canberra last year and it's Wellington this coming year. So when that rolled around on the, you know, we were like, you know, we're going to do a mood in Wellington. Let's like do some extra stuff. So what we did was I need to, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the Druidine's magical powers?

304.643 - 325.041 Don Marshall

I've never been, I've never been to New Zealand myself. So I'm like, okay, let's, let's do this. So what we're doing is our Osmoot people in particular have been helping us to organize this. What we're doing is not a tour so much as a group vacation with really fun, like-minded Tolkien fans, basically. Yeah. my dream come true. It's so good. It's so good.

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325.061 - 329.467 Don Marshall

So, I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be low key. It's going to be, you know, it's not going to be fancy.

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Chapter 8: How does the episode conclude the discussion on the Drúedain?

329.487 - 341.763 Don Marshall

So with this, which also means by the way, it's as affordable as we can possibly make it. We can't do anything about airline prices, but it's not costing a very great deal to go on this trip. And the trip is two weeks long.

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341.863 - 354.344 Don Marshall

So we're doing about four or five days before the moat on the North Island, which includes, uh, we're doing a dedicated, like we have the whole green dragon for an evening for, uh, a banquet together on the Hobbiton set.

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354.886 - 374.93 Don Marshall

And then we're, after the four days traveling around doing cool stuff on the North Island, we're going to the Moot in Wellington and we're gonna be there for the long weekend and we have really wonderful activities for the Moot. And then after the moot, we're going to fly down to the South Island and then we're going to tour the South Island for another week. And we're going to tons and tons.

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374.99 - 385.645 Don Marshall

Again, this is all just like driving. We're going to be driving in like 12 passenger vans together. And then we're going to be getting out. We're going to be hiking. I've already promised one of the attendees that I'd carry her up Mount Doom.

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387.067 - 387.147

Wow.

388.055 - 409.884 Don Marshall

She was like, I don't know if I want to hike up there. I'm like, it's okay, Dizzy, I'll carry you. So anyway, so also I've met her and she's very hobbit-like. So I'm confident I could carry her up if I needed to. It's not a rash vow. But anyway. It's going to be a really, really fun time, you know, going around and doing stuff. Maggie and Ben from Signum Studios are coming.

410.064 - 428.902 Don Marshall

And so we're going to be, I don't even know what we're going to be filming, but we're going to be filming some stuff also while we're down there and in Wellington before and afterwards. We've been talking with folks at Weta. We're really, really excited to do some stuff with the Weta folks. Anyway, so this is Kiwi, but here's the thing. So I expected that this would sell out.

429.042 - 453.06 Don Marshall

Our New Zealand friends were very, like, humble about it. They were like, oh, I don't know. How many Americans do you really think will want to come? And I'm like, more than you think. All of them. All of them. Yeah. So we opened registration and I expected we would fill it. Our limit is 64 people because it's the Green Dragon primarily that is setting that limit.

453.08 - 461.268 Don Marshall

We can't bring more than 64 people to the Green Dragon. So I figured we would sell out. I thought it would take like a month or so to sell out. We sold out in 36 hours.

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