The Hobbit | Chapters 8 and 9

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with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly. Book club, book club, we're in the book club, The Hobbit. The Hobbit. I'm A.J.

Hoag, author of Effortless English, Learn to Speak English Like a Native. And today, chapters eight, let me stretch a little bit. All right, stretching, adjust my camera.

Alright, we're all ready to go. Okay, chapters 8 and 9 of The Hobbit. Two exciting chapters, so we're really getting into the excitement now with The Hobbit and Bilbo.

Real Bilbo becomes a hero. Bilbo finally becomes a true hero in these two chapters, chapters 8 and 9. Many people have been asking me about the VIP program and a lot of people are joining right now. Lots of people have had questions.

I've had questions in the live stream and sending me emails and things. So what I'll probably do is I'll just do, maybe I'll do a show focused only on the VIP program and I'll just answer. I'll tell you, I'll give you like a whole overview, you know, a whole detailed description of the VIP program, what you get when you join, when you commit.

and you know the benefits of course and then answer your questions not as answer any and all questions about the VIP program so I'll do that soon maybe next week I'll do that and we'll just have a show dedicated to the VIP program because so many people are asking me about it and joining and new members and anyway we'll do all of that sometime next week and maybe people who are VIP members now can also share their success stories

But for now, let's jump in with The Hobbit, The Hobbit chapters 8 and 9. So as usual, I will first just review the story and give you some thoughts, my thoughts about it in the next two chapters. Then I'll come and look at your questions and comments. Right now, I'll start with questions and comments only from the supporting members, as I've been doing recently.

And then I'll go to everybody. cleaning my reading glasses here all right there we go let's do it okay chapter eight is called flies and spiders so you'll remember they're entering into mirkwood the dark big giant dark forest

So, the chapter begins, they enter into the forest, it's a little narrow path, right? So, not wide, a narrow path, and as they go in, very quickly... the forest becomes quite dark, right? So it's a very, what we say, dense, a dense, a dense forest, meaning the trees are close together and they're quite tall and then overhead, you know, the trees are all kind of growing together, so blocking out the sunlight mostly.

So it's quite dark and the air feels kind of heavy in there. So this is not like a cheerful forest, okay? It's kind of a dark forest, uh it has a lot of cobwebs right little spider webs and they can hear little sounds but it's so kind of dark in there they don't really see anything they don't know what's moving around but they they hear little noises as they're going in it's bilbo and the dwarves remember gandalf left them so now they're on their own and then uh

On the first page it says, it was not long before they grew to hate the forest. So they hated the forest because the forest is not, like I said, not a cheerful forest. It's kind of dark and depressing.

It says they had to go on and on and on. And they were sick for a sight of the sun in the sky. Meaning, they just went on and on and on for days and days and days. They could not see the sky.

They could not see the sun. Right? A little bit of sunlight kind of came down to the bottom of the forest, but no direct sunlight. And so they just go on and on and on, day after day, in this kind of dark...

forest and they get more and more and more sick of it and kind of depressed about it. It says nights were the worst. It was so dark they could almost see nothing at night because it was so, so, so, so dark.

So it says Bilbo put his hand in front of his face at night and he couldn't even see his hand. It was almost like being in a cave at night. But, however, when they were camping at night, sometimes they could see little eyes, right, kind of out in the forest looking at them, right, little, you know, yellow or red or green eyes would stare at them from a distance.

And they couldn't have a fire. They thought, oh, maybe we'll make a campfire. That'll be nice, right, that can... you know, get some light in there at night.

But it said that they decided not, they tried it, but then after they didn't, they decided not to do it because when they did a fire, it said hundreds of these eyes would come and be watching them and they could never see the bodies. So they don't know what kind of animals or creatures they were that were coming and watching them all at night. And then also the other thing that happened is that these giant moths, right? You know, moths that come at night to like light.

Well, They were kind of these dark gray and black moths, some as big as your hand, would be attracted to their campfire. And hundreds and hundreds of them would come and hit them in the face and get in their hair and also big bats. And so it was just kind of disgusting.

They decided, okay, no more campfires. The campfires were terrible. And so then it just goes on and on like this. Days followed days. Every day seemed the same.

Just dark. And the problem is that they're food. They only have a certain amount of food. Remember Bjorn? a man gave them some food but you know day after day walking in the woods there's basically no food in there they see a few black squirrels and they try to eat one and it tastes terrible and horrible so they decide not to do it anymore and also they're running out of water because Bjorn warned them don't drink the water in the forest right it has kind of the water has a kind of magical don't get in the water and don't drink it because it has kind of a magical effect and it's not safe

So they're thirsty, and they're getting worried because their food's getting less and less and less, and their water's getting less and less. And then finally one day, they come to a stream, like a fairly wide stream, and...

I said, Bjorn warned them, don't get in the water. Don't get in the water and don't drink it. So they're thinking, oh, maybe we can't swim across it because he said it's dangerous. So they're like, oh, what do we do?

And then Bilbo sees. Bilbo has good eyes. He's got the best eyesight of everybody. And even though it's quite dark in there, he sees there's like a little boat on the other side of the stream.

And so... One of the dwarves, he helps one of the dwarves, gets like a rope with a hook, like they've got a little hook, and they throw it, and they throw it, and they throw it, and they finally get the boat, and they pull it over. And then, you know, kind of like in little small groups, they cross the river, the stream, rather, in this little boat.

However, something weird happens to them. When they get to the other side, suddenly this huge deer comes charging at them. And maybe this is kind of like a magical animal guarding the stream.

Kind of... The book kind of hints at that, that maybe that's the case. So this giant, and it just jumps into the middle of them, and they kind of run away to get out of its way. It actually hits one of them, and then it jumps over the stream.

And Thorin, he's quick, and he has his bow ready, and he shoots it, because he's thinking maybe they can eat it. But he shoots it, but it gets across the stream, and then it and it keeps on going, and so they don't know if he, he thinks he hit it, but they're not sure if they can go get it. And the problem is that the bomber, the big fat, the fattest dwarf, he got hit by the, kind of by the deer, and he falls, and he hits the boat, and he falls into the little stream.

And so they lose the boat, so they can't cross back again. And Bomber falls in, and they're worried he's going to drown, so they throw a rope to him, and he manages to grab it, and they pull him to the shore. But when he gets to the side, he falls asleep. And then he ends up sleeping for several days.

So this is why, right? This stream is kind of magical, and it causes you to fall asleep, which obviously is dangerous. If you're trying to swim, you can fall asleep and drown. So that's why Bjorn warned them

But they managed to catch him. But they don't have the boat, so they can't go try to get the deer and eat food. So they're still basically very, very low on food.

Then they hear some sounds in the distance. They decide, well, what do we do now? So they have to carry Bobber. He's the fattest dwarf. That sucks. So they've got to carry him, so that's hard.

He's completely asleep, so this adds a lot of extra stress and difficulty to their travels. Their food is getting very, very low. They're almost completely out of food now, and so they're having a hard time again. Once again, you know, it's another big challenge, another difficulty for the dwarves and for Bilbo.

They do, however, hear off in the distance, it sounds like they hear people who are maybe hunting, but they never can see them. And Bjorn warned them and Gandalf warned them, never leave the path, never leave the path.

Suddenly, another deer appears, a white deer, and all the... dwarves the other dwarves they've got their bows out with bows and arrows and they all start shooting at the deer because they're thinking oh we get here's another chance if we can get this deer we can eat right we can eat one of the deer but unfortunately they they miss and they use all their last arrows so they're they all their arrows are gone and broken and so now they have no basically no weapons now

Okay, then this is an interesting little comment, and we'll get back to it again. But Tolkien says, if they had known more about it, if they considered the meaning of the hunt and the white deer, right, the hunt meaning they'd heard people hunting in the distance somewhere, but they don't know who they were.

They would have known they were at last getting towards the eastern edge of the forest. So he's saying if they had thought, if they'd not been emotional,

If they hadn't been so emotional, so focused on being hungry and tired and depressed, they would have realized, oh, we must be getting towards the other side. We must be finally getting out because, you know, these deer is appearing. All these deer are appearing, right? So we're probably getting towards, you know, more towards the edge.

And obviously there are people around. There's some kind of people around. but they didn't really think about it. So he says if they thought about it, then they would have had more courage and more hope and realized they were getting closer, but they don't think about it.

They're just too focused on their emotions and being upset and hungry and tired and depressed. Okay, so they keep going and then finally their food is, they go two more days and their food, they're going, and they start going kind of downhill into a kind of a valley in the forest and

And their food is basically gone at this point. And so Thorin and all the dwarves, they're just, they're like, is there no end to this forest, right? They're just, it just seems endless and they're really, really getting frustrated now, especially with the food gone.

So they decide somebody must climb a tree. Someone has to climb a tree and go to the top and look around and see, you know, are we getting close to the edge? Are we getting near the end? And of course, somebody means Bilbo, because Bilbo is the smallest, so he can get to the highest, you know, for the tree.

So Bilbo, he climbs, climbs, climbs, climbs, climbs. And then he finally gets to the very top of a tree. And suddenly it's bright sunlight. He's at the top.

He has to wait a minute because it's so bright he can't see. And he's up there and there are all these butterflies. These dark black butterflies all around him.

But then as he finally can see, he looks around and all he sees are trees. So in other words, he sees no end to the forest. He sees no end to the trees and the leaves in any direction.

And then again, Tolkien gives us another little message here about being rational and thinking when you're in a bad situation. He says, if Bilbo had the sense to see it, if he had thought about it, he'd realize that the tree he had climbed was tall, but was near the bottom of a wide valley.

So it seemed like he was at the bottom of a big bowl. So there's no way. He couldn't really see very far, actually, because he's down in this low valley.

So he climbs down, and he's full of despair. And see, this is the message. You can see how Tolkien has given this message a few times, that the dwarves and now Bilbo, they have despair. Despair is like hopelessness, no hope.

And because they're so focused on their emotions, they're so focused on... having no food, being in this forest for such a long time, it's so dark, they're depressed, and it seems like it's never-ending, so they're missing clues. They're actually missing clues, hints, signs, they're missing signs that, in fact, they're almost out.

But they don't see these signs. They don't realize it, right? They're more wildlife appearing, like big wildlife, like deer. They usually live more at the edge of a forest, not in the center.

But they don't think about that. They heard what they think were hunters off in the distance. Again, so this means there must be people around of some kind. So probably, again, not in the center.

And then Bilbo, when he's looking out at... trying to see the end. He's actually, if he had noticed, he would realize he was at the bottom of a valley. So, in fact, there's no way he could see very far.

But they don't think about any of these signs because they're so, they're too emotional and they're too, they're feeling too much despair. They're feeling too hopeless and too frustrated. So they miss these important signs of hope.

Oh, it says, then that last night, they eat their, the last part of their food. So the food's finished now that night. Bomber finally wakes up also. Okay, so then during that night, Balan sees some lights off in the distance.

So they're hungry. They eat just a tiny little bit of food. It's all gone now. And they're really, really hungry. They've been hungry for a while because they've been trying to save their food.

So only eating tiny amounts. And he says, I see some light off in the forest. Like a little red light. And then they see more lights, and they can see that they're torches, right?

So, you know, torches that people hold, little fires that people hold. But the problem is the lights, the torches, are not on the path. They're off in the woods, off of the path. And you can guess what's going to happen, right?

We knew this because Bjorn said don't leave the path. Gandalf said don't leave the path. So we knew, of course, they're going to leave the path and this is when they do it. So they remember the warnings of Gandalf and Bjorn, but again, they let their hunger and their emotions and their frustration take control.

And so they decide to go after the lights, hoping they'll find some people that will give them food. So they leave the path. And they kind of go up there and they're trying to go quietly. Excuse me, I keep swallowing water.

I mean, breathing in some water. I'm drinking. Excuse me. Okay, and so they get there, and there's kind of a little bit of an open area in the forest, and they see elves.

Okay, these are wood elves. and they're all dressed in green and brown, and they're eating and drinking and laughing, and they're kind of having a nice picnic, a nice dinner at night, having a great time.

And so the dwarves are like, and the dwarves in Bilbo, they're all so hungry and desperate, so they all go running in there to beg for food. Please help us, please help us. And as soon as they run in, all the torches, all the fires go out,

And everything is completely dark, and the elves disappear. And then the dwarves, oh, they can't see anything, and they're all stumbling around, and they're calling to each other, hey, where are you? And it takes them a long time, and they finally, in the dark, they're reaching around, and they finally find each other.

And the problem is now they're totally lost. So it's night. It's super dark. And now they've been walking all over the place trying to find each other.

They finally find each other in the dark, but now they're totally lost. Then the lights appear again somewhere else in the distance. So what do they do? They jump up and they do the same foolish thing again.

They go deeper into the forest and exact same thing happens again. They go in and this time they try to go in and beg for food and once again... uh this you know they try to go one by one this time thorne says let's just go one by one bilbo go first because he bilbo's not scary but same thing happens as soon as bilbo goes into the area with the elves all the lights go out the elves disappear and once again it's dark and once again they're all kind of stumbling around trying to find each other

And then they try it. And then they repeat it a third time. So they just keep doing the same thing. They don't learn at all, right? It's just they keep making the exact same mistake.

So once again, because they're desperate, they're not thinking. They're not thinking at all, right? They're just reacting emotionally every time. So once again, they see the lights in the distance.

And, you know, so by now, it should be obvious, right? The elves are not going to help them. But Once again, they go and they do exactly the same thing.

And the same thing happens again. But this time, they all lose each other. And Bilbo gets totally lost. And at the end, he hears the dwarves yelling. But he thinks they're yelling for help.

So not just yelling because they're lost, but that maybe something bad is happening. But it's totally dark, completely blacked. in the forest. And this time, Bilbo loses all the dwarves completely.

So foolish, foolish, foolish. And so Bilbo realizes there's nothing he can do until daytime because at night he can see nothing at all. So he just sits down next to a tree and he kind of falls asleep.

And then suddenly he wakes up and he feels something touching him. It's like a strong sticky string against his left hand. And he realizes his legs are tied up with this sticky string.

And then, you know, it's getting near, it's getting kind of in the morning, and he sees this giant spider, a giant spider trying to tie him up. And it comes at him to get him.

and he kind of fights at it with his hands, because it's trying to bite him and poison him, and then finally he remembers he has his sword, he pulls out his sword, and he sticks it in the eyes, and then he hits it again and kills it, and then he frees himself, and then he's free.

So, this is like really, really his most, his first truly like big fight, heroic fight. You know, with Gollum, he saves himself, but he mostly just does it by hiding, right? He does a little, he wins the little riddle contest, but then he gets lucky again with the ring.

And, uh, And then he manages just to run away and escape. But this time he actually fights off this big monster, this giant spider, this monster spider, and he kills it. And he does this all by himself, without the ring, without Gandalf, without the dwarves.

And then, this is important, if you're watching on video, I put it in blue. The killing of the giant spider, all alone, by himself in the dark. without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.

He felt like a different person, much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach. And then he gives his sword a name. He says, I will give you a name. I shall call you Sting.

So again, let's review that because this is very important. Killing the giant spider. So he faces this danger, this monster that's trying to kill him. And by himself, without Gandalf, without the dwarves, with no one else to help him, not even the ring on this time, he kills the giant spider.

And this makes a great difference to him. He felt like a different person. So this moment changes him more. Completely. This is the moment Bilbo truly becomes a hero, is in this moment.

You know, he's been kind of getting closer, closer, closer, but this is the moment because, again, and what does he do? He faces this terrible danger, this fight, this incredible challenge by himself, and he wins. He overcomes it with courage and, you know, being fierce, being strong.

And by doing this, like you said, it makes a big difference to him. It's psychologically something changes in Bilbo forever now. He's no longer just the scared little hobbit anymore. And we're going to see that from this point, of course he gets afraid sometimes still, but he's not the kind of weak, always scared hobbit like he was until now, or mostly scared.

From this point, we see that he has a lot more bravery, a lot more courage. So even later as we go in the story, he has to face difficulties, but he has much more confidence. You'll see in the next chapter, you know, they're...

There are a bunch of other difficulties he has to face, and later in this chapter, but that his whole mindset is different now. Instead of just being like a little rabbit and afraid, now he has courage, and now he's more decisive, and he takes action and makes decisions and does what needs to be done without being terrified. Still afraid, but he's a very different person now.

And so, again, a great message here, I think, this is a classic message of the hero journey, is that at some point the hero, and indeed you and I and everyone in our lives, we have to become self-reliant. We have to rely on ourselves and overcome some great difficulty.

And that when we do that, when we do that, whatever it is, when we finally do that, without our parents there to save us, without someone else there to save us, with no one to save us, and we face it and we overcome it, it does, it indeed changes us. And this is the moment maybe when we become adults, true adults. It's especially true for men.

Okay. so next he realizes well now oh my god there are these giant spiders around and you know he thought he heard the dwarves yelling right for help earlier in the night and he realizes i gotta find the dwarves and maybe they're in danger so he he tries to remember the direction where the dwarves where he heard their voices last and uh and then he puts the ring on right because he realizes oh there might be more spiders around so i better put put on the ring

And indeed, he does kind of find his way to where the dwarves are. And it's this area, like with all these trees and webs, and there are just hundreds of spiders, these giant spiders, hundreds of them. And they're all over, they're everywhere. And of course, luckily, he has the ring, so they don't see him.

But then he notices hanging from some of the trees in the webs, these little... bundles like these little round things and they're the dwarves you can see their feet sticking out or their noses sticking out and he realizes all the dwarves were captured so the dwarves get captured again they get captured a lot

And then he hears the spiders and he realizes the spiders are actually talking. He can actually understand them. They're talking. So again, these are giant spiders.

They're intelligent. And they're talking about eating the dwarves. So it's kind of like the trolls again. Now see, I think this is also on purpose. right that this is like almost like a mirror this is a little bit like a mirror of the very first danger that Bilbo faced right and but this time he overcomes it right so the first time it's the trolls right that's the first kind of danger that happens to the group and to get to Bilbo right Gandalf kind of went off for a short time

to scout, to look ahead. And once again, all the dwarves get captured. First Bilbo, but then all the dwarves get captured. And Bilbo has maybe a chance to try to save them, but he can't.

He can't, and he's just terrified. And he's really unable to do anything. And so, the only reason they don't all die and get eaten by the trolls is Gandalf comes back and saves them. Right?

So now, this time, here we have a similar situation. Once again, all the dwarves are captured. Once again, Bilbo's kind of on his own. And he has a chance to save them.

This time there is no Gandalf. Gandalf is gone and far away. But Bilbo has changed. And so this time, as we see, Bilbo has now really become a hero. And Bilbo does indeed save them through his own decisions and his own actions without Gandalf.

It says, Bilbo saw the moment had come when he must do something. So he's trying to think of what to do. The spiders are getting closer to the dwarves. They're talking about eating the dwarves.

So he realizes, I've got to do something now. So he picks up like a stone and then Tolkien says actually that Bilbo is really good at throwing stones. So he throws this big stone and it hits one of the spiders right in the head and it falls down and it dies. So he kills another spider.

And, of course, he's got the ring on, so spiders start running around. They don't know what's happening. All these rocks are coming. So Bilbo keeps throwing rocks, and he kills a couple of them with stones.

Then he starts, then he realizes, well, there's so many of them. How can I rescue the dwarves? He has an idea, he has a plan that he has to try to get the spiders to get away from that area. So he's going to try to make them angry and make them chase him to somewhere else.

Then he'll come back quietly. to save the dwarves so he starts singing this song and like trying to make them angry and keeps throwing rocks at them and you know they hear his voice they can't see him but they hear his voice so they start following his voice so he tries to get farther and farther away to lead them away from the dwarves and it says almost all the spiders leave and try to chase him because they're really angry

They follow him into the forest. And then when he gets kind of far away, then he stops singing. He stops yelling at them. And he gets very, very quiet.

And remember, Bilbo is very, very good at being quiet. And he very, very quietly goes back to where the dwarves are. And the spiders are still in the forest trying to find him.

There's one big spider left that's guarding the dwarves and he takes out Sting, his sword, and he kills that one too. So now he's killed like three or four of them. Right? He's become like very, very confident.

Very brave. A true hero now. He's facing the danger directly. He's making decisions. Right? Okay, so then he starts cutting the dwarves free. Helping the dwarves get out.

And then, but the spiders finally come back, right? They can't find them, so they come back. And he had taken off his ring to help the dwarves. And now the spiders see him and they're like, ah, we're going to get you.

We see you now. We're going to get you. It says, but his little sword was something new in the way of stings. And he killed half a dozen. And half a dozen more spiders.

So six more. And Bomber's down there and a bunch of the spiders are trying to get him. And he kind of jumps down or falls down there. And then he kills a bunch more of them to save Bomber.

So the spiders can't get him. And then it says hundreds, hundreds of angry spiders were all around. And it looked hopeless. So this looks like a hopeless battle now.

But then the dwarves are free, so some of them have knives, and the rest of them get sticks and rocks, and so they're all fighting, and Bilbo has his little sword, and again, it says many more of them were killed by Bilbo, but they're all getting tired. So once again, he has to think of a plan, because he's realizing, ah, if they just stand there and fight, there are too many spiders they're going to lose.

And so... He realizes, I can't keep my secret anymore. I'm going to have to show the dwarves about my magic ring. So he tells them, I'm going to disappear.

and then I'm going to try to get the spiders to follow me again, and you guys keep running, and I'll come back and find you. So once again, he does it, and the dwarves are a little shocked. Whoa, where'd he go? And he disappears, and again, he starts singing and yelling stuff at the spiders and throwing rocks at them.

And so once again, the spiders go chasing after his voice, and the dwarves leave and manage to get away. Then... Bilbo kind of comes back again quietly. There's still a few more spiders and he comes in and he jumps in.

And again, almost fearlessly at this point. And he kills a bunch more of them. And now the spiders are very afraid of his sword, right? They've realized that he's very dangerous.

And the spiders all kind of run away and leave. And that's the end. So he indeed, he saves them all. He saves them all in a very heroic way. Very heroically.

Okay, and of course, then the dwarves are, first of all, they're very grateful. They're very, very, very impressed, right? Like, wow, Bilbo, what happened, right? They suddenly realize that before, right, they never really respected Bilbo.

And now they respect him very much. They just saw him kill all those spiders. He rescued them. They were all going to die. He saved them, not Gandalf, no one else, just Bilbo.

And of course they ask him about the ring and he tells them the full story about Gollum again. But this time he tells them about the ring. And they're even impressed by that. And then he says they changed their opinion of Mr. Baggins very much.

And they had begun to have a great respect for him. Just as Gandalf said they would. They knew only too well they soon all would have been dead if not for the Hobbit, and they thanked him many times.

They saw that Bilbo had some wits. some intelligence, as well as luck and a magic ring. And all three are very useful. In fact, they praised him so much that Bilbo began to feel there really was something of a bold adventurer about him.

Ah, so see, now because the dwarves are praising him, oh, you're so great, wow, thanks so much, right? The dwarves now have a lot of respect for him. And now Bilbo is starting, his identity is changing, right? It's not just like psychologically.

Now his whole identity, he's starting to feel like a hero, an adventurer, right? That he's not just some little scared hobbit. He's not just some little guy who likes to be comfortable all the time. He's an adventurer.

This is who he is now. He's starting to feel like a different person. And then suddenly they realize, oh no, where's Thorin? And Thorin has disappeared.

And it turns out the wood elves get him. So the night's coming and the wood elves capture him. And the wood elves are not evil. They're generally good, but they don't like strangers.

They don't trust strangers and they don't trust dwarves. And so they capture him, and it says the elf king, even though he's not a bad, you know, he's not evil, but he does like treasure. He likes gold and gems and silver, and he wants more.

And he also, he doesn't trust dwarves. And so they capture Thorin, and they're not going to do anything bad to him, but the elf king says... you know wants to know why are you here why are you in my forest you tried to you came in we were eating in the forest and you jumped in and surprised us three times and you caused all this problem with the spiders you know what are you doing here and thorin doesn't want to tell him about the treasure because he's afraid that the elf king will want some of it so he says uh Thorne says, oh, we're just hungry.

And so the elf king says, well, why are you in the forest? What are you doing here? This is my kingdom. And Thorne won't tell him. And so the elf king says, okay, fine.

We're going to put you in prison until you tell me. So we're not going to do anything bad to you. We'll give you food. You'll be okay. You'll be comfortable.

But you're going to be in my prison until you tell me why you're here. And Thorne's stubborn and he says, no. So they put him in the dungeon. The elf king, they kind of live in these caves in the forest.

Okay, so next chapter, chapter 9. And here we'll see Bilbo will save them again. They all get captured. So next chapter, the wood elves find them. because they're lost, right?

So the wood elves jump out and capture all of the dwarves, all the rest of the dwarves, but not Bilbo, because he puts his ring on again. So they don't see Bilbo.

When they pop out, he puts his ring on very fast, and they don't get him. So they take them to the kind of the caves, the kind of the magical, this kind of cave area under this big hill in the forest where the elves live, the elf king lives.

Okay, and so then, once again, the elf king wants to know, what are you doing? So he asks the same question to the dwarves, the rest of the dwarves. What are you doing? He says, it's a crime to wander in my kingdom without my permission.

What are you doing here? And, of course, they all are kind of smart, and they all won't say, they all say, oh, they just stay silent. They won't tell him. So, again, he says, well, I will put you all in my prison until you tell me.

So, they all get put into different rooms, locked up. So, poor Bilbo, he, of course, he's got the ring on, so he follows them, and he gets inside the Elf King's, you know,

underground caves you know it's kind of his castle underground but the doors are magical so he can't really get out for a while so he just kind of wanders around you know for several days I think he says it's like one to two weeks

Yeah, it's a week or two where sometimes he kind of sneaks out. He can go outside. Like if some of the elves leave, he'll follow them. But he's afraid to go too far.

So most of the time he just stays inside and he keeps the ring on the whole time. So he's invisible, so nobody can see him. So he just kind of wanders around. But he can't do anything.

He steals some food when he needs to because he's hungry. And he kind of gets to know how to get around the underground castle. And then little by little, he figures out where all the dwarves are. So he figures out where each of the dwarves, you know, where they're being locked up.

He finds all 12 of them in different places. And, of course, he says, I wish I was back in my hobbit hole. You know, his usual thing where he dreams about being back in any time when things are really bad. He dreams about being back home.

But, Tolkien says, he soon realized that if anything was to be done, it would have to be done by Mr. Baggins, alone and unaided. So, again, a repeat of the last chapter, meaning...

He once again realizes that all the dwarves are captured. Gandalf's not here. I'm the only one who's free because of my ring. So if we're going to escape, I have to do it.

I have to figure out a plan. I have to make a plan. I have to rescue them. He doesn't know how to do it, but he realizes that he has to do it. There's no one else.

Once again, alone, he has to save them. And so now he's starting to think like a hero. He's thinking of his duty. Instead of just focusing on, oh, I hope someone saves us, he realizes, no, now I have to do it.

I'm the one. Again. So first he finds out where all the dwarves are. And he finds Thorin. And Thorin tells them, don't tell the elf king anything. Don't tell him about the treasure, right?

Because they're afraid the elf king will say, oh, I'll let you go, but you have to give me some of the treasure. And then it says... They all trusted Bilbo. So now Thorin, of course Thorin realizes too that, wow, Bilbo.

Bilbo comes and talks to him secretly and says, okay, I'm going to help get you guys out. And Thorin's very impressed. And so he gets Thorin's respect also.

And it says they all trusted Bilbo. Just what Gandalf said would happen. And then this is an interesting phrase, the next sentence. Perhaps that was part of his reason for going off and leaving them.

Like I said last week, right? So Gandalf, perhaps that was part of the reason for going off and leaving them. In other words, why did Gandalf leave? Maybe part of the reason was so that Bilbo could become a hero.

Because he felt Bilbo was ready now. And that it was time for Bilbo to earn the dwarves' respect. It was time for Bilbo to go out on his own without relying always on Gandalf.

And you've probably realized this after Bilbo escaped the goblins and Gollum. So this is, again, kind of a key thing you're going to see in this hero journey, the hero story. You'll see this again and again.

There comes a point where the hero must go on their own. And the good mentor, the good wise man, the good teacher... at some point, will leave or will push the hero and force the hero to do this, right? Because the wise man, the teacher, realizes that, yeah, at some point, the hero, to rise, he has to do it himself, right?

So he can't always be there. And this is something, of course, that all parents know. So it's kind of, again, something we see in our own normal life, right? That we all know this as parents, that there's a point where

You can't be around your kids and trying to make all their decisions and save them all the time. Of course, when they're little, you do, right? But eventually, there comes a point where they have to go out on their own and succeed on their own without you there to save them, right?

And all good coaches know this, that when the game comes, when the game time comes, the coach is on the side, he can't play the game. Right? So he knows there's this time when the players must become the heroes. Right?

So it's the same thing you're going to see again and again. The great coaches, the great teachers, the great mentors. Eventually, you know, at some point they realize, ah, now it's time. Now it's time for them to go on their own.

Now it's time for me to leave or for me to stop helping them. And so we see that, you know, Bilbo kind of realizes that Maybe that's one of the reasons Gandalf had to leave.

Okay, so finally Bilbo, he says he did not like being depended on by everyone. So this is something totally new for Bilbo. All the dwarves, he talks to them all, right? Because he can secretly talk to them with his ring because the elves can't see him.

So he visits them and he tells them, I'm going to get you out somehow. And now they're all relying on him. They're all depending on him, right? He is now in a leadership position now.

Right? They're all captured. So now they're all looking to him. They're all looking to Bilbo to find a solution. They're all expecting Bilbo to decide what to do.

Right? Thorin, none of them are telling him what to do. They're all waiting. They want Bilbo to tell them. Bilbo is now the leader in this situation. He's not going to be the leader of the whole group forever.

But in this situation now, he's become the leader and they all are looking to him. to make the decisions and to decide. And, you know, he's uncomfortable with this in the beginning, which is, you know, all most heroes are, you know, they're used to being just following and suddenly when you have to be a leader the first time, yeah, it's uncomfortable.

So Bilbo is like, ah, what do I do? He's kind of stressed out trying to think of a plan. And then finally he thinks of a plan. He finds out there's a stream, kind of like a small river that goes underneath the castle in the caves.

And that they use this, that this goes out and he hears the elves talking. So he kind of knows what's going on. because he's spying around, trying to figure out everything. And he realizes that they use these, they bring wine and food, they buy wine and food from somewhere else, you know, outside of the forest, from men and other places, other kingdoms.

And they bring it to their kingdom, to their castle, the caves. And then when they're finished, when the barrels are empty, what they do is they drop them into the river,

and then they float down to the river, and then they take them back to the town, the town for the men, and then they fill them up again, and so this is kind of their system for transporting all the stuff they're buying.

And it goes to the lake. There's a big lake. There's a town at the lake, and that's where they are buying a lot of their stuff. So Bilbo gets an idea, and he's like, ah, well, maybe what we can do is we'll hide.

The dwarves can hide in the barrels, right, the empty barrels. It's just a big wood container, right, where they keep wine or something. And then we'll close them up in there, and then they'll drop them in the river, thinking they're empty, and then they'll go down the river, and that's how we're going to escape.

So this is his plan, the desperate plan. Okay, so then he has to wait until a good time to do it. And finally, there's like a big party, a big meal, a big feast.

And the guards get drunk. And so when they get drunk, Bilbo sneaks in, and he takes the keys from the guard. And one by one, he unlocks all the dwarves' doors, and he gets them all together. And then he takes them, and he's going to take them to help him escape.

And then again, we see that Thorin, Thorin's the hardest one, right? Thorin has kind of not respected him until now. Before, Thorin always thought he was kind of useless and weak.

Thorin was usually the one complaining to Gandalf. Why are we bringing this guy, Bilbo? He's useless. But it says, when he frees Thorin, Thorin says, Gandalf spoke true, as usual.

A fine burglar you are when the time comes. I'm sure we are all forever at your service, whatever happens after this. Okay, so he has gotten the respect of Thorin because of this. He says, wow, you really are a good burglar, a good thief, right?

He's like, I didn't, you know, he says, Gandalf was right about you, actually. And now we all owe you because you've saved us. Again. So he tells them the plan, and they don't like the plan.

Right? They don't like the plan at all. They don't like the idea of being put into these wooden barrels, like round boxes is basically what they are, and then being dropped into water. They're like, oh, it's going to be terrible.

What if the water gets in? We're going to be bouncing around. Oh, this is a terrible plan. But Bilbo, again, being more confident and strong, Bilbo says, well, this is the plan.

He says, if you have a better plan, tell me. Right? Right? Now's the time because this is our only chance. Probably I can never get these keys again. So you do my plan or go back to the prison.

So he's getting stronger with them. He's confident now. And so they realize, well, yep, Bilbo's right. We've got to follow Bilbo's plan. And so they do.

And finally he puts all of them into the barrels and he closes up the barrels, all 12 of the barrels. And then, you know, He puts them there and, you know, he knows the plan is, you know, the elves eventually are going to come and drop the barrels into the, uh, they do it every night. They drop the barrels into the, uh, uh, the river so they can float back to the lake.

And, uh, you finally hear some of them coming to do it. He puts on his ring again and, you know, one by one they, they take the barrels with the dwarves inside and also their other barrels and they roll them in. And, uh,

And of course, some of the barrels feel kind of heavier than normal, right? Because they're not empty. They have dwarves inside them. And the elves are kind of confused, but luckily there's a party happening and they've all been drinking, so they don't think about it too much.

So they don't open them back up again. They just throw them in. They want to go back to the party. So they throw them all in. But then the problem is Bilbo suddenly realizes, oh my God, wait, what am I going to do?

I'm not inside a barrel. How do I get out of here? And so he just runs and he jumps on top of a barrel as they're throwing it out. And he just goes into the water and he's holding on, but it gets on top of him.

So he's under the water. He gets wet. It's really cold. And he's holding on and he's trying to keep his head above the water. And they're going down the river and banging into the other ones, and so he has... Bilbo has a terrible, terrible, terrible time, but he survives.

He keeps his head above the water, but he's freezing cold. And then finally, he manages to get up on top of the barrel, one of the barrels, and kind of ride it on top. But, you know, he's completely wet. It's very, very, very, very cold.

So he rides along, and all the... You know, he's on top. Of course, he's invisible, right? But... All the barrels go down the river, and then they join the big main river, and they keep going, and then finally all the barrels come to an area where they all, where the river turns, it gets wide, and all the barrels kind of come up onto the land, and there are some elves there, and they grab the barrels, and they put them on land, and they tie them all together.

And Bilbo gets, when they're doing this, Bilbo gets off the barrel, and he gets, he climbs onto the shore, onto the land. And night's coming, so he realizes the elves are just going to leave the barrels there on the shore for the night, tied up. So the poor dwarves have to spend the night inside the barrels all night long.

And Bilbo, he's wet, so he goes into the camp and he steals some food. but uh let's see what else yeah but he's really miserable and cold and he finally goes and falls asleep then the next morning finally the next morning uh they the i'm not sure if it's elves or men let's see

Yeah, elves. Finally, they got all the barrels. They're all tied together, right? So the next morning, they push them all into the river again to send them down to the lake.

And Bilbo, of course, again, he's got the ring on, and he jumps on to all the barrels that are tied together. And that's the end of the chapter, and they have escaped the dungeons of the king.

And we'll find out... how well they're doing in the next chapter. All right. Let's get into our comments and questions. I think I've explained kind of my ideas already about

some of the meaning and the messages in this. I think the main thing is that we see that Bilbo becomes a hero, and to do this, he has to do it himself. No one else can do it for him. I think that's the key message, that he must rise up and directly face the danger

That's number one. Number two, the other thing that we'll see, you know, that's the key to being a hero as opposed, you know, not just confident, not just an adult, but being a hero is that he's doing all this for other people. He's saving other people, right? So he's thinking beyond himself, right?

He could have just run away to save himself, but he didn't. He faced great, great, great danger with the spiders to save his friends, the dwarves. And then he, you know, I don't know, he also, again, he has to figure out this plan to save them from the elves as well.

So he's doing this not just for himself, but for others as well. But he has to face the danger alone both times. And he succeeds. And his confidence grows tremendously because of this.

All right, let me get to the comments now from our supporting members, and then we'll get, and then I'll open it up. Yeah, like Vladislav says, some of the lights, you know, like the donkey and the carrot, right? They just keep chasing it, and it always gets farther away. Yeah.

Non-native speaker says every one of us has to kill his or her giant spiders to achieve something in life. Indeed. I mean, that is clearly the metaphor, the message for you and I. It doesn't mean we have to kill some monster.

But, you know, if we look at it psychologically, it means we have to face some monster, right? Some fear, some great difficulty, and we have to do it on our own, right? Without anyone there to help us.

And this is important. It's an important point in life. In order to save ourselves or others, we often do not need external help. Because we have the most wonderful power within us.

We just have to overcome our doubts. Yeah, right. And that's kind of what that's about, right? That this final step to be the hero is that Bilbo must rely on something inside him, not on Gandalf, right?

Not on somebody or something on the outside. Even like in the first, when he kills that first spider, not even relying on the ring, right? So he really must rely on himself and find that strength and courage inside him

and do what needs to be done. And he does it. And then a non-native speaker is also correct, and we see this. Once you've overcome a huge challenge, it gets easier to deal with the others.

And that's something else we see in these two chapters, right? You can see that, okay, like the first spider, that's a really big thing, right? And then he kills another one. And then by the end of the spider fight, I mean, he's killing like lots and lots and lots of them.

He's fighting lots of them. He has no time to be afraid because it's this big battle. And then goes into the next chapter, and then he doesn't hesitate. He's not even afraid when he's dealing with the elves, right?

So, you know, he's a little frustrated, but he's not afraid. So you can see that, right, that as he overcomes the one challenge, that each challenge after...

It's not that the challenges are not necessarily easier, but his confidence is higher. You can see his confidence grows and grows and grows and grows after each challenge that he overcomes. And that, you know, by the end of the chapter nine, he's quite confident now. Like I said, you know, you can see his identity and how he thinks of himself has changed quite a bit.

Let's see. I like the idea that Bilbo cares about others. Yeah, right. Well, he's doing all this to save his friends again and again. He says we don't have to do huge deeds to be heroes.

Many times a hug, a smile, good work. Right. But in the context of a hero, it really is about facing some kind of overcoming a challenge or especially a fear.

And Lisa says, usually the worst decision is what we make out of fear. Indeed. That's another message we saw, like with the doors, right? That the fear or despair, giving up hope.

That's a good one for right now, too, is that when people focus too much on the bad and how difficult everything is and on hopelessness, they miss all the signs that actually things might be getting better. They miss all the opportunities, right? Because they're too focused on being hopeless.

Nice message there, too. Right, Bilbo proved to us, Vladislav says, we are stronger than we think. Indeed. Yeah, like in Brave New World, Vladislav says,

people had to overcome some difficulty to become mature, similar way it happened to Bilbo. Yeah, and traditionally, especially for men, this is especially a thing for men, to become a man, to be seen as a man in most cultures, traditionally, there was some kind of ritual or ceremony, a manhood ceremony, and it involved overcoming, it was some kind of difficult ordeal, some kind of difficult

task that the boy had to do in order to become a man right it wasn't just oh now you're 12 or now you're 15 so you're a man not automatically no they had to overcome something they had to do something tough difficult then they became a man okay let's get it I'm going to open it up real quick to comments and questions from everybody

Okay, Ladisov says, do you think the army in the USA should be compulsory, mandatory for men or not? Hell no. No, no, no. But the American army does not serve America.

The American army serves Israel and the oil companies and the banks. So, no. Should we be forced to be mercenaries for all of them? No. Definitely not.

Payam says, I'd be thankful you could do a show about how to overcome hopelessness due to physical incurable pain. Well, I'll have to think about that. I've never dealt with that myself, so think about it. Send me more details on Gab about that.

Klusa, what is a hobbit? you're a little late to the book club if you're not sure what a hobbit is. It's like a little short guy. He's like half the size of a normal human.

Yeah, like Ilana Khan says, there is no clear vision without a calm mind. Indeed, that's a very clear message that we got like when they're in the forest and the dwarves are just racing ahead, chasing the lights and making bad decisions and bad decisions and getting hopeless. They leave the path and they...

They don't even realize. They're getting some signs that actually they're getting close to the end. Things are getting better or soon will be better. But they miss all of that because they're just too emotional about all the problems and difficulties and feeling hopeless.

That's a good message for right now for a lot of people. People focus too much on the bad things and they miss a lot of signs that there are some very good things happening too.

Okay. Okay, Jermiela says, when there's only one who can save the world or a family or something, the most important... It's most important for the one...

Let's see, inside the mind of fear. Yeah, that the one must do it, even if he or she is afraid. Right, exactly. And you have pushed to overcome it. Exactly.

This is kind of... It's kind of the idea of a heroic duty. You know, heroic duty. That sometimes it might be you, that there's a situation where only you, or maybe only you and your husband or wife, can...

solve the problem or save the situation. And there's just no one else. There's no one else you can rely on. Maybe you start your own business, right? And there's some big problem with the business.

And there's no one else who can save it. Only you. You have to figure it out somehow, right? And, you know, this can be many... We can imagine many different situations in life.

But, yeah, this is true that sometimes it... The situation requires... You, and sometimes there's no one else, no one else there to help. There's no one you can rely on, like Bilbo.

And when that happens, you just have to do your best and move forward and make decisions, and you will succeed, hopefully. That's a good message, because sometimes people stop and like, oh, I need help, but eventually there's a point where no one's going to help you, and you just got to do it.

Even if you're not sure what to do. Bilbo's not totally sure. Like with the elves, he's not totally sure what to do, but he just does his best, makes a plan, and it works.

Yeah, again, like Ilana Khan says, all leaders, like average people, have doubts, moments of despair, weakness, but the real leader can suppress the doubts and choose the right path and deeds. Indeed, indeed. And leaders...

you know, really good leaders, but even just, like, average people who have to be leaders. Like, Bilbo's, you know, like an average person, but he just has to be a leader. Like, you might call that a situational leader, like he is in the elf kingdom, right? That he's not normally the leader of the group.

That's Thorin, right? But... In this situation and also with the spiders, he had to be the leader. The situation required his leadership. And again, you'll find this in some really high-level military units where they, of course, they have their official leader, the officers, but they also realize and they train and they know that in different situations, anybody might need to be a leader, right?

Right. that every member of the team needs to be able to become a leader when necessary. So that's exactly right. Good point. And it's normal to feel doubts and all that, but you just got to do it anyway.

Okay, so some people are asking about courses again. I'm just going to do a show next week about that. So I'll just answer all the questions about my courses and VIP and other ones too if you want.

Hazma says, I like Gandalf. He's not selfish. He pushes Bilbo in a direct way to be a hero. Yeah, and to face difficulty. Gandalf can see it in him. Yeah, right.

See, that's great. And this is what you want in a great teacher or a great parent or a great coach, is they see something good in you, something great in you. And then even if you don't see it yourself, and then they help it to come out, to pull it out of you. And that's what Gandalf does with Bilbo.

He sees something in Bilbo that's special. and then little by little he helps it to come out and the final step of helping it come out is he has to leave so that Bilbo has to face things alone okay a couple more and then time to go

Okay, let's see. Stefan, oh, thank you for the super chat. Very nice. Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay, Vladimir Medvedev says, it's interesting thing is that we value only what we get by struggling and we don't appreciate what we get easily.

Typically, right. That's right. Typically. Or even like if someone just gives you something for free. You know, it just seems to be human nature that we value that less, appreciate it less, than something we have worked for and struggled for.

Right? Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit like, it's even like, I was just thinking about this with the seasons. Like, I don't like winter at all. I mean, even Osaka, the winters are not so bad, but just it's dark and it's cold and, you know.

But I will say that because of that, after three months of winter, that I really, really, really appreciate the sun and the spring and the flowers, right?

much more after getting through the winter and now suddenly the flowers are coming out and it's getting warmer weather. I really appreciate it. I'm very, very grateful for it.

We appreciate things after we have a tough time or when we struggle or when we work hard. It makes them more special. Will I do the movie club tomorrow? I'm not sure.

We'll see. I hope so. I've got to get back to doing that movie. Yeah, Sarah makes a good point, too. Before this tough situation, if we imagine the situation, maybe we think we can't handle it.

But now, we're stronger. We do. And this is a good point, right? So you can imagine, we can imagine back to the beginning of the story, Bilbo. If Bilbo imagined giant spiders attacking him, he would have been...

terrified, right? At that time, he would not have thought he could fight them. He never would have imagined that he could save the dwarves from hundreds of giant spiders, right? At that time, he just...

There's no way. But now he has actually done it. He faced it and he did it. And this is often the case, I think, is that, you know, when bad, you know, we're in a moment or in a normal life and we imagine something in the future that's terrible and we think, oh, I couldn't handle it.

I couldn't handle. Like, you know, maybe the situation now or the big economic disasters that are coming or that are here. And maybe, you know, in the past, there's no way I could handle that and so afraid. But then when it actually hits, what actually happens, you find actually you can handle it.

You can. You become more heroic. You make decisions. You see opportunities and you do what you need to do. and that you often will surprise yourself, and you realize, oh, actually, yeah, I can handle this.

I can handle it. Carol says, Bilbo's mind is formatted by his culture and education. He believes hobbits don't have adventures, because most of them don't, usually.

Only when he's released from all his ties, his true self can emerge. Yeah, good point. He has to let go of his... Tony Robbins calls these limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs.

So he has to let go of his old beliefs about hobbits don't do adventures. I'm not an adventurer. So let go of all those kind of negative beliefs. Just let them go.

And then he becomes someone quite different. Yeah, and like Asma says, everything at first will feel hard, but then facing it several times, we learn to deal with it.

Good point, right. And it's the other thing we've seen, right? Because now he's going through difficulty, difficulty, difficulty, difficulty. This whole journey is just again and again and again and again, right?

Every... one or two chapters, it's another problem, another difficulty. And so, right, he's getting used to it now. Like in the beginning, he just complained constantly and was afraid, even terrified.

And now it's like he's gotten used to it, right? Now something's changed in him. And maybe he still doesn't like it, but he's pretty confident about dealing with it. It's become normal for him.

Yeah, like Sugar Shock says, he had to be prodded out of his comfort zone, out of his comfortable environment. Indeed. Okay, I think that is it for today. So that is our book club.

I hope you enjoyed it. That's chapters, like I said, eight and nine. We'll continue to do two chapters each week now. Okay, so we can go a little bit...

A little bit quicker, a little bit more quickly. And we still have a few more weeks to finish the book. We're getting now to, you know, the kind of the journey is almost finished for Bilbo, meaning the journey to the destination. They have almost arrived.

The big adventure, the big, big, big, big, big danger of the dragon is coming, right? Smaug, the dragon, the mountain. They have almost arrived there.

But now he's ready. Now he's ready. All right, then. That is it. As I said, next week I will do a show about my VIP program and other. You can ask questions about other courses as well if you want to.

So until then, join my VIP program. Commit to my VIP program at EffortlessEnglishClub.com. EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Lots of love, and I'll see you next time.

Thank you.