For the Big Read number 15, Breanna Rodgers addressed Book VI, Chapters 1 through 5 leveraging the Athrabeth of Finrod and Andreth’s explanation of Estel as hope without evidence.
When I heard her approach, I was particularly interested as my Oxonmoot presentation was the Ordeal of Hope comparing and contrasting Turin as Amdir and Aragorn as Estel. I’ve also been reworking my talk for my book so the topic was very timely.
Rodgers prepared a talk and not slides, but indicated she was considering posting on her Substack The Redemptive, free tier.
Her presentation I missed the exact title was basically On Choosing Hope without Evidence and explored how the characters did this particularly during these chapters. The presentation was recorded, but she was on hand to take questions and that was followed by the breakouts. I made it through the Q & A which ended about 10 pm ET and did not stay for the breakouts.
She did an excellent job moving through the chapters and not only leveraged examples, but demonstrated how similar incidents occurred in prior ages with other characters and tied in On Fairy Stories.
She noted how weighing the costs of actions against the potential gain with Estel was a theme repeated, the most obvious being Gandalf’s ‘foolish’ belief that a Hobbit could deliver the Ring to the Cracks of Doom – that required a lot of Estel.
I particularly liked her observation related to song and hope and how it in particular was used throughout the Legendarium at critical times.
One question addressed her statement regarding giving hope to another that she had mentioned related to Frodo’s pity for Gollum and that played through the story, which was interesting.
Overall a very good presentation for the twenty five or so people who participated live in the session I attended.
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