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Tolkien

A Socialist Reads the Hobbit Part 8 – Eagles

Tolkien’s eagles rescue the party from certain death by wargs and goblins. Though morally ambiguous—stealing sheep while helping heroes—they function as Tolkien’s ultimate plot-fixing device when characters face impossible situations.

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A Socialist Reads the Hobbit Part 7: Riddles in the Dark

Bilbo’s underground riddle contest with Gollum became the archetypal Dungeons & Dragons scenario—a lone adventurer solving puzzles to escape danger. We also see Tolkien’s pre-scientific worldview with Lamarckian evolution (“the more you use it the bigger it gets”) and Platonic light-emitting vision.

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A Socialist reads the Hobbit Part 6 – Goblin Town

Goblin Town mirrors the chaotic Victorian Birmingham of Tolkien’s youth—a dark maze where inhabitants love machines and inventive cleverness but create only weapons and torture devices. The bow-legged, squint-eyed goblins resemble rickets-ridden factory workers who rarely saw sunlight. Their rhythmic songs echo industrial machinery.

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A Socialist reads the Hobbit Part 5 – Rivendell

Rivendell introduces Elrond’s crucial moon-map revelation — divine intervention or “you create your own luck by taking action.” The dwarves started their quest without complete information, yet moving forward allowed essential details to emerge naturally.

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