Tolkien Reading Day 2026: Unlikely Heroes

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SME106: For Tolkien Reading Day 2026 — themed “Unlikely Heroes” — Jeff Haecker hosts Robert Story, Patrick Mason, and Rob Leonardi for their fourth annual reading day special, where each panelist brings favorite passages from across the legendarium and argues their case.

Robert Story opens with an uncomfortable truth: Tolkien’s Dwarves are not meant to be heroic. A passage from The Hobbit frames Thorin’s company as “a calculating folk” whose moral claim to Erebor is genuinely questionable — before Robert pivots to the Battle of Five Armies, the moment Thorin finally earns the title “King Under the Mountain” for the first time, not by claiming it but by charging into certain death for his people.

Patrick Mason goes for the obvious pick no one else had claimed: Sam Gamgee. His passage from Return of the King places Sam at the edge of Mordor, offered a grand vision of himself as Samwise the Strong — and he declines, because he knows he is not large enough to bear such a burden. Plain hobbit sense saves the world. Patrick also reads Frodo’s central declaration from Fellowship of the Ring and argues that Frodo is the most unlikely hero of all: an ordinary hobbit who inherited catastrophe and gave up everything, not because he was destined to, but because he ended up with the Ring.

Rob Leonardi brings a deep cut: Beregond, the Guard of the Citadel who breaks the law to save Faramir from Denethor’s pyre, holds the door until Gandalf arrives, and receives his sentence — appointment as captain of Faramir’s personal guard. Rob also surfaces Néllas from Unfinished Tales, an elf maiden who watched over Túrin from the trees and saved his honor in Doriath with a single act of witness. And he makes the case for Tom Bombadil: a being of absolute power who wants nothing to do with the war, yet shows up when called, and whose gift of a barrow-blade helps bring down the Witch-king.

Jeff Haecker quotes the summoning of the Oathbreakers and talks through book-versus-film differences, then turns to Finrod Felagund — the Noldor king who sought out Men, foresaw his oath, and laid down his life for the House of Bëor. Jeff also defends Dwalin’s confrontation with Thorin from the film adaptation: the heroism of telling a friend the truth they don’t want to hear.

Patrick closes with the most unlikely hero of all: Fatty Bolger, who stayed behind at Crickhollow to fool the Nazgûl, then ran a mile across a dark field to raise the alarm. He never went to Mordor. He just did what had to be done. Patrick also makes the case that Gollum — the only being whose obsession made the Ring’s destruction possible — deserves a place on the list.

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