Act First, Think Never: The Balin Story

Having read through the assigned section of The Knight of the Two Swords (and a little more beyond that, admittedly), my discussion question for the day is ‘Why do you think Balin gets himself into so much trouble?’ The man disgraces himself quite a bit in the story, and trouble seems drawn to him like a magnet. Do you think maybe if he weren’t so impulsive- as demonstrated when he beheads the Lady of the Lake, for example- he wouldn’t get himself into so many bad situations?