August 2009
68 posts
It’s wonderful to see you, Gandalf!
A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.
You’re late!
♫ The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began, Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can …
Frodo, the door! Sticklebacks, where is that boy? Frodo!
But today of all days, it is brought home to me: it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.
And, yes, no doubt, to others, our ways seem quaint.
For all Hobbits share a love of things that grow.
But where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet and good, tilled earth.
… a rather unfair observation, as we have also developed a keen interest in the brewing of ales and the smoking of pipe-weed.
In fact, it has been remarked by some that Hobbits’ only real passion is for food …
Frodo! Someone at the door.
… being neither renowned as great warriors nor counted among the very wise.
Middle-earth being, after all, full of strange creatures beyond count, Hobbits must seem of little importance …
… quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk.
Hobbits have been living and farming in the four Farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years …
Now, where to begin? Ahh, yes. Concerning Hobbits …
There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale, by Bilbo Baggins.
The Third Age of this world.
Bag End, Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, Westfarthing, the Shire, Middle-earth.
The 22nd day of September in the year 1400, by Shire-reckoning.
For the time will soon come when Hobbits will shape the fortunes of all.
Lossst! My precious is lost!
A ring.
A hobbit — Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.
What’s this?
It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable.
But something happened then the Ring did not intend.
It abandoned Gollum.
Its time had now come.
Rumor grew of a shadow in the east — whispers of a nameless fear — and the Ring of Power perceived.
Darkness crept back into the forests of the world.
And in the gloom of Gollum’s cave, it waited.
For five hundred years, it poisoned his mind.
The Ring brought to Gollum unnatural long life.
It came to me. My own, my love, my own, my … prrrrecioussssss. *Gollum!*
And there, it consumed him.
The Ring came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels of the Misty Mountains.
My Preciousssss.
Until, when chance came, it ensnared a new bearer.
History became legend, legend became myth, and, for two and a half thousand years, the Ring passed out of all knowledge.
And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.
It betrayed Isildur — to his death.
But the hearts of Men are easily corrupted, and the Ring of Power has a will of its own.
The Ring passed to Isildur, who had this one chance to destroy evil forever.
Sauron, the enemy of the free peoples of Middle Earth, was defeated.
It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword.
But the power of the Ring could not be undone.
Victory was near.
Tangado haid! Leithio i philinn!
