The Wayward Harper

Nadia Turner is an artist from Australia, whose blog Wayward Harper is definitely worth checking out. It is all sorts of elvish, magical, and wonderful. If you don't already know, I love foxes, and Nadia's painting of a fox and princess (or she could be a fortune teller or magical woman) is wonderful.

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So what could be more amazing than her amazing art? How about her amazing art decorating a harp!

Crane Harp. 

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The Journeywoman Harp.

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I think either of these magnificent harps would be welcome in the Halls of the Elvenking, or in Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. Somehow, the Crane Harp seems more in keeping with the dwarves, and the Journeywoman Harp (with its sunshine and trees) seems far more likely to be an elvish instrument. But they are definitely magical, and remind me of one of my favorite poems:

"Goblets they carved there for themselves

And harps of gold; where no man delves

They lay there long, and many a song

Was sung unheard by men or elves."

Dorwinion

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"It must be potent wine to make a wood-elf drowsy; but this wine, it would seem, was the heady vintage of the great gardens of Dorwinion, not meant for his soldiers or his servants, but for the king's feasts only, and for smaller bowls not for the butler's great flagons."


Douglas A. Anderson, in the excellent Annotated Hobbit, explains:
"The name Dorwinion is clearly of Elvish origin, and it appears in Tolkien's earlier writings. In "The Lay of the Children of Húrin", a long unfinished alliterative poem written in the early to mid-1920s, the especially potent wine of Dor-Winion [sic] is described as coming from the burning South, which implies that Dor-Winion is located in Beleriand. [...]
Dorwinion also appears in a text probably dating from the mid-1930s, just before Tolkien began writing The Lord of the Rings in December 1937. This text is the conclusion to the Quenya Silmarillion (published in volume five of the History, The Lost Road), and "the undying flowers in the meads of Dorwinion" are mentioned in the final paragraph, implying that Dorwinion is overseas in Tol Eressëa.
Finally, on Pauline bayne's Map of Middle Earth (1970), which was compiled with Tolkien's assistance, Dorwinion is placed on the northwest shores of the inland Sea of Rhûn, far down the banks of the River Running in the East. The placement here certainly accords with the mentions of Dorwinion in The Hobbit but does not account for the appearance of the name in earlier texts."

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Well, that's good to know. But what about the wine?

I would like to nominate one of my favorite wines to the rank of "Wines from Dorwinion":

HoneyRun Winery's Blackberry Honeywine
This is a double whammy - without a doubt the best blackberry wine I have ever tasted, as well as the best mead (there was some homebrew mead that Mrs. Meadows and I were given many, many years ago, but that's a different story, kids!)
Because of various laws, this product is sadly not available everywhere, but if you are in one of the "allowed" states, you can order it here: HoneyRun Winery.
If you can get your hands on a bottle (keep it over 21, folks!), I highly recommend and encourage you to do so.
Enjoy!

Elf Socks!

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While these marvelous socks are touted as a "Rivendell" sock pattern, I think they would be well-received and quite at home among the elves in Mirkwood.

You can buy the pattern as a pdf file by clicking here.

Related Post:
Hobbit Socks
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The Elvenking

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In the Dungeons of the Elvenking!

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"Inside the passages were lit with red torch-light, and the elf-guards sang as they marched along the twisting, crossing, and echoing paths."

"These were not like those of the goblin-cities; they were smaller, less deep underground, and filled with cleaner air."

"In a great hall with pillars hewn out of the living stone sat the Elvenking on a chair of carven wood."

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20th June: Midsummer's Eve

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The moon was shining in a broad silver crescent. He held up the map and the white light shone through it. "What is this?" she said. "There are moon-letters here, beside the plain runes which say 'five feet high the door and three may walk abreast.' "

"Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond, "not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the most cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a midsummer's eve in a cresent moon, a long while ago."

Related posts:
Rune Generator

4th June: O! Where Are You Going?

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O! What are you doing,
And where are you going?
Your ponies need shoeing!
The river is flowing!
O! tra-la-la-lally
here down in the valley!

O! Where are you going
With beards all a-wagging?
No knowing, no knowing
What brings Mister Baggins,
And Balin and Dwalin
down into the valley
in June
ha! ha!

O! Will you be staying,
Or will you be flying?
Your ponies are straying!
The daylight is dying!

To fly would be folly,
To stay would be jolly
And listen and hark
Till the end of the dark
to our tune
ha! ha!

On 4th June, the Company finally reaches Rivendell! A time for rest, healing, music, song, stories, good company, friendship, and all things pleasant!

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