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."

April 27 At Your Service!

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Just before tea-time there came a tremendous ring on the front-door bell, and then he remembered! He rushed and put on the kettle, and put out another cup and saucer, and an extra cake or two, and ran to the door.

"I am so sorry to keep you waiting!" he was going to say, when he saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt, and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. As soon as the door was opened, he pushed inside, just as if he had been expected.

He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg, and "Dwalin at your service!" he said with a low bow.


Gandalf sat the head of the party with the thirteen dwarves all round: Bilbo sat on a stool at the fireside, nibbling at a biscuit (his appetite was quite taken away), and trying to look as if this was all perfectly ordinary and not in the least an adventure. The dwarves ate and ate, and talked and talked, and time got on.


"Now for some music!" said Thorin. "Bring out the instruments!"

The dark came into the room from the little window that opened in the side of The Hill; the firelight flickered - it was April - and still they played on, while the shadow of Gandalf's beard wagged against the wall.



April 27, the day of the unexpected party!

Hope your tea-time is filled with so many strange and wonderful stories, that you don't finish until well past dark. We like it dark for dark business, as they say - with dragons and whatnot.

Enjoy!

Related posts:
Dwarven Music
Hobbit Movie (1977)
Play It Now: Brave Dwarves Back For Treasure
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April 26 Good Morning!

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By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by.


"Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.

It's Gandalf-Visits-the-Shire Day!

Be on the lookout for unexpected visitors who might send you on an adventure - and be careful to whom you say, "I beg your pardon"! And be double-careful of whom you invite for tea!

Enjoy your adventures!
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