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

Music in Rivendell

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Music is such an essential part of The Hobbit -- and such a highly personal part of reading and enjoying The Hobbit. I feel I would be remiss if I didn't share some of my favorite music.


Judith Pintar is an amazing harpist - her album Changes Like the Moon is one of my all-time favorites. Very appropriate for Rivendell (in Hob's esteemed opinion).

Enjoy!
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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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English Folk Song "The Fox Went Out"

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So I obviously couldn't let it rest.

Here's a great resource page for "The Fox Went Out", which includes complete lyrics and a 33 second clip of the song in performance.

Nice! (But not at all how I've been singing it!)
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30th May: The Stone Trolls

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Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;
For many a year he had gnawed it near,
For meat was hard to come by.
Done by! Gum by!
In a cave in the hills he dwelt alone,
And meat was hard to come by.

Up came Tom with his big boots on.
Said he to Troll: 'Pray, what is yon?
For it looks like the shin o' my nuncle Tim.
As should be a-lyin' in the graveyard.
Caveyard! Paveyard!
This many a year has Tim been gone,
And I thought he were lyin' in the graveyard.

'For a couple o' pins,' says Troll, and grins,
'I'll eat thee too, and gnaw thy shins.
A bit o' fresh meat will go down sweet!
I'll try my teeth on thee now.
Hee now! See now!
I'm tired o' gnawing old bones and skins;
I've a mind to dine on thee now.'

But just as he thought his dinner was caught,
He found his hands had hold of naught.
Before he could mind, Tom slipped behind
And gave him the boot to larn him.
Warn him! Darn him!
A bump o' the boot on the seat, Tom thought,
Would be the way to larn him.

But harder than stone is the flesh and bone
Of a troll that sits in the hills alone.
As well set your boot to the mountain's root,
For the seat of a troll don't feel it.
Peel it! Heal it!
Old Troll laughed, when he heard Tom groan,
And he knew his toes could feel it.

One of my favorite Tolkien poems when I was a kid (you can read the whole thing here). I don't think I've ever heard the song to which this is supposed to be sung: the traditional English folk song "The Fox Went Out", according to The Annotated Hobbit. In my mind, it is a fast-paced, thumping tune (somewhat similar to - although faster than - the pub song Merry and Pippin sing in Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring - you know, "There's a mug of beer inside this Took!")

Anyway, how nice that the trolls turn to stone on the first day of summer!

(My apologies to other Hobbit purists for quoting from LOTR. It was appropriate, I think.)
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30th May Dawn Take You All!

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And Be Stone To You!
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30th May Welcome Summer!

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Hob's Summer "To Do" List:
1. Sit in the garden.
2. Enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables.
3. Read The Hobbit.
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