September 6, TA 3019
5 September 2006 19:55:09They halt in sight of the Mountains of Moria.
"Mirrormere" by Alan Lee
- Does anyone do the mixed feelings of beauty and sadness as well as Tolkien?
"September came in with golden days and silver nights, and they rode at ease until they reached the Swanfleet river, and found the old ford, east of the falls where it went down suddenly into the lowlands. Far to the west in a haze lay the meres and eyots through which it wound its way to the Greyflood: there countless swans housed in a land of reeds.
"So they passed into Eregion, and at last a fair morning dawned, shimmering above gleaming mists; and looking from their camp on a low hill the travellers saw away in the east the Sun catching three peaks that thrust up into the sky through floating clouds: Caradhras, Celebdil, and Fanuidhol. They were near to the Gates of Moria.
"Here now for seven days they tarried, for the time was at hand for another parting which they were loth to make."
Many of us Tolkien fans think of The Lord of the Rings as a 'September' book: September is beautiful even though it is the beginning of the end. Do you imagine Galadriel was eager to get to Lothlorien, even as she regretted saying good-bye to her friends, so she would not miss one of her last golden autumns amidst the mallorns?