Tolkien Calendar: The Great Years

Tolkien Calendar: The Great Years

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August 22, TA 3019


Categories: Tolkien Calendar

They come to Isengard; they take leave of the King of the West at sunset.


As someone who has long loved the character of Aragorn, today feels like it is truly the breaking of the Fellowship, and the culmination of Tolkiens marvelous tale.
Quote:
Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galadriel. 'It is long, long since we met by stock and stone. A vanimar, vanimálion nostari!' he said. 'It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.'

...The travelers now rode with more speed, and they made their way towards the Gap of Rohan; and Aragorn took leave of them at last close to that very plave where Pippin had looked into the Stone of Orthanc. The Hobbits were grieved at this parting; for Aragorn had never failed them and he had been their guide through many perils.
... 'And remember, dear friends of the Shire, that my realm lies also in the North, and I shall come there one day.'

Then Aragorn took leave of Celeborn and Galadriel; and the Lady said to him: 'Elfstone, through darkness you have come to your hope, and now have all your desire. Use well the days!'

But Celeborn said: 'Kinsman, farewell! May your doom be other than mine, and your treasure remain with you to the end!'
With that they parted, and it was the time of sunset; and when after a while they turned and looked back, they saw the King of the West sitting upon his horse with his knights about him; and the falling Sun shone upon them and made all their harness to gleam like red gold, and the white mantle of Aragorn was turned to flame. Then Aragorn took the green stone and held it up, and there came a green fire from his hand.

© J.R.R.Tolkien. Images © The Grey Ship of the Elves, by Alan Lee.

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Aug 28: The fellowship comes upon Saruman.


"Flooded Isengard" by Alan Lee
The fellowship parted from Strider, King Elessar, at Orthanc 6 days ago. They are coming up on the Misty Mountains when they overtake two ragged beggars. One is wearing tattered grey or dirty white robes trailed by a sniveling shell of a man crawling along behind him. The company has overtaken Saruman and Grima who is more of a worm than ever.

Saruman has come a long ways in his long travels from Arda. Once Saruman was the White, now he is no color at all. Once he was a powerful Maia, preferred of many now he is merely a bitter shell of himself. He is offered mercy but he is unable to be humble enough to accept it. So bitter is he that he alters his direction to avoid following after the company.

As he is leaving he steals the last of Merry's pipeweed and his pouch and he warns the company that they may not find the Southfarthing to their liking when they finally get there. He kicks Grima along who mutters about the cruelty but he is still to firghtend to accept Gandalf's challenge to leave Saruman. But this grumbling is a portend of things to come.

I have always wondered if Saruman had planned to go to the Shire and do his evil work or, if it was a plan that formulated in his head as a result of this encounter.

Images © Alan Lee.

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September 6, TA 3019


They 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?

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September 13, TA 3019


Categories: Tolkien Calendar

Celeborn and Galadriel depart, the others set out for Rivendell.



    Galadriel, Celeborn, Elrond, and Gandalf have spent some seven days in quiet conference about many things--from ages gone to the recent events of the War of the Ring and the possibilities of the time yet to come. The Lords of Lorien need to return to their realm, where Galadriel will stay but a short time before she departs from the Grey Havens, leaving Celeborn and Middle Earth behind. Indeed, it seems as though the departure is already underway for the three who will go, for their conversation takes place as a meeting of mind only, and they seem to be only partly present in Middle Earth. "If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in un peopled lands." It is a foreshadowing of the future of Elven folk.

    Elrond, Gandalf, and the hobbits go on from Eregion to Rivendell after the Lords of Lorien leave. Frodo and his friends seek Bilbo out before they do anything else, and in his simple greeting "So you've come back." the Quest of the Ring has come almost full circle. For two weeks they rest in the Last Homely House, and then it is time for the hobbits and Gandalf to leave on the last stage of the journey home. Frodo and Bilbo leave Elrond, but like Galadriel, the parting is temporary. The Grey Havens wait.

Images © "Fellowship Journey" by Alan Lee.

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September 21, TA 3019


Categories: Tolkien Calendar

They return to Rivendell




Our story begins to come full circle. It is almost exactly one year ago that the Black Riders first appeared on the borders of the Shire. Look as what has happened, what has been won, and what has been lost in the span of this one eventful year.

So it is today that the Hobbits, Elrond, and Gandalf return the Rivendell...

    "At last one evening they came over the high moors, suddenly as to travellers it always seemed, to the brink of the deep valley of Rivendell and saw far below the lamps shining in Elrond's house. And they went down and crossed the bridge and came to the doors, and all the house was filled with light and song for joy at Elrond's homecoming."

The Last Homely Home.

Images © "Rivendell" by Alan Lee.


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Last edited: 3 July 2022 14:29:05