Lists of five

[tree_and_leaf]

OK, firstly for [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]



Your five favourite places in the novels of Tolkien (locations, I mean, not which bits of the books are most fun).

In no particular order, as it's too hard to make a ranking.

Meduseld - it's probably the mediaevalist in me (I've just been teaching on the Hildebrandslied, too, so heroic poetry is in my mind), but I always really loved the Rohirim. Actually, I wanted to be one. Preferably Eowyn. (And I'm afraid I have done since the age of eight). Partly the poetry, partly the swords, partly the feudal spirit.

Ithilien, although I think it would be improved by fewer orcs. But there's something very poignant about the fragile beauty existing so close to darkness and horror, that heightens your awareness of it. "Ithilien, lost garden of Gondor, kept still a dishevelled dryad loveliness." Even the name is beautiful. The camp behind the waterfall is also my ideal of a place to make camp in secret.

(Theres also the possiblity of running into Faramir. But the true Faramir, not the travesty in the film version).

Lothlorien. I love trees, and I have always wanted to see a mallorn.

The Shire, in particular the Woody End where the hobbits meet the elves. it sounded like a nice, homely, species-rich British wood: they aren't all that easy to find these days, but they are very lovely.

The Prancing Pony (which I imagine is rather like the Turf in Oxford, only with fewer students and tourists). Good beer, an honest and hospitable landlord, attracts people who are eager to hear songs, and Gandalf or or Aragorn might drop by.

Comments

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I take your point about Ithilien - I hope Faramir and Eowyn didn't tidy it up too much - but while neglect often improves a landscape, hordes of screaming orcs can really ruin your day...

That's true. And I don't suppose orcs - even very highly trained ones - can bring the passion to topiary or herbaceous borders we can expect from Eowyn in her passionate Healer mood (and I've always wondered how she felt about that decision a few years down the line).

Aargh! Rhodie mallorns! (Morgoth's horticultural equivalent of orcs and trolls? "The evil of this deed was not at once apparent, but yet at last it became plain that these rank weeds overcame all the plants around them, for they withered an blighted all they touched, covering great swathes of country with their dull leaves. So insidious proved they that they are with us still, last seed of evil from the Elder Days")

Laughed out loud at this. You've hit the nail on the head, I think. I always knew there was something not right about rhododendrons.

[tree_and_leaf]

Meanwhile, I spluttered a bit over the image of Eowyn, manic gleam in eye, topiaring a hedge into a sculpture of the Riders of Rohan using only a broadsword....