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Hearpwine smiled broadly at Larien's question. "It has indeed! Not only have I learned a number of pleasing tunes -- and even helped in the writing of a new one -- but I have made the acquaintance of a number of new folk. This is indeed a remarkable place for the variety of peoples who come here. There's only one other Inn I've been to like it, but that was many years ago away in my home land of Rohan..."
A quiet voice from behind made Hearpwine turn in surprise. "You speak, no doubt, of the White Horse," the voice was saying. The occupants of the table and saw emerging from the shadows of outside the tall form of Snaveling.
"Aye, that I do my friend. Do you know the place?"
"I have been there," he replied quietly. "But that was many years ago, and in a different life."
Hearpwine bid Snaveling sit and then, clapping his hand to his forehead, cried out, "My old Master would have my hide for not introducing you right away to my new friends. Ginger and Larien, this is my dear companion...I'm not sure which name to use when introducing him, is it Snaveling or Tar-Corondir, for I have heard you called both?"
The dark man put out his hand to Larien, saying easily, "My name in the Shire is Snaveling, for all that it's not so fair as how I am called elsewhere. Ginger I know well," and he avoided her eye as he said this, for her look was not the most kind, "but I am pleased to make your acquaintance Mistress Larien. I must say, that if my name is odd, yours is equally out of place -- if I might be so bold. Larien is not a Halfling name."
Before she could answer Hearpwine burst out, "It is a name that she was given by the Lord Elrond himself in Imladris where the Lady Larian Telemnar was raised as foster child by the Elves! She was the close companion and friend of the Lady Arwen and knows much of Elvish magic and lore. She has returned to her homeland to seek her fortune!" Snaveling, who was quickly becmong accustomed to Hearpwine's enthusiasm, knew better than to take this recitation at face value. The Bard, he knew would rather lose his voice than to use it for a lie, but exagerations were common with the Man of Rohan. Snaveling turned to Larien, "I myself have just come from my new home in the south, where I spent time in the court of the King and Queen. If you were fostered in Imladris and the handmaiden to Arwen, perhaps you knew the Lord Elessar as well?'
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