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Old 06-27-2007, 12:39 AM   #3
Alphaelin
Wight
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Tottering about in the Wild
Posts: 130
Alphaelin has just left Hobbiton.
I always linger over this chapter so I can compare Tolkien's descriptions with the maps in my old copy of 'The Silm'. I'm kind of a geek about maps anyway, and often read parts of this book with one finger at the map pages so I can refer to them. The place names also fascinate me. I spent hours of my young adult life poring over the names of the lands, comparing the words in Sindarin and Quenya, and finding out their meanings.

Aside from the aesthetic pleasure of placenames and Tolkien's descriptions, this chapter is like a divider that punctuates the return of the Noldor to Middle Earth. It gives the reader a chance to get her bearings for the stories that follow in which the lands and people described in it are drawn into the doom of the Noldor.

Also, this chapter always starts me wondering which part of Beleriand I'd like most to see, based on JRRT's descriptions. Usually I'm drawn to Nevrast and Vinyamar
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