Walk To Rivendell" aka "The Eowyn Challenge"

[Alatáriël Lossëhelin]

Alatáriël, that's a lovely poem - who wrote it? It's quite obviously Sam speaking, but I'm quite sure Tolkien's not the author...

Not so sure, Esty. Tolkien wrote a real heartbreaker that never made it into the Trilogy (or rather, was replaced by "In Western Lands Beneath the Sun" and that has the same feel to me.

Helen: You caught me! I've just finished reading The History of The Lord of the Rings. This is indeed the original version of Sam's song of despair/defiance in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. I tear up reading both, but I think I like this original version better. I doubt that it will happen, but I sure would like to have Sam sing this in RotK.

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Our company has reached the fair land of Hollin at last. The rain has stopped and the clouds scattered. We enjoyed our breakfast this morning in the warmth of the sun. Caradhras looms ever closer on the horizon..with luck we will be able to pass over before the snows get too deep.

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They had been a fortnight on the way when the weather changed. The wind suddenly fell and then veered round to the south. The swift-flowing clouds lifted and melted away, and the sun came out, pale and bright. There came a cold clear dawn at the end of a long stumbling night-march. The travellers reached a low ridge crowned with ancient holly-trees whose grey-green trunks seemed to have been built out of the very stone of the hills. Their dark leaves shone and their berries glowed red in the light of the rising sun.

Away in the south Frodo could see the dim shapes of lofty mountains that seemed now to stand across the path that the Company was taking. At the left of this high range rose three peaks; the tallest and nearest stood up like a tooth tipped with snow; its great, bare, northern precipice was still largely in the shadow, but where the sunlight slanted upon it, it glowed red.