Lord of the Ring landscapes

[Alda]

There are times while reading Tolkien that I am swept away. In The Silmarillion, within Of The Voyage Of Earendil , one of my favorite landscapes is described. I think it is one of the most magical and beautiful portraits the gentle professor ever penned.

But some there were who saw him from afar, and the great light that he bore; and they went in haste to Valimar. But Earendil climbed the green hill of Tuna and found it bare; and he entered into the streets of Tirion, and they were empty; and his heart was heavy, for he feared that some evil had come even to the Blessed Realm. He walked in the deserted ways of Tirion, and the dust upon his rainment and his shoes was a dust of diamonds, and he shone and glistened as he climbed the long white stairs.

Thanks to Tolkien's considerable talents of description, I too have climbed that fair green hill.