The Lord of the Rings and the Fall-Winter Seasons

[Bêthberry]

A white-coated, be-spectacled figure shuffles into the room.

"Verrrry interestink, Mister Rune. You present a most unusual case. If you vere Englishh, I vould say your situation suggests an example of inherited family archetype. Perhaps vone of your Victorian ancestors vas a convict who managed to evade arrest und trial und deportation to Australia. Yet his guilt festered und created a family archetype vhere you have all ze traits of a downunder person, including se sense of spring und fall reversal. No? Zish sounds like ze most plausible explanation."

Where upon persons in institutional garb appear and drag the spectacled figure off, chastising him and pulling out a straight jacket. ....



EDIT:

More seriously, I think MatthewM raised a different point than the time of year when best to read LotR. I think he meant that our Primary World seems most like Middle-earth during our Fall and Winter months. I know that when I look out and see beech trees in winter with their orange leaves still hanging tenuously onto their branches, I am often reminded of Lothlorien, where only Galadriel's magic keeps change at bay and the trees in leaf. I have often wondered if Tolkien had this characteristic of beech leaves in mind when he described mallorn trees--assuming that such beech trees existed in his England. He was not only a gardener but he raised chickens also, at least during the war.