I see Middle-earth

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Well, I would say that I have beheld the Misty Mountain (ie. the Canadian Rockies) from my front yard. I know what the wide flatlands of Rohan look like (the natural flat grasslands of the prairie). I have beheld the mostly barren, but with scattered trees and shrubs and hills, and altogether unpopulated Eriador (Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, where the prairie and forest meet in a rather bumpy terrain). I feel like I have walked in the Woody End (anywhere up in the Parkland band of forest. Elk Island Nat. Park springs to mind). I have walked in the pine-forest of Dorthonion, tracking the footsteps of Barahir and his men (lodgepole pine forest, either in Cypress Hills or Waterton Nat. Park). I have gone down the River Running in a canoe (Red Deer River).

Yes, I have seen Middle-earth.

Interesting how often Alberta, Canada seems connoted with Rohan! I can't say that when I have seen these places, I believe I see Middle-earth, but rather when I read about Rohan, I think of the foothills, where mountain and grassland come together. Places like Nordig and Rocky Mountain House, or even farther south, like Frank, near Crowsnest Pass.

I have, one dank, grey November day, looked out upon a beech tree, its orange leaves dead but drooping on its limbs, and its white bark shimmering, and seen Lothlorien, a land of memory and commemoration like a moment out of time.