BRUNO: A French circle spins for him.
???E???: Burrowing mammals' concerts and insects' pity combine for them.
GALATHEA: Festival articles for her.
???S???: A claw and a nun's cap were sedentary, before they spun around for him.
ASFALOTH: Shop changes tune, unwilling, for him.
GWAIHIR: Confused Field Marshal at start of Merseyside peninsula transforms for him.
ROVERANDOM: Wander unmethodically for him.
SHELOB: A unit of measure, a vowel shift ... shuffle and see her.

Keep COIF and TALON. And if you are sedentary, you are ...? (The ungrammatical one ... the past participle, not the present participle).

If honey-making insects showed the pity, what element would we have to go with RUTH?

Give me a burrowing mammal ... pluralised.

Give me another word for concerts.

Wasn't Badgersgig Bumbleruth the Shire's answer to Engelbert Humperdinck? (The composer, obviously; Hobbits would have no truck with pop.)

(I know I'm going to be kicking myself over this one. I also know it's probably bee, not bumble, but the joke worked better this way.)

If I am sedentary, I am probably seated. COIF + TALON + SEATED contains the phrase 'State of Denial', which is about how I feel. ^_^ It also gives the descriptor 'Old Stone', but the leftover letters are CIFTAAE, which doesn't come anywhere near 'troll'. (Sam Vimes is well represented, though.)

It also runs over by only three letters for FASTITOCALON, and if I remove those letters, I find that sedentary = sat. So there, I sincerely hope, is the answer.

Just a bumbling musician to go!

hS

BRUNO: A French circle spins for him.
BERUTHIEL'S MOGGIES: Burrowing mammals' concerts and insects' pity - I combine, for them.
GALATHEA: Festival articles for her.
FASTITOCALON: A claw and a nun's cap were sedentary, before they spun around for him.
ASFALOTH: Shop changes tune, unwilling, for him.
GWAIHIR: Confused Field Marshal at start of Merseyside peninsula transforms for him.
ROVERANDOM: Wander unmethodically for him.
SHELOB: A unit of measure, a vowel shift ... shuffle and see her.

Shall I help? :D

MOLES' GIGS + BEE RUTH

(Get a wooden spoon ....)

...

Ok, I've put it in.

MOLES' GIGS + BEE RUTH + I.

Over to you, Huinesoron!

There may be an extraneous I. I'm slipping ... but have now amended the clue to account for it. ;)

Okay, that is pretty spectacular. [Applause] I might potentially have gotten it if 'beeruth' came first; probably wouldn't have, though!

I will... try to get something up tonight, but from tomorrow I'm in the Land of Intermittent Phone Signal, so you probably won't see much of me. So I'll try and get something short up tonight.

hS

1. - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. - One step in... well, here we are!
4. - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

hS

Is 1 something to do with the Dead Marshes?

...

'A deed' has one less vowel if it becomes DEAD.

Tricksy candle lights ... tricksy clueses ....

It is, though I was aiming for 'turn one of the notes in 'deed' into an earlier one.

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. - One step in... well, here we are!
4. - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

hS

Is the password DEATH?

Changing vowels, you could get HALLAS for the last clue - Cirion's heir - but I can't connect that with a Huor, mendacious or otherwise - or with death.

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. ??E?? - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. ??A?? - One step in... well, here we are!
4. ??T?? - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. ??H?? - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

It's not Hallas, but changing vowels is correct. You did it wrong, though. :)

hS

Udun could become Edin, but that's not enough for Rath Dinen. ;)

I wonder if the answer is where Huor is buried, not where he told those ginormous porkies about the size of the fish he caught the previous week.

Ooh, that's a clever idea. ;)

hS

It might be, if the Fen of Serech had anything to do with a revowelled Hell.

Hmm, is Huor buried at Serech? Rian didn't think so.

hS

Hang on ...

Wait a second ... does that mean red letter is the 2nd? And A is one step in? And T is third letter?

Here we are?

Why, we're all dead, and in the BARROW-DOWNS!

Yes, yes, yes... and yes!

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. ??E?? - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. BARROW-DOWNS - One step in... well, here we are!
4. ??T?? - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. ??H?? - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

^_^

hS

Well, 2 can't be either of the Two Trees, but could it possibly refer to the area by them? I guess we're looking for a sort of forest of death, but I can't think of one.

Nope. :)

What does 'by' mean? And where's the cryptic clue?

hS

In 5, is FOR a pun on FOUR and a position indicator?

No, it is not. That clue has no position indicator, just a cryptic and straight clue.

... and you've already spotted the straight clue with 'where Huor is buried'.

hS

Is 4 BATTLE something ... Battle Gardens or something? No O in bottle; an A instead. I'm thinking of where the fallen of the Battle of Bywater were laid. I have a vague memory of it being levelled into a sandpit.

Not sure about the stone, though. And I've an idea Battle Gardens was a name suggested for the restored Bagshot Row, but rejected in favour of New Row.

5. Haudh-en-Nirnaeth?

I'm going to give you that one, because it is the sandpit used after Bywater. The actual name is BATTLE PIT, as in the stone of a fruit.

Yes - but not by that name. (I wanted to, but can you imagine the convoluted mess I would have made of the cryptic clue?!)

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. ??E?? - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. BARROW-DOWNS - One step in... well, here we are!
4. BATTLE PIT - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. ??H?? - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

hS

Hill of the Slain?

'What does BY mean?'

By the trees?

We're looking for where a famous lumberjack was crushed by some trees, then? :D

Exactly. :)

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. ??E?? - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. BARROW-DOWNS - One step in... well, here we are!
4. BATTLE PIT - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. HILL OF THE SLAIN - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

Hell > Hill, and 'of the slain' == 'for the lost', with a different meaning of 'of'.

I mean... actually pretty much yes? Only with a bit more plural?

hS

Sounds like Saruman and Ents.....

Does of really have more than one meaning?

I have been thinking about Ents and Isengard too.

And I suppose Saruman was a lumberjack ... by proxy.

But E second letter?

Helm's Deep has ELMS in it ... and didn't lots of orcs die there?

You're both very much on the right track, but are these really places people died...?

hS

Well, everywhere populous is, unless it's uniquely an elf-dwelling. (Or the Ainurs' pad). ;)

Either the Shire, where Saruman, Lotho and Grima died, or the fords of Isen, where Theodred died.

The second letter is E, though.

I think I found it. We're dealing with opposites here. Opposite of live is death, and opposite of up id down, and we get Death Down, a place where Huorns laid Saruman's Orcs to rest. Huorns are trees, and they put them near the eaves of the trees, so by the trees.

Sorry, by 'these' I meant the previous answers.

Bingo! And for exactly the right reasons too. :) Well done.

1. DEAD MARSHES - A deed of lesser note in the wet, lit by candlelight.
2. DEATH DOWN - Wait a second: do not live up by the trees.
3. BARROW-DOWNS - One step in... well, here we are!
4. BATTLE PIT - O no, a bottle - stone third in the sandpit.
5. HILL OF THE SLAIN - "Hell is other vowels! For the lost!", Huor lies.

Theme: Burial Grounds

The Battle-Pit at least was not a place where anyone was killed, and other than the Dead Marshes, the others are known for the burials, not the deaths that led to them.

Over to... Pervinca, I believe.

hS

New one?

Coming soon. I'll try to write it on the train.

Still waiting.

Yeah, and I've been stood up on a train with no seat. Have some bloody patience.

1. She unravels the Grail deal.
2. She's archaically tedious, or is it me, initially? (And subjectively).
3. Norse god confuses her.
4. She's hard (or garbled) of hearing.
5. Hear me versify for her.
6. She bestrides a turbulent river?
7. Mariner's wife is distressed for her.

1. Galadriel

GALADRIEL: She unravels the Grail deal.
2. She's archaically tedious, or is it me, initially? (And subjectively).
3. Norse god confuses her.
4. She's hard (or garbled) of hearing.
5. Hear me versify for her.
6. She bestrides a turbulent river?
7. Mariner's wife is distressed for her.