[Rumil]

Nice discussion,

I've been wondering about the applicability of folklore here. Now British (and probably more generally European) folklore had the concept of the 'High Hunt', where, usually on a dark, warm, inexplicably windy, witchy, twitchy sort of summer's night, often Midsummer, the faerie / sidhe / elves held a great annual hunt.

The King of the Elves rides out with his huntsmen, either pursuing the White Stag, or clearing the land of the 'uncanny' creatures that have escaped from the faerie realm over the last year. Their pursuit is wild and unrestrained, galloping across hill, wood and vale with no let or hindrance.

For the honest countyman, this is a time to bring in the beasts from the field, securely bolt your front door, and heed no nightly noises whatsoever. If you have the wrong sort of elves it might be just as well to put out a saucer of milk and make sure the horseshoe is extra-securely nailed over the door. All will be well in the morning, apart maybe from the odd missing chicken or shifted roof-slate. Woe betide the lad or lass that ventures outdoors upon such a night, for, often-as-not they're never seen again, or turn up years and years later but fay and strangely changed.

So what's the Middle-Earth relevance? We know the elves, like practically all nobility, loved to hunt. The Noldor were great hunters in Beleriand (even chasing down the Petty-Dwarves), Thranduil and his folk often rode out hunting in Mirkwood, and the White Stag was seen by Bilbo et al on their trek.

I could see the elven aristocracy of Rivendell riding out on a midsummer's night, led by the brethren Elladan and Elrohir or Elrond himself perhaps. Maybe they hunt the White Stag, maybe they scour the lands of orcs and trolls. Some years they go North into the Ettenmoors, some years North-West into the Trollshaws or South West across the plains and into the Angle, sometimes South into Hollin, and occasionally they carry on through Hollin to Dunland. East they go not.

Those nights the men of Dunland retire to their forts and roundhouses, build up the fire and bar the door, knowing that uncanny folk beyond their understanding are abroad.

Maybe !

What do you think?