[Dimturiel]

The most powerful Tolkien-related experience I had was on New Year's Eve at the end of 2004. My mother, my sister and I decided to read aloud a chapter from LOTR that night. We lit many candles-we always have a lot of candles around the house during the winter holidays-and we settled down to read Lothlorien. . I remember it was my sister's turn and she had reached the part when Legolas sings about Nimrodel. The poem, the way she was reading it, the candlelit room-everything seemed to put me under a spell. I think that is how the hobbits must have felt when hearing the elves singing in Rivendell. In that moment I discovered Middle-earth-that is, I knew it already from the books and the movies but this time it was no longer remote but tangible and so very real! In that moment I was no longer sitting in my house but in some glade in Lothlorien listening to the Lay of Nimrodel. It was an extraordinary experience, and I know I shall never forget it.