[Břicho]

This is certainly not the most exciting chapter in the book, especially coming after the beautiful blending of fairy tale and myth that is Of Thingol and Melian, and at my first reading twenty-five years ago it may have been the one that frustrated me into setting it down for a few months.

However, there are some parts I like about it: the geographical description of the "continents" proves useful knowledge when the Noldor return to Middle Earth; the image of the Teleri strumming their harps sadly by the sea; the crucial elements of the Trees; the colorful, wonderfully magic description of Tirion; the introduction of the fabled Feanor and his family.

I always find the myth-like "uprooting" of the island and pulling it to the Other Shore and "re-rooting" it there a bit strange. On the one hand it seems like a genuine myth; on the other hand, these myths are supposed to be somehow "real" and that has always stretched my imagination to the breaking point: I can accept it and appreciate it as a myth only--as long-past history, I can't.