[Rosa Underhill]

It's about 2:30 a.m. here. I've just woken up from a dream that has much relevance to this forum and am very groggy, so if the following makes little sense, I apologize.

The dream: feeling a need for scholarly things, I wandered into a library that was just closing. All the lights were out and the janitor was locking all the doors from the outside so that no one would get in over the weekend. I was already inside and, not wanting to leave, made a mad dash for a spiral staircase in the darkened corner at the other end of the library. I had a book title in mind, something to do with Tolkien and relating to a paper I would have to write sooner or later.

I ran up the staircase and met an old man in a book-filled and paper cluttered room. He was very nice; asked what he could do to help me out. Before I said anything, however, he piled up a stack of books and handed them to me. I said I was looking for something about Tolkien and he smiled and said "So, you've read my books?"

As it turns out, the old man was none other than Professor Tolkien himself! The book-cluttered room metamorphosed into something that looked like my apartment and Tolkien got up and went to get me a book about him. He pulled a chair up to my bookcase and started leafing through the Redbook of Westmarch, muttering.

Then it got creepy. He started calling himself "my precious" and asking himself "if it would like a nice book, a good book." One of my teeth fell out and Gollum/Tolkien started laughing (not because my tooth fell out though). It was not a friendly laugh; he was cackling very wickedly. The sound was so scary that it woke me up.

I suppose I shouldn't read Tolkien's biography so late at night, should I? Have a good day, hope all of you rested well and thank you for indulging a sleepy hobbit.