If you could have been born in Middle Earth...

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by blantyr

I'd be an elven singer from the Grey Havens, winter in the settlements by the sea, and wander the woods in the warmer months. I wouldn't be as good an archer or swordsman as most in the wandering companies, but the Shadow can be fought with song as well as blades, and songs should be sung also for song's sake.

My dad taught me to use the long bow but I never made much of it. Not being one for wandering far from home I think I'd be a Shire dweller (they too have bows, though they only appear in the Scouring of the Shire), but one who spends time with those who journey through or live on the borders of our land.

As to singing for the song's sake, I don't know if that is quite possible or, at any rate, not how I'd put it. Shire folk also love music (I play whistle and uilleann pipes), gathering to sing and make merry. Our music is neither as 'high' as the Elves nor dour as the Dwarves, or sinister as the Goblins, but akin to all because music is more than being entertained; we make our own music, our own magic, to tell ourselves who we are.

We make music because thus we rejoin the Great Song. How can I put it? Songs should be sung for the Song's sake (capital S), not for the sake of an individual song.

"It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?"
R.W.Lowry