There are various places around Middle-earth, and very often we see that the dwellers of a certain land and the land itself are a good match for each other. There can be observed a particular interdependence between an area and its inhabitants, but is it the land that shapes the dwellers or vice versa? Read more
Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes like
a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white
daffadowndilly, small and slender like. Hard as
di’monds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight,
cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a
snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass
I ever saw with daisies in her hair in springtime.
(Two Towers, p. 357)
Elvish poetry occupies a special place in Tolkien’s Legendarium. It is always instantly recognisable and different from the verse of other peoples in Middle-earth. Varied in style and tone, focus and subject matter, Elvish songs and poems always give a lot of food for thought. Their poems in The Lord of the Rings present a story of their own.
It would be a poor life in a land where no mallorn grew.
(Fellowship of the Ring, p. 457)
While there are still Elvish realms like spots of light in Middle-earth of the Third Age, none of them is so Elvish as Lothlórien is. Legolas refers to the Golden Wood as to «the fairest of all the dwellings of my people» (Fellowship of the Ring., p. 438), which captures Lórien’s aura perfectly.
In the Third Age there remained only a few Elvish realms around Middle-earth. They were the places of uttermost beauty and peace as well as among the safest places in the land. In The Lord of the Rings we see Frodo and the company stay a while at Rivendell and Lothlórien – the realms that, among many gifts, brought them spiritual and physical rest, peace of mind and comfort if only for a while.
