Our Journey Starts Soon…!

A Reminder, a Memorial, & a Song

Hello, my fellow Tolkien readers! I am so excited to see more and more people joining our Fellowship as we near our start date on April 12th. Please share this Substack with anyone you think might enjoy it…the more the Merry-ier!

Since we begin in just four days, I wanted to send out a reminder to all those participating in the reading portion of our Fellowship to dust off those books and get ready to read the first two chapters of Lord of the Rings! Here are the upcoming dates to know:

April 12th: read Chapter 1 (and Prologue optional)

April 13th: read Chapter 2

Once we start our adventure, I will send out reminders for those reading the chapters along with brief reflections on what we have read. I invite everyone, regardless if you are reading along or not, to comment any thoughts or reflections on our journey as the year goes on!

As a last little note, this project has a special place in my heart in light of my uncle’s recent passing. My uncle, who is my dad’s identical twin brother and a truly brilliant, witty, and loving person, recently passed away after a six-year battle with ocular melanoma, a very rare and lethal cancer that few people are diagnosed with—--only 5 in a million. 

I have very fond memories of bonding over Tolkien with my uncle, especially our shared love of the Silmarillion, so I am embarking on this journey in honor of him. Due to the rarity of the cancer, there is very little funding to support research for medications and cures. Below is a link to his tribute page at the Ocular Melanoma Foundation website, where you can learn more about ocular melanoma, and if you are so inclined, donate to a very worthy cause:

https://ocularmelanoma.org/kbennett

Also, a special thank you to

Jokien with Tolkien

who was so supportive of this project. He has an amazing Substack filled with humorous and thoughtful posts on all things Tolkien. If you aren’t already following his Substack, go check it out!

And last but not least, below is one of my and my uncle’s favorite poems by Tolkien. Fittingly, Biblo sang this poem in Rivendell on 24 December T.A. 3018, the evening before the Fellowship of the Ring set out upon their quest…

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;
 
Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.
 
I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.
 
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.
 
I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.
 
But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.