I amar prestar aen... the world is changed.

[Huinesoron]

I feel it in the water.

I feel it in the earth.

I smell it in the air.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest, fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine... nine rings were gifted to the race of Men who, above all else, desire power.

For within these rings was bound the strength and will to govern each race...

... but they were all of them deceived.

~

Twenty years today we first saw that Shire, that Rivendell, that (winged) Balrog. Twenty years since we heard that soundtrack that most of us can still hum chunks of today. Twenty years since the characters were irrevocably given new faces, new costumes, in tens of thousands of minds.

Twenty years since Merry and Pippin became comic relief, Bombadil was booted, and Arwen stole a horse. Twenty years. Good grief.

hS