I've reached Rivendell and stayed there for the weekend...I could dwell there for much longer, though. I must say, reading Tolkien as we drove to Stonehenge on Friday was an excellent feeling...nothing like tramping through Middle-earth on the page as it looks like you're driving through it!

Strider's comment just before the party reaches Rivendell intrigues me: "It is not my fate to sit in peace, even in the fair house of Elrond." It seems that great leaders are rarely, if ever, destined for peace...I wonder why and would welcome any thoughts on this subject. I think perhaps the gifts of great leaders are always needed...there is always more to do in the world, more places where they can be used. Or perhaps they see too much pain along their journeys to rest on their laurels...they can never be fully satisfied unless they are helping to wipe out more pain.

To give a brief plot update, Strider and the hobbits encounter Glorfindel, an Elf-lord, on their way to Rivendell, and he gives Frodo his horse to make it across the Ford of Bruinen. Arwen appears at this point in the movie, but the rest of the details are the same...the Black Riders on Frodo's heels until the last second, the flooding of the river and the horses appearing in the waves. Frodo rests for a while in Rivendell, then spends some time talking with Bilbo and listening to the Elves sing. Of special note is a song to Elbereth, the Elf-Queen of Valar, that appears several times in the books. (I will type and translate it when I have my Elvish dictionary again.)

The Council of Elrond follows and ends with Frodo volunteering to take the Ring...I may pull bits from the Council later, but will write again when I begin to journey south with the hobbits. Namarie (farewell!)