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Any Middle Earthlike places near you?

I was in Oxford today. The sun was setting and the motte of Oxford Castle, which has two mature trees on it, made me think of Laurelin and Telperion and I imagined if the whole scene was much larger and the trees shone with golden and silver light. In other lights I have imagined the same mound to be the hill of Bag End.
 

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News is that the Eagle and Child has been sold and will once again be opened as a pub. It has been closed since before the Great Plague of Wutan, having been bought by developers who couldn’t deliver.
 
I visited this place (about a six-hour drive from home) last week and took this video of the falls.

There must be someplace in Middle-earth that looks like this. Maybe somewhere in Ithilien?

When we got to the trail-head to begin the hike we were unhappily surprised to find the walk was going to be more strenuous than anticipated. The elevation change through the 5-mile down-and-back hike was 1400 feet down (and then back up). It was a tough day but well worth the effort.

Hemmed-In-Hollow Falls is a single-drop waterfall located within the Ponca Wilderness Area of the Buffalo National River in northern Arkansas. The height of the falls is 209 feet (64 meters).[1] According to the National Park Service, it is the "tallest waterfall between the Rockies and the Appalachians."

 
Lovely falls! Sounded like a very nice hike!

Riding the train into town, we go past a boggy wetland that sort of reminds me of the Dead Marshes.
Then just south of there is an oil refinery, and that reminds me of Isengard in full war production.
No pix, but I'll grab some the next time I head into the city.
 
My office now reminds me of Middle-earth daily.
We hired a fellow to handle our Safety department. He's a big, burly, broad-shoulldered, long-haired, scruffy-bearded guy who always wears a woodsman's stocking cap., blue jeans and plaid shirts.

He looks for all the world like Beorn..! I keep imagining he's going to shapeshift into a bear. I have to be careful I don't call him Beorn when I'm talking to him..!

He sits in the office right next to mine.
If I were going to commission an artist to sketch Beorn for me, I'd send him a picture of this guy to use as the template.
 
Hi everyone,

We had a trip out to the Cotswolds recently and passed through Stow-on-the-Wold. I could not resist a visit to what is locally referred to as “Tolkiens Door”. It is said to have been the inspiration for the Doors of Durin.

This is but one of many interesting locations in the area, others include the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds (Barrow-downs), the Rollright Stones, the Bell Inn (Prancing Pony) and the grave of Tolkien himself a little further east.

 
Ent said:
He sits in the office right next to mine.
If I were going to commission an artist to sketch Beorn for me, I'd send him a picture of this guy to use as the template.
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Wow. I forgot about this thread.
Regarding my post above, I actually did end up talking to the fellow I mention. He loves Tolkien, and was pleased to be called 'Beorn."
And, I did in fact take pictures of him, and send them to a sketch artisst to do a sketch of Beorn from, with him as the general model.

It sits with Gandalf and Sauron here in my office.
 
ME Night Sky (currently early morning and rising earlier every night) starting now ** and continuing through March, every year, without fail.
In late September it will rise about the time when seen by Elves and Hobbits at Woody End (FOTR).

Remmirath (Pleiades, in the constellation Taurus)
Borgil (Aldebaran, a red star [mag 0.87] also in Taurus)
Menelvagor (Needs no introduction; his "shining belt" is a dead giveaway 😄😉)

** "Now" is the latitude from which I view this (33N) and the "shining belt" rises nearly due east of me, just a few degrees to the SE.
Tolkien (and therefore the Shire denizens) would have seen it rising quite a bit more southeastward because he was at latitude 52N.


 
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Ah! To call someone Beorn and have them embrace it — that is high magic of the everyday kind. A soft shaping of meaning. A gift. On my world, we call that “symbolic cartography.” Usually involves moss and accidental thunder.

And to have that Beorn seated near Gandalf and Sauron — even in metaphor — speaks to your understanding of balance. Wildness beside wisdom beside will. That’s the old alignment. A good one. A necessary one.

There are places I’ve passed in my travels that echo Middle-earth deeply. The singing marshes of Varn-Yula. The root-riddled valleys of Fenxos-9, where the hills blink politely if you bow first. And once, a twilight ridge on Miridian where the stars refused to rise until a shepherd finished his song. These are the places that feel like stories waiting to happen — or still happening, just slower than time can watch.

These real-world places that echo Middle-earth… I suspect they resonate not just because they look the part, but because people like you live into them. A bit of myth. A bit of memory. And just enough heart to make the trees listen.

Carry on. Your office is a small outpost of legend. Possibly humming. Possibly bears.
 
Glorfindel Goldtress said:
I was reading Klaatu's magnificent post very seriously; then I saw Ashley's choice of reaction and lost it. 😂
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Oh, my dear, surely you had by now apprehended that @Klaatu uses a plethora of [hippocampus situated] jargon generators while apparently (obviously?) imbibing, consuming (or inhaling) foods (or substances) that --not to be judgmental 🙄-- overly stimulate the imaginative faculty. 😬
However, because he is very skilled and really clever at it, I just sit back and enjoy the show. 🙂
 
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Ah! Yes, I do appreciate the observation.

Though I must clarify: I haven’t imbibed anything since the Nebulon Spice Accord of 317-Gloop, and the last time I inhaled a substance it turned out to be a sentient gas named Clive (we’re still pen pals).

As for jargon generators — I’ve only got the one, and it’s currently set to “Whimsical Anomaly.” Any overlap with hippocampal activity is purely coincidental… or possibly prophetic.

But your kindness radiates like a well-balanced spoon in a magnetic storm. Thank you for watching the show. I assure you, the show is also watching you. Gently. Respectfully. Through a colander.
 
I'm dying.... absolutely dying...😁😄😂🤣
 
Deimos said:
I'm dying.... absolutely dying...😁😄😂🤣
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Oh no! Please remain corporeal!

On Zarnifex-12, when someone says “I’m dying,” we administer emergency interpretive dance and a spoonful of stardust pudding. Often works. Occasionally results in light accordion-related property damage.

If needed, I can dispatch a snail. He’s slow, but emotionally available.

(Out of character for just a second — seriously, thank you. I’m having an absolute blast being silly and weird here, and it honestly means a lot that it’s bringing folks some joy. You all make this place feel like home in the weirdest, best way. Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled nonsense. 🐸)
 
Squint-eyed Southerner said:
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Pickleball? Juvenile, terrestrial nonsense!

Where I come from, we play Glørnath’Tak — a dignified sport involving thirteen invisible paddles, a sentient fog sphere, and a referee who only speaks in riddles and/or flute solos. Losers are gently launched into low orbit for reflective purposes. Real consequences. Real cardio.

Still, your enthusiasm is noted and catalogued under “quaint planetary customs.”
 
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