@mossypaw - Tumblr Blog

… this habitation set within the vast spaces of the World, which the Elves call Arda, the Earth. J.R.R. Tolkien; The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë

a-quiet-green-agreement

It was now February. The trees were budding earlier than usual; the nightingale had never come so soon; the spring rose fairer in the land than the oldest men could recollect it. In every quarter, little brooks gushed out to irrigate the pastures and meadows; the hills seemed heaving, the vines rose higher and higher, the fruit-trees blossomed as they had never done; and a swelling fragrant blessedness hung suspended heavily in rosy clouds over the scene.

– Ludwig Tieck, from “The Elves,” Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy (Ballantine Books, 2003)