This is a brief bit I wrote a couple of years back while in Oxford. In honor of the Professor's birthday, I post it here for all you Hobbits out there.

8-1-02
2:20 PM
The Eagle and Child Pub
(The Bird and Baby)
Oxford, England

Sitting under a picture of Professor Tolkien. This is where he, Lewis, and others met to drink beer and talk about their books they were writing. It's just a small pub, the table's a bit sticky, but they have a respectful number of pictures up of the fellows. I'm sitting in the same room as them.

Just got back from visiting his and Edith's grave in Wolvercote Cemetery in N. Oxford. Long walk up the road, but found it pretty easily. Got to the roundabout, found an Ordinance Survey map at the BP, and one free look later, walked Five Mile Road to the cemetery.

Little brown signs direct your way to his grave. A few items dot it, including a white cigarette lighter in a plastic Ziplock bag. Two large bushes are planted in the bed of his grave.

Under her name, "Luthien" is inscribed; under his, "Beren." She died the year I was born, 1971; he died two years later.

It was quite silly, but I got quite emotional as I said a brief thank-you to the Professor for his book, the one thing that has given me the greatest amount of joy in my life.