A good setting is more than just a backdrop!
This is my first time to join Enbrethiliel's Locus Focus meme. I've enjoyed reading Locus Focus for months and feel like a slug for not participating sooner. Actually, settings typically don't make me swoon in particular but when E announced Middle-earth Day, I knew I had to join. (E, are you surprised? Shocked? Like Gandalf said: Expect me when you see me!)
Out of all my favorite books, Tolkien created the one bookish locale where I would dearly love to dwell: Middle-earth!
Oh, how I wish I could pop right into one of the tales. Can't you see me as a hobbit? I would positively make a hunky dory hobbit-- and not just because of lack of stature and a fondness for second breakfast-- but because I would be right at home in the rustically rural cozy Shire. So bucolic! So verdant! My garden would be out of this world!
But the Shire isn't the focus of my locus today.
Nope, it is Fangorn Forest.
Huh? What kind of bizarre segue is that, you ask?
Well, if you think about it, what is more rustic than a forest? And certainly verdant in a sylvan sort of way. And bucolic if you recall the tree shepherds of Fangorn Forest, the Ents. Next to the hobbits, I feel the most affinity with ents and the lost ent-wives. So not such a stretch in my mind to yearn for both the Shire and Fangorn Forest.
When E first announced Middle-earth day, Fangorn was the first setting to pop into my mind.
Wandering among gigantic primeval trees.
Clambering over gnarly roots and craggy boulders. Listening to the whispers of rustling leaves. Inhaling earthy woodsy scents.
Seeking the sources of crystal clear streams.
Seeking out hidden waterfalls and secret meadows. And communing with Treebeard the Ent. Ah, my soul would soar...
I've always felt a connection to Fangorn Forest and imagined it so vividly that I was surprised to find that there are no major descriptions of Fangorn Forest in the book. Just little snippets here and there. E always includes evocative descriptions from the book in her Locus Focus posts-- So what to do?
I considered switching to another beloved setting and, as I pondered, it occurred to me how many of my favorite settings provide respite from the character's harrowing adventures. When the characters are exhausted, distressed or afraid, a haven of comfort and security is always fortuitously near at hand.
Hobbit/Man/Elf-made havens such as: Frodo's new house at Cricket Hollow, Tom Bombadil's house, the inn at Bree, Rivendell and Lorien.
And natural havens such as: the woods above Woodhall in the Shire where Frodo and Sam spent an evening with the High Elves or the Window of the Sunset where they spent a night of peace with Faramir on the border of Mordor.
All Locus Focus worthy settings but my heart was set on Fangorn Forest. Then, my lightbulb moment! Wellinghall, Treebeard's house! Merry and Pippen's haven following their escape from the Orcs.
And here is Tolkien's description of the entrance to Wellinghall:
Suddenly before them the hobbits saw a wide opening. Two great trees stood there... like living gate-posts; but there was no gate save their crossing and interwoven branches... Beyond them was a wide level space, as though the floor of a great hall had been cut in the side of the hill. On either hand the walls sloped upwards, until they were fifty feet high or more, and along each wall stood an aisle of trees that also increased in height as they marched inward.
At the far end, the rock-fall was sheer, but at the bottom it had been hollowed back into a shallow bay with an arched roof... A little stream escaped from the springs above, and... fell tinkling down the sheer face of the wall, pouring in silver drops, like a fine curtain in front of the arched bay. The water was gathered again into a stone basin in the floor between the trees, and thence it spilled and flowed away beside the open path, out to rejoin the Entwash.
Sound's lovely, doesn't it. How wonderful it would be to visit Treebeard: sharing a draught, listening to the old tales and learning woodlore. And I would definitely stand under the gentle waterfall, wouldn't you?
And so my first Locus Focus draws to a close.
Hello? Are you still here?
Good, because I'm about to reveal a deep dark secret and wouldn't want you to miss it. Here it is:
Anything Middle-earth transports me. I could talk about it for hours. I may even be a Tolkien geek.
Thank you, Enbrethiliel, for hosting a Locus Focus Middle-earth Day!
And don't forget: Havens can be found in unlikely places...
Locus Focus is a fun way to write an insightful post about a book without writing a review. If you would like to celebrate a favorite setting, visit Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar to check the specs!
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The eldest daughter is often doomed in fairy tales. But Bella—Isabella Beauchamps, daughter of a wealthy merchant—vows to escape the usual pitfalls. 
