Just a quick note to say I will be interviewed on KUKI Talk (Public Affairs Radio from the University of California, Irvine) on Tani Tinuviel's "What Would Arwen Do?" program on Friday (January 20) at 9am Pacific Time. The interview also will be available online at the KUKI website. The program will focus on the One Ring Celebration (ORC) and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. More details about the interview are now available here.

And now, one of my favorite passages from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Eärendil was a Mariner" verse in The Lord of the Rings:

There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light,
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
and long-forsaken seas distressed:
from east to west he passed away.