That's Ent-ertainment!

I have a habit of observing some fannish holidays.

March 25 (translated to our calendar of course) is marked the First Day of the Fourth Age in Middle-earth, because that's the day that the age of the Rings of Power ended with the One Ring taking its fateful lava bath at Orodruin.

Members of the J.R.R. Tolkien-related fanfic writing clan online - a subculture I refuse to be ashamed of belonging to - honor all of March as "Return to Middle-earth Month," in which, at least once, you stop what you're doing and reflect on your love of all things Arda.

Even lots of LOTR geeks who love the book still try to hang on to some sense of not-yet-totally-submerged pride by insisting, "But the poetry in it sucks, of course I always skip that." Well, I don't. I'll spare you my stubborn Bombadilatry, but here's something bittersweet for spring, from that most cold, pale spring of segments, The Two Towers:

ENT:

When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

ENTWIFE:

When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I'll linger here and will not come, because my land is fair.

ENT:

When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold;
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

ENTWIFE:

When Summer warms the hanging fruit, and burns the berry brown;
When straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

ENT:

When Winter comes, the Winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall, and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain,
I'll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again!

ENTWIFE:

When Winter comes, and singing ends, when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I'll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again;
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

BOTH:

Together we will take the road that leads into the West
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.

(JRRT)

***

The Tolkien Ensemble of Denmark does a musical setting of this that once reduced me to about half an hour of full-bore, unstoppable sobbing, no lie. Because I am a complete SAP, pun intended.