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I suspect it was my growing awareness of my own wanderlust and curiosity that made me aware of the real sense of connection I felt to Tolkien's lineage, as a part of that New World extension of a people who ranged so astonishingly far and wide. And the more I learned of Tolkien's Middle Earth and it's unexpected turns and twists, the more I was drawn to the fantasy world, which in turn set me off tangents which might have little or no connection to the book itself.

In casting your inspirational net as an artist, you become familiar with the humility that comes with watching your best-laid plans veer sideways, and recording becoming something other than what you expected. So, you set out to Travel to Rivendell....and end up in Isengard. You set off for Mordor... and you end up on dragon flying to Gondor. The journey, not the destination, becomes a source of wonder.

In the end, I wonder if one of the most important steps on our journey is the one in which we throw away the map. In jettisoning the grids and brambles of our own preconceptions, perhaps we are better to find the real secrets of each place; to remember that we are all extensions of our collective history.

My hope was that this site might fuel curiosity in the same way as do the best books of travel stories. From all journeys, be they imaginative or geographic, the most important souvenirs to be collected are the reminders that people's lives are fortified by family and friends; by our ability to create our lives like creating a peice of art; and by our efforts to reconcile our material needs with the importance of our connections to each other.

Forever brambled and wise,
Anafdune