Middle Earth in Kodai.

Note that this post needs a certain amount of imagination on the reader's part. Middle Earth like many other things, lies in the eye of the beholder.

Middle Earth is real, as real as the wild lunges of Hobbes which greet Calvin when he comes back home from school, as real as the never-ending tapestry that the Wheel of Time weaves.
As real as the vengeful nature of Ashwattama, as real as pride and hubris of Agamemnon.
As real as the continent of Westeros, as real as the dogmatic nature of the magisterium.

I am getting carried away though. The post is about how I had my few glimpses of middle earth in the expanses of Kodaikanal. JRRT may have seen the Misty mountains in the Swiss Alps, the eternal snows of Jungfrau sculpting the Celebdil of his dreams. Me, I saw Berijam lake becoming the Cuiviénen of mine, and the shola forests becoming the Fangorn of my fantasies.

And from there I was transported to Beleriand, glimpsing Amon Rudh as the last rays of the setting sun fell on it.

I walked under the mellyrn of winter-time, of trunks silver and leaves a bewitching shade of green, tall as towers beneath the morning sun.

You see it now, maybe?

George RR Martin spoke for many of us, I think, when he said, "They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to Middle Earth."

And what was it that Blake said?

To see the World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour...

Words more true have rarely been spoken.

PS. People who use RSS feeds will get really ticked off at me, I think. I edit my posts like a dozen times after I first publish it, and then again maybe once a day. So those of you who do so - have fun!