"...there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."
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There was a Took, they said, who had gone on an adventure. He had come back with wild tales of crossing mountains with the Dwarves and delving deep beneath some distant mountains with them for treasures of old; he had come back with fantastic stories of a Elf haven at the mouth of the sea, where a salty breeze blew forever striving against solemn grey buildings; he had come back different, changed. Not touched by the Dwarf lust for treasure, no, nor swayed by the singing beneath the stars.
It was the ocean, some said, with more than just a little disapproval. No one can see that vast expanse of water and not be changed.
He lived alone, in a smial ostracized from the rest of the Took household, though the younger and more naughty Took lads often stayed up late to catch a glimpse of the old hobbit in the spansive Took library, murmuring to himself in odd tongues. Then they would scamper away, afraid the eccentric, aged hobbit was conjuring some Elvish magic.
The old Took is nearing his time, he can feel. His movements have slowed considerably, and it becomes increasingly difficult to walk to the library, even on his cane. But the library is not needed, not really, for he has his memories: warm summer nights of his youth when the wizard Gandalf would light up the sky with Dwarf-made fireworks; endless weeks deep beneath the mountain roots, the hot furnaces of the Dwarf smithies burning red as dragon fire; the lilting voices of the Elves and their graceful movements upon the green beneath the open dome of stars; and the sea, the slow, roaring sea, and the salty ocean air, and the ripples of moonlight and sunlight shimmering from distant horizon to distant horizon.
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The Lord of the Rings, Prologue: "The Hobbits of the Westfarthing said that one could see the Sea from the top of that tower; but no Hobbit had ever been known to climb it. Indeed, few Hobbits had ever seen or sailed upon the Sea, and fewer still had ever returned to report it. Most Hobbits regarded even rivers and small boats with deep misgivings, and not many of them could swim. And as the days of the Shire lengthened they spoke less and less with the Elves, and grew afraid of them, and distrustful of those that had dealings with them; and the Sea became a word of fear among them, and a token of death, and they turned their faces away from the hills in the West."
The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, "Took of Great Smials": Isengar, 1262- 1360, said to have 'gone to sea' in his youth and Hildifons, 1244, 'went off on a journey and never returned.'
The Hobbit, "An Unexpected Party": "...there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."
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A really belated sequel to "In Search of the Sea." Featuring Isengar Took, in his old age and musing on his adventures. I'd meant to do a much longer series, but it looks like this is all I'm getting.
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