To my Lord Elrond, in this last year of the Third Age
In Rivendell, Middle-Earth
From his servant, the (unwilling) tenth companion
My Lord Elrond,
When the Fellowship set out almost a year ago, I objected to your choice of me. If your daughter Arwen was so concerned about equal gender representation in the Fellowship, I argued, she should go herself. And if you were so determined to have a tenth companion, you should have sent someone more qualified, like Glorfindel. My strengths lay in bookkeeping and research, and I had no experience with a sword or axe, as you well knew. Nevertheless, you picked me to be the tenth companion, telling me that even the smallest person could make a difference (a jibe at my height?), and that the Fellowship would need all sorts of skills to survive. Let me tell you, Lord Elrond, not once was I called upon to research anything. Gandalf easily outstripped my meager knowledge of the Dark One or his arts or the path to Mordor.
I know, Lord Elrond, that you are accustomed to being right all the time- immortality will do that to you. But I write this letter to let you know how very wrong you were. I mean, nine men and one (young) woman? In what reality does such a situation ever work out?
You have also asked me to account for Frodo's… condition. This will be explained in due time, my lord. But allow me to begin at the beginning.
The Nine Companions stood before you, and you said something about nine walkers for nine Nazgûl, when your daughter, the Lady Arwen, stormed into our midst. She demanded that a woman be put on the Fellowship. Did you think women were uncapable of great deeds? Creatures only fit for the kitchen? No, put a woman on the Fellowship and show your support for women's rights.
I do not condone misogyny at all, but I will stay in the kitchen for the rest of my life if it means that I will never have to go on another adventure ever again.
Because I was the only woman summoned to the castle and some distant cousin of Aragorn, you decided (over my loud protests) that I would be the tenth walker, and the Fellowship set out later that day for Mordor. It was the beginning of the end for me.