AN: I don't own any of The Hobbit characters I am just taking them out of Tolkien's toy box and playing with them.
"Sweet Bells, Sweet chiming Christmas Bells
Sweet Bells, Sweet chiming Christmas Bells
They cheer us on our Heavenly way sweet chiming bells."
Sweet Chiming Bells – Day 5.
Ori was standing with Bilbo on the balcony leading from the hobbit's hot houses and green houses. The air was crisp and chill, and so they were wrapped in many layers. Bilbo in his usual burnt oranges and chocolate brown, Ori in his beige and dark purple. Ori had noticed many tiny silver bells strung throughout the hot houses and green houses, he had yet to ask his friend about them as when he had stumbled upon the smaller male he found him gazing down the valley to where the towers of Dale were visible. He stood in silence by Bilbo and noticed the pointe dears prick in interest, just as he was about to ask what he had heard the sound reached him. The bells of Dale were ringing in joyous celebration, he turned to ask how Bilbo had known when the sweet alto of the hobbit next to him lifted in song.
"Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
"Throw cares away."
Yule is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere
Filling the air
Oh how they pound,
Raising the sound,
O'er hill and dale,
Telling their tale,
Gaily they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Yule
Merry, merry, merry, merry Yule
On, on they send
On without end
Their joyful tone
To ev'ry home."
It was much later that Bilbo explained the bells in his gardens to the confused scribe. Ori was fascinated by the tiny bells and examined them in great detail. Bilbo touched a thread and the bels along its length danced in a flighty song. Ori followed where the hobbit pointed and touched the thread of another row, this time the sound was deeper and more rounded. There was beauty behind every note and as the chiming of Dale's large bells joined the singing of the tiny bells around him Ori finally understood just what the hobbit had been trying to describe.
Leaving Bilbo to tend to his plants Ori rushed down to the forges and dragged a protesting Gloin into his project. If the children of Erebor soon had a single round bell in their possession then Gloin merely pointed at Ori who smiled softly and handed out a bell to anyone who asked. Soon the sweet chiming of silver bells filled the halls of Erebor and Bilbo's bright smile had many of the Company joining him among the plants to hear just what had filled Ori with such joy.
AN: Leave me a review and let me know what you think.
I love the symbolism of bells - particularly during the winter solstice because it chimes out the importance of clarity. Bells ringing on a crisp Christmas night can serve as a meditative trigger that can intone our awareness into higher realms of pure potential. Bells are also ancient symbols of protection and ringing them have long been considered a way to ward off negativity. To our ancestral minds, the very shape of the bell is reminiscent to dome of heaven. In Christianity the ringing of a bell is a sacred announcement to the presence of Christ at mass. In Buddhism, the sounding of a bell is the resonance of pure wisdom - a tonal symbol of perfect harmony & clarity. In Asian thought the bell is also a harmonic symbol - the bell itself considered female, the clapper or pendulum within the bell is male. The two working as one to create a beautiful tone is symbolic of the union between male and female (yin and yang) to create perfect cooperation and balance.
*There will be 24 chapters in this collection dedicated to the days of Advent. 1 chapter dedicated for Christmas day. And 12 chapters leading us up to the Twelfth Night and through the Twelve Days of Christmas.
*Any and all requests will be taken into account. If I can't fit them in this I will dedicate them to you in one of my other collections of short stories as a Christmas present.