Jack Vettriano Only the deepest Red II

Jack Vettriano Only the deepest Red IIJack Vettriano Only the deepest Red IJack Vettriano One Moment in Time
Oh yes," said Arthur with a sigh, "great wide rolling blue oceans ..." "Can't bear oceans," said Marvin. "Tell me," inquired Arthur, "do you get on well with other robots?" "Hate them," said Marvin. "Where are you going?" Arthur couldn't bear any more. He had got up again. "I think I'll just take another walk," he said. "Don't blame you," said Marvin and counted five hundred and ninety-seven thousand million sheep before falling asleep again a second later. Arthur slapped his arms about himself to try and get his circulation a little more enthusiastic about its job. He trudged back up the wall of the crater. Because the atmosphere was so thin and because there was no moon, nightfall was very rapid and it was by now very dark. Because of this, Arthur practically walked into the old man before he noticed him. long period of painstaking research during which he visited all the major centres of biro loss throughout the galaxy and eventually came up with a quaint little theory which quite caught the public imagination at the time. Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids

Yue Minjun Silent Lake

Yue Minjun Silent LakeYue Minjun Red WallYue Minjun New York New YorkYue Minjun make it smart
voice continued. "Please do not be alarmed," it said, "by anything you see or hear around you. You are bound to feel some initial ill effects as you have been rescued from certain death at an improbability level of two to the power of two hundred the door to the cubicle, trying to hold it closed, but it was ill fitting. Tiny furry little hands were squeezing themselves through the cracks, their fingers were inkstained; tiny voices chattered insanely. Arthur looked up. "Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about and seventy-six thousand to one against - possibly much higher. We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of twenty-five thousand to one against and falling, and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway. Thank you. Two to the power of twenty thousand to one against and falling." The voice cut out. Ford and Arthur were in a small luminous pink cubicle. Ford was wildly excited. "Arthur!" he said, "this is fantastic! We've been picked up by a ship powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive! This is incredible! I heard rumors about it before! They were all officially denied, but they must have done it! They've built the Improbability Drive! Arthur, this is ... Arthur? What's happening?" Arthur had jammed himself against

Kroyer Holger Drachman

Kroyer Holger DrachmanHooch Figures Drinking in a CourtyardTitian Noli me TangereHooch A Man Offering a Glass of Wine to a Woman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who consume more than two alcoholic drinks a day have a higher risk of getting the most common type of heart rhythm disturbance, which can raise the chances of having a stroke, researchers said on Tuesday.
fibrillation at the outset of the study.There was no increased risk for the vast majority who drank either no alcohol or up to two drinks daily. But those who drank more had a 60 percent increased risk for atrial fibrillation.
The condition occurs when the heart's two upper chambers beat quickly and irregularly. Because blood is not pumped completely from the heart's upper chambers, it can pool and clot. If a piece of one of these clots becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke occurs.Previous research had shown that men who drink three or more alcoholic beverages daily have an elevated risk for atrial fibrillation, but the risk for women had not been clear.Researchers in the United States and Switzerland tracked 34,715 middle-aged American women for more than 12 years who did not have atrial

Stewart An Idle Afternoon

Stewart An Idle AfternoonChurch Tropical LandscapeStewart On The TerraceChase Interior of the Baptistry at St. Mark's
Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.) Nestling quietly on top of the towel in Ford Prefect's satchel, the . Ford clicked his tongue in irritation. "Drink up," he urged. At that moment the dull sound of a rumbling crash from outside filtered through the low murmur of the pub, through the sound of the jukebox, through the sound of the man next to Ford hiccupping over the whisky Ford had eventually bought him. Arthur choked on his beer, leapt to his feet. "What's that?" he yelped. "Don't worry," said Ford, "they haven't started yet." "Thank God for that," said Arthur and relaxed. "It's probably just your house being knocked down," said Ford, drowning his last Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic began to wink more quickly. Miles above the surface of the planet the huge yellow somethings began to fan out. At Jodrell Bank, someone decided it was time for a nice relaxing cup of tea. "You got a towel with you?" said Ford Prefect suddenly to Arthur. Arthur, struggling through his third pint, looked round at him. "Why? What, no ... should I have?" He had given up being surprised, there didn't seem to be any point any longer

Gockel Field of Tulips

Gockel Field of TulipsGockel Field of PoppiesGockel Fashion Shoes IVGockel Fashion Shoes III
ordinary spray can, but a “weaponized aerosol-dispersal unit (ADU) with a super-accelerant feature,” which had been designed by one of his university colleagues working under a generous grant from the Chinese military.The ADU would release its entire highly pressurized contents in six seconds. The molecules of the active ingredients were bonded to a gas that boasted such a highly efficient expansion factor that both floors of the groundskeeper’s felt through the plastic with his right hand until, between thumb and forefinger, he was able to get a firm grip on the ring-pull, which functioned [541] much like that on a grenade. He plucked out the ring and let it slide down the inside of the bag.The ten-second delay between activation and dispersal of the contents allowed the can to be thrown through an open door or window. Corky held fast to it and waited.building would be contaminated in fifty to seventy seconds.The ADU had been designed to contain anything from a sedative to a deadly nerve toxin that killed upon first inhalation.Corky had been unable to get his hands on a unit containing the nerve toxin. He’d had to be satisfied with the enough. Although deeply committed to societal collapse and its rebirth, he was not a man who killed indiscriminately. Lately, of course, more murder than usual had been required to advance his noble cause. But he liked to think of himself as one who could exercise restraint as easily as he could, in a pinch, let loose the beast within.With one finger, he poked a hole in the plastic sack, widened it, and slipped the upper half of the aerosol can into the bag. Using the all-weather tape, he created a seal where can and trash bag met.Holding the exposed end of the can in his left hand, he

Klimt The Kiss (detail)

Klimt The Kiss (detail)Klimt The Gold CavalierKlimt Sea Serpents IV (detail)Klimt Sea Serpents III (detail)
athletic like his father, and a superb rider.Ha, ha, ha.Sitting here in the rose room, gazing through the windows, he had gotten so lost in the past that he hadn’t noticed when Mr. Yorn, the groundskeeper, had entered the picture. Wearing .To prove that he was neither a rude little snot nor hypnotized, Fric [428] waved, which seemed to be the right thing to do, whether Mr. Yorn had been standing there unacknowledged for ten seconds or five minutes.Fric waved a little too vigorously, which might have been what caused the groundskeeper to step closer to the windows and say, “Are you all right, Fric?”“Yes, sir. I’m fine. I’m just having some ham sandwiches.”Apparently the leaded glass panes and the roar of the rain filtered some of the sense out of Fric’s voice, for Mr. Yorn edged closer still and spoke again: “What did you say?”green rain togs and black wading boots, Mr. Yorn must have been checking the lawn drains or investigating a clogged downspout. Now he stared through the rose-room windows at Fric, from a distance of six feet, looking puzzled, perhaps worried.Maybe Mr. Yorn had waved and Fric, lost in the past, had not waved back, and so Mr. Yorn had waved again, and still Fric had not waved back; and now maybe Mr. Yorn thought Fric was in a trance

Klimt Three Ages of Woman - Mother and Child (detail II)

Klimt Three Ages of Woman - Mother and Child (detail II)Klimt The Tree of Life (gold foil)Klimt The SunflowerKlimt The Music (gold foil)
father had said, “Well, sooner or later, you’ll hear things, and I want you to know none of it’s true. It’s the usual celebrity-bashing crapola. They’ll say your mom had some nervous breakdown or something, but she didn’t. The truth isn’t pretty, but it’s not half as ugly as you’ll hear, so Ming and Dr. Rudy are going to share with you some techniques for keeping your mind at peace through all this.”Dr. Rudy was Rudolph Kroog, a psychiatrist famous in . He talked to Fric for a little while, trying tomercy of Mr. Hachette, the brain-diseased chef, even if he would be roasted with apples and fed to unsuspecting Bowery bums on Thanksgiving.Eventually, everyone had left him alone.He still didn’t know whether it had been a hospital, sanitarium, or booby hatch.His mother had been to Palazzo Rospo only once since then, but she hadn’t mentioned the incident. That was the visit in which she told Fric that he was an almost perfect invisible little mouse.Then they had gone riding on a pair of great black stallions, and determine if in a previous incarnation he might have been a boy king in Egypt during the centuries it was ruled by [427] pharaohs, and provided a bottle of capsules with directions to take one at lunch and one at bedtime.Remembering that boy kings had sometimes been poisoned by their advisers, which he’d learned on Saturday-morning cartoon shows, Fric had carried the capsules directly to his third-floor suite, where he flushed them down the drain. If a green, scaly monster had lived in his toilet, he killed it with an overdose that day.As easy as Dr. Rudy had been to endure, Ming was hard. After two days of “sharing,” Fric preferred to be consigned to the

Thomas Kinkade Sunday Outing painting

Thomas Kinkade Sunday Outing paintingThomas Kinkade spirit of xmas paintingThomas Kinkade Serenity Cove painting
few places, darkened it in many more, changed it in every corner, until nothing seemed as solid as it ought to be.They were in Ethan’s folksiness, while relentlessly he used his status as homicide detective to coax-pinch-push-pull-wrench cooperation from a series of higher-education bureaucrats.Every university in the greater Los Angeles area had closed for the last two or three weeks of the year. Something less than a skeleton staff remained on duty to serve those students who had not gone Homecitizenship, threats, and persistence to get from one know-nothing to another, but always eventually to a know-something who could further their investigation.Expedition, having left Hazard’s plain-wrap department sedan at Our Lady of Angels. Since Ethan had no police authority, he couldn’t arm-twist information out of anyone, but his partner couldn’t both arm-twist and drive.To check out their six leads, they would enter jurisdictions other than those strictly within the authority of the LAPD. Without preparing the way through proper channels, even Hazard would not have entirely legitimate authority. They didn’t have time for protocol.Hazard rode shotgun, making phone calls. His voice rose from a polite and almost romantic murmur to a demanding thunder, but most often settled into an easy

Amedeo Modigliani Red Nude painting

Amedeo Modigliani Red Nude paintingAmedeo Modigliani Landscape paintingAmedeo Modigliani Caryatid 1 painting
popped a ring tab off the red cap. This initiated a chemical process that would rapidly generate heat and, in four minutes, an [399] explosion fiery enough to ignite the remaining contents of the two-gallon can and the trail of fuel leading away from it to the bedroom on the second floor, to the corpse.This would be a bad time for the doorbell to ring.would explode. Because the doors were latched, the power of the explosions couldn’t easily be vented. The resultant damage to the ovens might be severe enough to cause a natural-gas leak and a larger blast.The utter destruction of the house didn’t require the oven trick to work. The four gallons of high-grade accelerant that he had poured throughout the small structure and the additional gallons No chimes sounded, of course, because in addition to his fine strategy, solid tactics, and meticulous preparation, he could count on Laputa luck. His guardian angel was chaos, and he was always at the safe calm eye of its world-destroying force.He returned to the ovens and latched both doors as required to initiate the self-cleaning cycle. On each he pressed a button marked CLEAN.Heat would rapidly expand the pressurized contents of the cans, which

Claude Monet Boulevard des Capucines painting

Claude Monet Boulevard des Capucines paintingHorace Vernet Judith and Holofernes paintingHorace Vernet The Lion Hunt painting
387] Although she had not blown her entire inheritance on the house, she needed to supplement her with other revenue. She had served as a graduate assistant to keep herself in chocolate-flavored Slim-Fast and ipecac.Then, six months ago,a the mind, that she was therefore a genuine intellectual.In the entertainment only image mattered. Manheim would believe, therefore, that appearance equaled reality in other professions, as well.Furthermore, Brittina Dowd was an intellectual snob who peppered her speech with academic jargon more impenetrable than the lab-speak of microbiologists. If the young woman’s emaciation Channing Manheim’s personal assistant had approached the chairperson of the university’s English department to explain that a new tutor would be required for the famous actor’s son. Only academicians of the highest caliber need apply.The chairperson consulted Corky, who was vice-chairperson of the department, and Corky recommended Ms. Dowd.He’d known that she would be hired because, first of all, the idiot movie star would be impressed by her dramatic appearance. Cadaverous paleness, a gaunt face, and the body of an anorexic nun would be seen as proof that Brittina cared little for the pleasures of the flesh, that she enjoyed largely

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes painting

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes paintingPierre-Auguste Cot spring paintingWilliam Bouguereau the first kiss painting
Certain media would be loath to show any of the video or even still frames from it, but others would recognize the competitive advantage of acting would do likewise.The boy’s terror-stricken face would haunt the nation, and yet another blow in a long series would be struck at the foundations of America’s order and stability. Millions of citizens would be interpreted that first rolling peal.The sky blazed again, and growled. Fat leaf-snapping droplets of [370] cold rain roared through the trees and pounded, pounded the pavement.For a sweet half-minute, Corky capered like Gene Kelly, singing “Shake Your Groove Thing,” not caring who might see him.Then he got in the car and drove away from there, for he had much work to do on this most important day of to date.robbed of their already shaky sense of security.Two streets from Hokenberry’s bungalow, as Corky approached his BMW, a lance of lightning pierced the clouds, thunder cracked, and a boil in the heavens burst. Rain that had drizzled suddenly fell by the ton, weight enough to press half the huff out of the wind.If thunder alone had been an omen of his triumph, more thunder preceded by lightning was confirmation that he’d properly

Caravaggio Amor Vincit Omnia painting

Caravaggio Amor Vincit Omnia paintingRaphael Saint George and the Dragon paintingClaude Monet Sunflowers painting
shadow floated overhead, treading air as though it were water.Fric gasped, looked up.The roof-supporting trusses rested atop the attic columns, five feet above his head. From one truss line to another, above the movie posters, a figure flew as Fric had imagined that evil Moloch, hungry for a child, would grin.Fric turned and ran.Although Moloch’s descent had been feather-slow, suddenly he was here. He seized Fric from behind, one arm around his chest, one hand over his face.Fric tried desperately to wrench loose but was lifted off his feet as a mouse might be snatched off the ground by the talons of a hunting hawk.[269] For an instant, he thought that Moloch would fly up into the rafters with himacross the aisle, wingless but more graceful than a bird, leaping with the slow and weightless form exhibited by any astronaut in space, contemptuous of gravity.This was no caped phantom, but a man in a suit, the one who had stepped out of the mirror, executing an impossible aerial ballet. He landed on a horizontal beam, pivoted toward Fric, and swooped down from his high perch, not like a plummeting stone, but like a feather, grinning exactly

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Moulin de la Galette painting

Pierre Auguste Renoir La Moulin de la Galette paintingPierre Auguste Renoir By the Seashore paintingPierre Auguste Renoir At the Concert painting
searching, he found MOLOCH. He read the definition twice.Not good.Moloch had been a deity, mentioned in two books of the Bible, whose worshipers were required to sacrifice children. Obviously, he had not been a Bible-approved deity.The last their feelings well. Images, not words, were your average supermodel’s strength. Naturally, the biggest movie star in the world, being an actor, was better with words than Freddie was, but only when someone wrote them for him.four words of the definition particularly disturbed Fric: “... the sacrifice of children by their own parents.”This seemed to be carrying child sacrifice one step too far.He didn’t for a moment believe that Ghost Dad and Nominal Mom would strap him down on an altar and chop him to pieces for Moloch.For one thing, with their superstar schedules, they’d probably never again be together in the same place at the same time.Besides, while they might not be the kind of parents who tucked you in bed at night and taught you how to throw a baseball, they were not monsters, either. They were just people. Confused. Trying to do the best they knew how.Fric had no doubt they cared about him. They had to care. They’d made him.They just didn’t express

William Merritt Chase Terrace Prospect Park painting

William Merritt Chase Terrace Prospect Park paintingWilliam Merritt Chase On the Lake Central Park paintingWilliam Merritt Chase The Nursery paintingWilliam Merritt Chase Venetian Balcony painting
exhibit lingering changes in brain chemistry. After regular use, permanent brain damage could ensue.Some oncologists and neurologists suggested that in the decades to come, the current high incidence of Ecstasy use would produce a dramatic increase in early-onset cancerous brain tumors, as well as a [86] decrease in the arcade, he was just another shopper: nothing incriminating in his pockets.At a Starbucks, he bought a double latte, and sipped it at one of their tables on the promenade, watching the parade of humanity in all its absurdity.After finishing the , he went to a department store. He needed socks.cognitive abilities of hundreds of thousands if not millions of citizens.Eight-dose giveaways like this would not facilitate the collapse of civilization overnight. Corky was committed to long-term effect.He never carried more than fifteen bags, and once he started to hand them out, he made a point of ridding himself of them quickly. Too clever to get caught holding, he was in and out of the arcade in three minutes.Because he didn’t need to pause to make a sale, the staff didn’t have an opportunity to notice him. By the time he left the

Johannes Vermeer The Procuress painting

Johannes Vermeer The Procuress paintingJohannes Vermeer Diana and her Companions paintingJohannes Vermeer Christ in the House of Mary and Martha paintingJohannes Vermeer Allegory of the Faith painting
Swan passed on slowly to the hythe, and they turned their boats and followed it. There in the last end of Egladil upon the green grass the parting feast was held; but Frodo ate and drank little, heeding only the beauty of the Lady and her voice. She seemed no longer perilous or terrible, nor filled with hidden power. Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living visionthe steep shores of the isle, and falls then with a great noise and smoke over the cataracts of Rauros down into the Nindalf, the Wetwang as it is called in your tongue. That is a wide region of sluggish fen where the stream becomes tortuous and much divided. There the Entwash flows in by many mouths from the Forest of Fangorn in the west. About that stream, on this side of the Great River, lies Rohan. On the of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of Time.After they had eaten and drunk, sitting upon the grass, Celeborn spoke to them again of their journey, and lifting his hand he pointed south to the woods beyond the Tongue.`As you go down the water,' he said, `you will find that the trees will fail, and you will come to a barren country. There the River flows in stony vale amid high moors, until at last after many leagues it comes to the tall island of the Tindrock, that we call Tol Brandir. There it casts its arms about further side are the bleak hills of the Emyn Muil. The wind blows from the East there, for they look out

Johannes Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring painting

Johannes Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring paintingGustav Klimt The Three Ages of Woman painting
glinting in the dim light as he turned his head from side to side. Behind the dwarf walked Frodo, and he had drawn the short sword, Sting. No gleam came from the blades of Sting or of Glamdring; and that was some comfort, for being the work of Elvishand intricate beyond the imagination of Gimli, Glóin's son, dwarf of the mountain-race though he was. To Gandalf the far-off memories of a journey long before were now of little help, but even in the gloom and despite all windings of the road he knew whither he wished to go, and he did not falter, as long as there was a path that led
Gustav Klimt The Kiss (Le Baiser _ Il Baccio) paintingVincent van Gogh Self Portrait painting
smiths in the Elder Days these swords shone with a cold light, if any Orcs were near at hand. Behind Frodo went Sam, and after him Legolas, and the young hobbits, and Boromir. In the dark at the rear, grim and silent, walked Aragorn.The passage twisted round a few turns, and then began to descend. It went steadily down for a long while before it became level once again. The air grew hot and stifling, but it was not foul, and at times they felt currents of cooler air upon their faces, issuing from half-guessed openings in the walls. There were many of these. In the pale ray of the wizard's staff, Frodo caught glimpses of stairs and arches and of other passages and tunnels, sloping up, or running steeply down, or opening blankly dark on either side. It was bewildering beyond hope of remembering.Gimli aided Gandalf very little, except by his stout courage. At least he was not, as were most of the others, troubled by the mere darkness in itself. Often the wizard consulted him at points where the choice of way was doubtful; but it was always Gandalf who had the final word. The Mines of Moria were vast

Jean-Honore Fragonard paintings

Jean-Honore Fragonard paintingsJulius LeBlanc Stewart paintings
westward at the feet of the White Mountains Minas Anor they made, Tower of the Setting Sun. There in the courts of the King grew a white tree, from the seed of that tree which Isildur brought over the deep waters, and the seed of that tree before came from Eressëa, and before that out of the Uttermost West in the Day before days when the world was young.`But in the wearing of the swift years of Middle-earth the line of Meneldil son of Anárion failed, and the Tree withered, and the blood of the Númenoreans became mingled with that of lesser men. Then the watch upon the walls of Mordor slept, and dark things crept back to Gorgoroth. And on a time evil things
Johannes Vermeer paintingsJames Jacques Joseph Tissot paintings
the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished, and their city of Annúminas beside Lake Evendim fell into ruin; and the heirs of Valandil removed and dwelt at Fornost on the high North Downs, and that now too is desolate. Men call it Deadmen's Dike, and they fear to tread there. For the folk of Arnor dwindled, and their foes devoured them, and their lordship passed, leaving only green mounds in the grassy hills.'In the South the realm of Gondor long endured; and for a while its splendour grew, recalling somewhat of the might of Númenor, ere it fell. High towers that people built, and strong places. and havens of many ships; and the winged crown of the Kings of Men was held in awe by folk of many tongues. Their chief city was Osgiliath, Citadel of the Stars. through the midst of which the River flowed. And Minas Ithil they built, Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains

Botticelli Portrait of a Young Woman

Botticelli Portrait of a Young WomanBotticelli Allegory of Spring detailLempicka Girl in a Green Dress detailWilliams williams 9
know dún-udan: Man of the West, Númenorean. But this is not the time for lessons!' He turned to Strider.`Where have you been, my friend? Why weren't you at the feast? The Lady Arwen was there.'Strider looked down at Bilbo gravely. `I know,' he said. 'But often I must put mirth aside. Elladan and Elrohir have returned out of the Wild unlooked-for, and they had tidings that I wished to hear at once.'`Well, my dear understood them little` held him in a spell, as soon as he began to attend to them. Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more and more dreamlike, until fellow,' said Bilbo, `now you've heard the news, can't you spare me a moment? I want your help in something urgent. Elrond says this song of mine is to be finished before the end of the evening, and I am stuck. Let's go off into a corner and polish it up!'Strider smiled. `Come then!' he said. `Let me hear it!'Frodo was left to himself for a while. for Sam had fallen asleep. He was alone and felt rather forlorn` although all about him the folk of Rivendell were gathered. But voices and the instruments. and they gave no heed to anything else. Frodo began to listen.At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven words in elven-tongues, even though he

Godward Ionian Dancing Girl

Godward Ionian Dancing GirlGodward Innocent AmusementsGodward In Realms of FancyGodward Idle Thoughts
Again she fled, but swift he came. Tinúviel! Tinúviel!He called her by her elvish name; And there she halted listening.One moment stood she, and a spell His voice laid on her: Beren came,And doom fell on Tinúviel That in his arms lay glistening.
As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair,The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering.Tinúviel the elven-fair, Immortal maiden elven-wise,About him cast her shadowy hair And arms like silver glimmering.he spoke again. ‘That is a song,' he said, 'in the mode that is called ann-thennath among the Elves, but is hard to render in our Common Speech, and this is but a rough echo of it. It tells of the meeting of Beren son of Barahir and Lúthien Tinúviel. Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was the daughter of Thingol, a King of Elves upon Middle-earth when the world was young
Long was the way that fate them bore, O'er stony mountains cold and grey,Through halls of iron and darkling door, And woods of nightshade morrowless.The Sundering Seas between them lay, And yet at last they met once more,And long ago they passed away In the forest singing sorrowless.Strider sighed and paused before

Rock Hard Ten

Rock Hard TenLost In The FogGolden TrifectaFusaichi Pegasus
some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun.'Old knives are long enough as swords for hobbit-people,' he said. 'Sharp blades are good to have, if Shire-folk go walking, east, south, or far away into dark and danger.' Then he told them that these blades were forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, but they were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dûm in the Land of Angmar.'Few now remember faded, and they were back in the sunlit world. It was time to start again. They made ready, packing their bags and lading their ponies. Their new weapons they hung on their leather belts under their jackets, feeling them very awkward, and wondering if they would be of any use. Fighting had not before occurred to any of them as one of the adventures in which their flight would land them.At them,' Tom murmured, 'yet still some go wandering, sons of forgotten kings walking in loneliness, guarding from evil things folk that are heedless.'The hobbits did not understand his words, but as he spoke they had a vision as it were of a great expanse of years behind them, like a vast shadowy plain over which there strode shapes of Men, tall and grim with bright swords, and last came one with a star on his brow. Then the vision last they set off. They led their ponies down the hill; and then mounting they trotted quickly along