I have not actually (successfully) read the Lord of the Rings, but I have read The Hobbit and heard several reviews of all the books in the series, and there does seem to be at least one common element: singing. Just about everybody sings, including the orcs. That's a world dedicated to the arts and drunken singing fun, right there.

Given the series obsession with song and the fact that I was parodying it here, I felt I had to include at least few lines of a song. I don't think LOTR is prone to musical style singing where everybody just magically knows the words, at least not without a wizard's help, so these hobbit versions of Susan and Tedd must have sung this song together before. That ale they're drinking must be some potent stuff.

I'm sure I had some tune in mind for the song when I wrote it, or at least a simple way of singing it, but I'm not certain now what it was. I do recall that some readers took issue with their declaration of a roof overhead, claiming that there aren't really roofs to hobbit homes. Should I have had them say "a hill overhead?" In any case, I could just claim some human bard wrote the darn thing. Or, you know, some guy. Given how prone people are to singing in that universe, an actual bard might be overkill.

Justin's respect for Samwise from Lord of the Rings is one I share, though we would probably disagree on key aspects regarding just how "close" he was with Frodo. Once I saw the movies (again, I failed to read the books), I reached one simple conclusion: Sam is AWESOME and fully deserving of the "brave" title. I know the odds of me spoiling anything for anyone at this point in time are slim, but just in case, I'll leave it at that.