Hello! I’m Cirdaneth. You can read how I came to Ulmo in the Newbies Section above. Anyway, despite having been a member of CoE for only six months, I seem to have been “fast-tracked” and was recently offered the post of co-moderator of Books, to assist PotbellyHairyfoot. I have accepted, and at the time of writing am awaiting my training.

I read my father’s copies of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a child and expect they were Tolkien’s translations, though I was not aware of it at the time. Then I read LotR in 1956 soon after it was published, and have read it every two years since, so about 27 times with 14 of them being aloud to someone else.

Like Linwe I have also read The Hobbit, The Sil, The Unfinished Tales, and HoME. I bought that in three hardback volumes reckoning that paperbacks would quickly fall apart from handling. I’m into them all the time. I also have the Biography and the Letters. Recently I acquired Hammond and Scull’s Chronology and Readers’ Guide which is a revelation. Next stop is Tales from the Perilous Realm, Finn and Hengest, Tree and Leaf and a recap on Sir Gawain and Beowulf. Not exactly “chick-lit” for the beach, but I always did like something meatier … Sean Bean would do, except that he’s young enough to be my son. Heigh-ho!

The films have added more to my enjoyment and Howard Shore’s music is a joy and a solace. Music is another of my loves. At one time I was a professional folk singer specialising in the big English and Celtic Ballads, that tell “the great tales; the ones you always remember” Tam Lynn, Clerk Saunders, Childe Maurice etc. It’s a specialised area and won’t earn anyone a living so it was combined with running a climber’s hostel and mountain rescue post in NW Scotland. I can still sing a bit, but I don’t rescue mountains any more. I am a widow now and live in a hobbity little cottage in the Peak District National Park, UK. Surrounded by rolling green hills.

Moderating will be another new experience and I hope I’ll justify everyone’s faith in me.

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