PERHAPS MY FAVORITE QUOTE (from the 'english patient):
"We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves....i wish for all this to be marked upon my body when i am dead. I believe in such cartography---to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. we are communal histories, communal books. we are not owned or monogamous in our taste or exprerience. all i desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps......."

this is the english translation of tolkien's quenya text. exquisite, bittersweet, evergreen, it is his quintessential work in the language he invented. "namarie"means 'farewell' but if you look closely, you'll see that it is also an anagram for my birthname, 'marianne'. I extrapolate the meaning of 'farewell' to be a wish for well being, for prosperity, for abundance. .

if you want to marvel more deeply at the quenya he invented, start by looking on wikipedia......

NAMARIE, or galadriel's lament...........

Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
The long years have passed like swift draughts
of the sweet mead in lofty halls
beyond the West, beneath the
blue vaults of Varda wherein the stars tremble.
in the voice of her song, holy and queenly.
Who now shall refill the cup for me?
For now the Kindler, Varda,
the Queen of the stars, from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like jewels
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
and out of a grey country darkness lies
on the foaming waves between us,
and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar!
Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar!
even thou shalt find it! Farewell!