The Dance

Merry stands watching the tall, well-built Man going through his familiar swordsmanship exercises. A child of Buckland, where doors are locked at night and guards are ever watchful for strangers, the hobbit knows what fighting is. Yet it is for the first time that he is aware of the savage, violent, irrepressible gracefulness of the warrior’s movements.

There will soon be an enemy other than the imaginary adversary of this mock fight… and lucky they will be if he is flesh and blood…

But for now, Merry stands, enthralled, as Boromir son of Denethor rehearses the deadly dance of war.