In the Second Age of J R R Tolkien’s legendarium, the Rings were created: Seven for the Dwarves, the Nine that corrupted Men, the Three for the Elves, and finally Sauron’s One Ring, the story of whose finding and eventual destruction formed the core of Tolkien’s famous work The Lord of the Rings. In my story Renewal, I have imagined one way in which the Elven Rings might have come into being.

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Explanation of the little padlock buttons.

Some history of the writing process, with possible spoilers

I can’t remember when I first had the idea for this story. I know I came up with the names of the central pair, Tarin and Limm, pretty early on. Alas, I didn’t feel they would be a happy couple. I also had the idea that Tarin would be a sort of misfit Hobbit. After I had the idea to mix Tarin into the Ring story, the outlines came together. I set to and plotted it all out (the part I find hardest) while on holiday in Greece in September 2021; then in January 2022 I took three weeks holiday for the express purpose of getting the words on paper. It took me a little while to compose the first sentence (first sentences are important!) but after that, it all flowed pretty well. I composed the prologue last of all, and found this a bit of a slog, since it does not contribute directly to the story, but acts only as a necessary informative for people who are not familiar with the Tolkienian background.

I spent over a year in editing. It’s always difficult to know when to stop, but hopefully I have succeeded in arriving at something that some people will enjoy. It has turned out a rather spare little tale, but it is what it is.

Copyright

This work 'Renewal' is copyrighted from 2023 to John McKellar (all rights reserved) with exception of the following.

• The conception of Middle-earth, with its characters and landscapes, is the creation of J R R Tolkien and as such is copyright of The Tolkien Estate. I have invented characters, geographical details and incidents which do not appear in any of the materials protected by the Tolkien copyright, but it is the responsibility of the reader to determine which is which.
• The image of the vase I used on the cover is the property of Alamy Limited. I purchased a license to allow me to use it on my site.