“O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!We still remember, we who dwellIn this far land beneath the trees.Thy starlight on the Western Seas.”

“Elven Hymn to ElberethSnow-white! Snow-white! O Lady clear!O Queen beyond the Western Seas!O Light to us that wander hereAmid the world of woven trees!Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath!Snow-white! Snow-white! We sing to theeIn a far land beyond the Sea.O stars that in the Sunless YearWith shining hand by her were sown,In windy fields now bright and clearWe see your silver blossom blown!O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!We still remember, we who dwellIn this far land beneath the trees,Thy starlight on the Western Seas.A Elbereth Gilthoniel,silivren penna mírielo menel aglar elenath!Na-chaered palan-dírielo galadhremmin ennorath,Fanuilos, le linnathonnef aear, si nef aearon!A Elbereth Gilthoniel!o menel palan-dírielle nallon sí di'nguruthos!A tiro nin, Fanuilos!A! Elbereth Gilthoniel!silivren penna mírielo menel aglar elenath!We still remember, we who dwellIn this far land beneath the trees,Thy starlight on the Western Seas.”

“The JumbliesIThey went to sea in a Sieve, they did, In a Sieve they went to sea:In spite of all their friends could say,On a winter's morn, on a stormy day, In a Sieve they went to sea!And when the Sieve turned round and round,And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig! In a Sieve we'll go to sea!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve. IIThey sailed away in a Sieve, they did,In a Sieve they sailed so fast, With only a beautiful pea-green veilTied with a riband by way of a sail, To a small tobacco-pipe mast;And every one said, who saw them go,'O won't they be soon upset, you know!For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,And happen what may, it's extremely wrong In a Sieve to sail so fast!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve. IIIThe water it soon came in, it did, The water it soon came in;So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feetIn a pinky paper all folded neat, And they fastened it down with a pin.And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,And each of them said, 'How wise we are!Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong, While round in our Sieve we spin!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve. IVAnd all night long they sailed away; And when the sun went down,They whistled and warbled a moony songTo the echoing sound of a coppery gong, In the shade of the mountains brown.'O Timballo! How happy we are,When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,And all night long in the moonlight pale,We sail away with a pea-green sail, In the shade of the mountains brown!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve. VThey sailed to the Western Sea, they did, To a land all covered with trees,And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart, And a hive of silvery Bees.And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree, And no end of Stilton Cheese. Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve. VIAnd in twenty years they all came back, In twenty years or more,And every one said, 'How tall they've grown!For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone, And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'And they drank their health, and gave them a feastOf dumplings made of beautiful yeast;And every one said, 'If we only live,We too will go to sea in a Sieve,--- To the hills of the Chankly Bore!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.”

“Land and sea.We may think of them as opposites; as complements. But there is a difference in how we think of them; the sea, and the land.If we are walking around in a forest, a meadow or a town, we see our surroundings as being made up of individual elements. There are many different kinds of trees in varying sizes, those buildings, these streets. The meadow, the flowers, the bushes. Our gaze lingers on details, and if we are standing in a forest in the autumn, we become tongue-tied if we try to describe the richness around us. All this exists on land. But the sea. The sea is something completely different. The sea is one.We may note the shifting moods of the sea. What the sea looks like when the wind is blowing, how the sea plays with the light, how it rises and falls. But still it is always the sea we are talking about. We have given different parts of the sea different names for navigation and identification, but if we are standing before the sea, there is only one whole. The Sea.If we are taken so far out in a small boat that no land is visible in any direction, we may catch sight of the sea. It is not a pleasant experience. The sea is a god, an unseeing, unhearing deity that does not even know we exist. We mean less than a grain of sand on an elephant's back, and if the sea wants us, it will take us. That's just the way it is. The sea knows no limits, makes no concessions. It has given us everything and it can take everything away from us.To other gods we send our prayer: Protect us from the sea.”

“Eternal Father, faithful friend, Be quick to answer those we send In brotherhood and urgent trust, On hidden missions dangerous, O hear us when we cry to Thee, For SEALs in air, on land, and sea.”

“Then I went to the windows and pulled them open. The rain had stopped and the night was very still, black except for the glow behind the western hills that marked the Burning Lands. A dog barked far off, once and no more.”