|
|
When his eyes were in turn
uncovered, Frodo looked up and caught his breath. They were standing in an open space. To
the left stood a great mound, covered with a sward of grass as green as Spring-time in the
Elder Days. Upon it, as a double crown, grew two circles of trees: the outer had bark of
snowy white, and were leafless but beautiful in their shapely nakedness; the inner were
mallorn-trees of great height, still arrayed in pale gold. High amid the branches of a
towering tree that stood in the centre of all there gleamed a white flet. At the feet of
the trees, and all about the green hillsides the grass was studded with small golden
flowers shaped like stars. Among them, nodding on slender stalks, were other flowers,
white and palest green: they glimmered as a mist amid the rich hue of the grass. Over all
the sky was blue, and the sun of afternoon glowed upon the hill and cast long green
shadows beneath the trees.
'Behold! You are come to Cerin Amroth,' said Haldir. 'For this is the heart of the ancient
realm as it was long ago, and here is the mound of Amroth, where in happier days his high
house was built. Here ever bloom the winter flowers in the unfading grass: the yellow
elanor, and the pale niphredil. Here we will stay awhile, and come to the city of the
Galadhrim at dusk.'
