What is the Green Book of the White Downs?

What is the Green Book of the White Downs?

Many will know about the "Red Book of Westmarch", but few will likely have heard of the "Green Book of the White Downs"...

This obscure text, now located in the library of the Great Smials [1] and watched over by Donnamira Took [2], was the work of a eclectic “family” explorers from many different backgrounds. Led by a Silvan Elf known as Ranatuor, together they formed an unusual friendship grounded in their love of old places, creatures and culture. As they wandered Middle-earth they took notes, made drawings, gathered information.

And so, after many years of exploration, and plentiful adventures, the authors settled down to document their tales and share their knowledge. This work became known as the "Green Book of the White Downs".

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Lore and background information

In Middle-earth lore, the White Downs are chalk hills in Westfarthing forming the western border of the Shire. The towns of Michel Delving and Little Delving are located here.

In terms of J.R.R. Tolkien, the White Downs are a nod to the Vale of the White Horse, North Berkshire and the ancient trackway known as the Ridgeway. Along this route lies Uffington Castle, the Uffington White Horse and the prehistoric burial mound called Wayland's Smithy where Tolkien used to take his family to picnic.

The original logo was based on a photograph (taken in April 2016) of a view of the Ridgeway, somewhere between the Uffington White Horse and Wantage, where King Alfred the Great was born. You can still see part of the image below the white line representing the White Downs.

The Dwarf runes on the logo above are Tolkien quotes:

"The Road Goes Ever On" (top)
"Not all those who wander are lost" (bottom).

This blog is many things. It will follow my adventures in Middle-earth as I wander on characters created in Standing Stones Games' The Lord of the Rings Online game (LOTRO). I am based on the Laurelin server, a Roleplay-encouraged server for EU players (we also have many US players too!) and I am a member of the long-standing kin, The Elders, originally from the now-closed Gilrain server.

But this blog won't just be about LOTRO. I write about other games set within Middle-earth, including FreeLeague’s The One Ring roleplaying game (2e) and The Lord of the Rings roleplaying 5E, Ares Games’ War of the Ring line and others.

I will also be following Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series as we head towards season two and beyond.

I'll also update with other Tolkien news as well as look at other interests and hobbies I follow.

And finally, I'll also be writing about my own adventures out in the "wild," following the walking trips I take, the places I visit and the events I go to in real life.

I hope you find something of interest for you here in my little corner of a much bigger world.

The road goes ever on...

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Footnotes

[1]: The Great Smials in Tuckborough, also known as the "Great Palace of the Tooks," is discussed on the  LOTRO wiki and the Tolkien Gateway.
[2]: Information about Donnamira Took can be found on the  LOTROwiki.

Fun Fact #1

In the past Blogger allowed you to set your posts to any time in the future. I had set the previous version of this blog post's date to 25 December 3018, which was the day the Fellowship set off from Rivendell following the Council of Elrond! I'd put the timestamp at 16:36 which on Christmas Day (25/12/2022) is approximately "dusk" - the time the Fellowship departed.

Fun Fact #2

In a bizarre twist of luck, this item fell into one of my alt's inventory bags today - [Cap of the WhiteDowns] with the note "Cap of the Shire." Fate indeed!