The Road Goes Ever On

I've been wanting to post a lot of the great Tolkien MOCs that have been created as part of the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics, but have been frustrated by MOCpages' current problems. I know, many of these are posted here and there on Flickr and Brickshelf, but rather than hunt around I'll just wait until MOCpages is healthy again. In the meantime, though, I'll feature my own entries, as I also have them on Flickr. My qualifying round entry was The Road Goes Ever On.

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Fourth-wall commentary: As a challenge to myself I decided to illustrate poems for all of my entries. Many people skip over the poems in Tolkien, which I think is a mistake. They often help set the mood, or give important historical background to the action. Here, for instance, Bilbo brings an end to adventures and perhaps looks ahead to his own death. I was pretty happy with how this came out, in that I thought I achieved what I was looking for with a weary hobbit coming to the inn at the end of a day's journey and warm light coming out of the doorway. The inn is vaguely based on the Prancing Pony, in that Tolkien describes an arch leading to a courtyard between the wings of the inn and the door to the common room off to the left. My courtyard became more of a stable area, and there's only one side to the inn. Plus I've got a dragon insignia, so it must be another inn. Two stories, though, so it must not be in the Shire.