Call me a little strange, but I thought the most beautiful portions of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings were the brief moments in which characters held themselves together in the face of certain death...Gandalf's words to men of Minas Tirith in the as the Mordor hordes gathers outside of the walls of the White City, Theoden's vow to meet the enemy though they had no chance of living, Eowyn's resolve to go to battle in service of Aragorn even though he cast her off...all of these moments moved me unbearably. This is a collection of stories inspired by those moments.

I first had the idea when reviewing The Two Towers of what would have happened had one of the Elves who honored The Last Alliance acquired an injury and was nursed back to health by a maiden of Rohan? It all bloomed from there - images, conversations, quests and battles. I knew I wanted some sort of resolution between Eowyn and Aragorn because the abrupt shift of Eowyn's affections to Faramir struck me as false, untrue, or perhaps a graceful way out for her from the fool she had made of herself and I don't think Aragorn was an unmoved as he claimed to be. I also knew I wanted to feature Arwen's unnamed daughters and their uncles, the twin sons of Elrond, as well as more people from the North, especially the Rangers, the Elves from the court of Thranduil and the ring Saruman forged that everyone seemed to have forgotten.