Delicacies by sallysavestheday

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Fingon spends an evening with Sam Gamgee that prompts some nostalgia. Second-row bingo from the Eat, Drink, and Be Merry Potluck Bingo card.

Hobbits, Fingon thinks, are the one great pleasure that Valinor had lacked. He is forever grateful to Olórin for remedying that error and unleashing on the unsuspecting Amanyar the chaos that is Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, and Samwise Gamgee – alone, or even more enjoyably, together. The golden air of the Blessed Lands now sparkles with the smoke of pipe-weed and with hobbit curiosity. It is refreshing. Entertaining. And a gastronomical delight.

At present, Fingon has his heels propped on the fender of Sam’s fine fire, and is nearly asleep with satisfaction. His belly is full of the finest mashed potatoes he has ever tasted, and his lazy hand grasps a nearly-empty flagon of impeccable ale. The warmth, the savoriness, the practical company all bring to mind bright, ancient evenings spent with Húrin, frying potatoes in the fat of whatever creature they had hunted and toasting victory and pleasure with Dor-lómin’s beer.

Fingon sighs and grins, caught in the tenderness of memory. The soporific qualities of butter and milk and ‘taters, as Sam still calls them, are about to overwhelm him. He tips his head to catch the last few frothy drops and yawns.

Sam rescues his tankard with a practiced hand and tuts at Fingon’s dreamy smile. Who would have thought the energetic hero of so many tales would show such enthusiasm for hobbit cooking – and be so easily overcome?

“There’s a king for you!” he mutters. “Asleep already! And I haven’t even offered him the scones!”