athelas

I don't think of myself as knowing LOTR particularly well. Sure, I've read it nearly as many times as Narnia, but I don't wander around relating everything to LOTR the way I relate everything to Narnia (and Dante, of course). But I have recently had cause to revise my opinion.

Maggie, Liz and I were talking about a name for a superhero whose power is healing. I suggested the flowers that Aragorn uses in the Houses of Healing. Maggie and Liz have never read LOTR (something I hope to remedy). They do not know about the Houses of Healing. Right.

So then I promptly suggest we look it up, and finding nothing much via Google, I suggest the fabulous Encyclopedia of Arda. They are not aware of the existence of the Encyclopedia of Arda. I begin to wonder if, perhaps, I have a larger than average knowledge of LOTR. But, not knowing the proper name of the flower, we don't find anything in the encyclopedia.

Then I have an epiphany. Maggie *owns* LOTR, so I could just look it up. I flip through Return of the King, find the chapter Houses of Healing, zip along to where Aragorn is talking about needing the plant, and there it is; athelas. Now, if I truly knew LOTR well, I should have remembered that it was athelas (although I did remember the common name, which is kingsfoil), but I did manage to find it in under five minutes.

Now I want to read LOTR again. With special attention to the appendices and pronunciation.