Dear Diary,
I recieved a letter from The Shire today. It came all the way from The Great Smials. I have been expecting a reply for some time so I was excited when I got it.
Great news!
The Thain has agreed to pay a stipend for me to copy as much as I can from Lord Elrond's library. There is so much information here about farming and crop management. Once I found it I knew I would be able to convince the Thain to allow me to stay for longer and request to Lord Elrond that I continue using the Library.
So now I have two jobs to do. I am copying the farming stuff and continuing to copy the music.
The stipend isn't much. In fact it is probably smaller than the pie budget for the Great Smials per month but I wil offer it to Lord Elrond as recompence for my continuing stay here in Imladris. I hope he doesn't accept the offer so I have a bit of spare money. The coin I got for the sale of my house is rapidly disappearing. Although the Elves are very generous I still have to pay my way on most things.
I have grown close to Alatariel, she is young for an Elf and isn't yet married. Her family have invited me to dinner a few times and I have repayed their kindness with music and poetry after the meal.
Alatariel told me her father likes me and thinks I am a good influence on her. She had been a bit of a trouble causer for her family, ignoring her studies, disappearing for days and had even been seen smoking pipeweed with the Dwarf traders.
She was so serious when she told me about the pipeweed, she blushed and looked ashamed of herself. I told her I had tried pipeweed too before I came of age, but I found it too harsh for a young Hobbit lass. I think it is definitely something I shall try again when I am older but for now I shall give it a miss.
Alatariel's father had noticed that she had been spending more time at the Library and that her tutors had mentioned a marked improvement in her learning.
She does love to chat with me and so has been visiting me frequently in the Library. She has been helping me to sort through the manuscripts and has found something she really enjoys.
She told me she wants to work in the Library, she has a few ideas on how to catalog the contents to make it easier to find things.
I told her that the Library is a hard place to get a job, so she would have to complete her studies. She isn't just completing her studies she is asking her tutors for extra tuition.
I know that her history tutor has written a letter to Lord Elrond requesting that she is granted an apprenticeship at the Library when her studies are complete. I do hope she gets it.
My work is going well, I have managed to find some Dunedain Court music. It has a very strange notation that I can't make heads nor tails of. I have tried comparing them with other pieces of manuscript but they only have a slight similarity.
Definitely one I will have to work on. I have an idea it could be the notation for lots of different instruments played at the same time.
The farmings stuff will be easy in comparison, the manuscripts have been gathered together into books. Its just the slow work of translating from Sindarin and Quenya. I will have to ask Alatariel for help with the Quenya. It's such a beautiful language but most of it is beyond my understanding for the time being, though I'm sure that with Alatariel's help I'll soon work it out.
Just another riddle to fathom.
A very good day.
