Picturrific Mini Challenge

I'm taking a break before starting chapter 5 of The Hobbit, and thought I would join one of the mini-challenges set up by the people over at 24hourreadathon.com. This one is hosted by the lovely Stella Matutina, and the task is as follows:

"I want you to step away from your book just long enough to search for a picture that somehow relates to it. Find an image that makes you think of the main character, an important plot twist, the book's theme, the setting, or anything other story-related element that triggers your imagination."

Now, it's been a few years since I last read The Hobbit, and one thing that struck me when I picked up the book to read tonight was how vivid the descriptions were. I love much of Tolkien's work, so it really shouldn't come as as surprise to me, but it did. I think I'd just forgotten... Anyway, I've just finished the sequence where Thorin + the rest of the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf stop at Rivendell, before going into the Misty Mountains, so I went searching for images that looked like the landscape I imagined these characters in. This is what I found:

           Image borrowed from Tom@There on Flickr

I can clearly imagine Rivendell being located somewhere beyond that turn in the valley (as a bonus this image is even from New Zealand, where they shot the movie(s).)

      Image borrowed from Moyan_Brenn on Flickr 

And then, from the valley of Rivendell, into the Misty Mountains and beyond...