J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 painting of Rivendell

“Rivendell is a valley in J. R. R. Tolkien‘s fictional world of Middle-earth, representing both a homely place of sanctuary and a magical Elvish otherworld. It is an important location in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, being the place where the quest to destroy the One Ring began. Rivendell’s feeling of peace may have contributed to the popularity of The Lord of the Rings during the war-troubled 1960s. … The house of Elrond in Rivendell is also called The Last Homely House East of the Sea, alluding to the wilderness (Rhovanion) that lies east of the Misty Mountains. Rivendell lay in eastern Eriador at the edge of a narrow gorge of the river Bruinen (one of the main approaches to Rivendell comes from the nearby Ford of Bruinen), well hidden in…