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Talma

Silvan Talan or Tree-Fort

Talma2
Treegarth

Typical Silvan Glade

Treegarth2

Typical Treegarth

The Sîrrandrai, the native Elvish inhabitants of Sîrgala, had a culture that combined traditional Silvan lifeways with touches of the sophisticated culture of Noldo Lindon. Sîrrandr dwellings were of the simplest construction, woven, with craft or magic or both, from locally harvested wood and fiber.Intricate carvings, beaded and feathered furs, and delicately patterned mats and hangings ornament this simplicity, showing evidence of ancient skill and endless patience.Here and there were delicate, beautifully-wrought silver and platinum ornaments, jewelry, badges, buckles, and clasps.Few Sîrrandras owed more than one or two such precious items; luxury was considered a mark of dependence on the Tareldar.The most beautiful works in their homes, and the ones that expressed most clearly their unique heritage, were those made by their own hands.The Sirannar only rarely lived in treeplatforms, or telain after the manner of their Silvan cousins in Rhovanion. While such homes were highly prized, especially by their clan-lords, the forests of Eriador usually were neither tall enough nor dense enough to support such an architectural style.Instead, a Wood-elven village integrated ground-based buildings, tree-homes, and glades surrounded by flowering bushes and shaded trees into complex mazes that would be confusing and frightening to anyone but another Siranna.Their galadhrynd (S. "Forest Villages" or lit."Tree-Halls") had the names usually ascribed to gatherings of trees: "Mintling Copse", "Greenthicket", and "Coning Grove", were the Westron names of ancient Sîrrandrian communities found within the bounds of the Shire after T.A.1640.Most, either because of their strategic location or the value of their woodlands, eventually became Hobbit steadings and villages. Few retained the flavor of their Sîrrandras ancestry; even Hobbits felt little need to be so intimate with the forest.Since the Sîrrandras seldom moved large burdens into their homes, they left no openings large enough for a cart—often not even a horse—to move through.Their approach paths were not obvious, often appearing as deer trails.Anyone who traveled them might notice an archway effect of the branches spreading overhead and an abundance of flowers in graceful patterns during the spring and summer. Most of the camping glades in Sîrgala had the virtues, preferred by the Elves, of privacy and obscurity.They were situated in attractive, but remote places, shielded by heavy forest while being near sources of clean water.A s the Shire filled with mortals, word had gotten around about "fairy dances" and "Elf-meadows" hidden in the woods, but gossip also advised these places should be left strictly alone.Over the centuries after the Shire grant, the Hobbit moots and chieftains invented a new type of park-land, the Shire-common, to protect the Elven glades.These Shire-preserves were maintained even into a later age when some in the Shire scarcely believed in Elves anymore.

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