Note: For the "History of Violence" challenge on the Tolkien_weekly community

The title is from a song or a hymn from my schooldays that I can't quite recall much else of other than that it was some patriotic thingy.

This Land, So Rich, So Fair

They tell their Captain the tales they heard from their fathers who heard them from their fathers - of farmsteads nestled between gently rolling fragrant woods, of spring festivals and bountiful harvests, of the life once dwelt in this land termed fair as though a lady.

But Faramir knows too the other tales untold - of shadows ever-present, of war, victories and routs, of constant forays by all manner of foe and of the mountains to the east.

And often he wonders as they do if they can ever give to this land still beautiful in its wilderness the peace it deserves.

***