Author’s Notes:

All right, so I realized, while driving to work about half an hour after I posted the last chapter of “Blanketed in Love”, that having Pippin’s birthday fall in Afteryule (January) contradicted his statement in Return of the King that he is “28--nearly 29” in March. (I was fully aware of this canonical fact; it just took a little vacation from my brain.)

However, all sorts of other background and spin-off stories were already popping out of that universe, and I felt compelled to leave his birthday where I had put it, on the third of Afteryule, the day after the end of the Shire’s Yuletide holidays. (I have addressed this seeming contradiction of canon in a long, complex Pippin and Diamond story I hope to begin posting soon. It’s a bit of a fudgy way of addressing it, but I have done so.;)


One reason I felt called to leave his birthday on that date is because it is the hobbit calendar’s equivalent of Epiphany. I’m not sure why I felt so called to have Pippin be born on this date, but I did -- and I have tried to work in a few Epiphany-themed moments to this fic as well.

A few of the lines are from the Epiphany section of my church’s hymnal (this is what that reference to ‘further disclaimers and explanations’ meant:

Part One:
“sunlight entered the smial, *chasing the gloom away*”: “the gloom of darkness chase away” from “From God the Father, Virgin-Born”, translated by John M. Neale from 11th century Latin office hymn, tune, Antiphoner, Grenoble, 1753

Part Two:
“A new life now awaits us” from “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord” by Martin Luther, translated by Elizabeth Quitmeyer, tune J. Walther, Geistliche Gesangbuchlein, 1524

“You are our dearest treasure” from “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright!”, text and tune by Philipp Nicolai, 1556-1608