Elizabeth Hopkinson's Hidden Grove

Yesterday, I went to see The Hobbit .  When I got home, I dug out all my old Tolkien fan fictions and re-read them, something I haven't done for years.  In among them was the very first - actually a fan poem - simply entitled Legolas and dated December 2002.  At the time I thought it was the first and last, a one-off expression of my feelings after seeing The Two Towers .  Little did I know then that it was in fact the spark that re-kindled my imaginative gift, and set me on my own "unexpected journey" through fan fiction and short story, to the point I am now, with my first novel Silver Hands  due for release in April 2013.  So it seems only right to print the poem again, ten years on.  Thank you, Legolas.  I still love you. Legolas Under leaf and under tree, Under moon and under star,  Long you walked, before the sea Bore you to the realm afar. Too fair for man, too stern for maid, As all that race whose days are long....

Nothing could have excited my imagination more than the Guardian' s recent reports on the alleged discovery in North Korea of Kiringul (unicorn's lair), associated with ancient king Tongmyong who, according to Korean legend, rode on unicorns. A king rode unicorns in Korean legend?!?  Why did I not know of this before?  I find this especially interesting because in the Korean graphic novel series Bride of the Water God by Mi-Kyung Yun there is a character called Lynn, who appears to be a unicorn.  In fact, he has two forms.  In one, he is a winged unicorn.  (He looks like a horse but with more of a cow's tail).  In his other form, he looks like a human, but with pointed ears and a unicorn-like horn in the middle of his forehead.  He is ridden in his horse form by another character, Huye. According to the Guardian , Korean unicorns are called kirins or qilins.  They are described either as a 4-legged beast with a dragon's head (does...