Summary

It is Yule again. Snowfall, the ground too hard for anything to grow, but also warm hut and a blazing fire. I've lived another year, as did my mother, father, brother and his family. My grandmother also lives another year, despite claiming it will be her last. Like a year ago, and then a year prior. To jest like this about her own age is heartening to witness, seeing that not even time can erode a person's will, should it be strong enough.

In this year, I traveled east, then west and north. I traversed the Lone Lands, learning legends about men with cloven faces, bands of brigands and the Eglain's stand against them. I've then traveled west and north, into the North Downs, roaming the forests and avoiding the cursed plains, hunting and listening to the forest's tales about remnant orcs attacking and fleeing. I've then traveled south and west, to the Shire and, as the summer gave in to the autumn, reached the lake-land of Evendim, chasing the legends of my youth.

In this year, I've aided many a folk, against the cold, against the hunger, against themselves and their past. I've learned about cultures foreign to me and taught people of mine. I have shared my name with two people, one whom I met more often than I thought I would. I have decided where the next year's travel take me - Dunland, to the south and east, past Eregion and Enedwaith, past the elfwoods of Trollshaws. That, or - stay in Bree and learn fishing. Either of the two, I will offer to another, to join me on my travels. Perhaps he will agree, and that would make me glad. Perhaps not and I will travel on my own, time will tell.

I wish to learn fishing in the coming year, be it by my own or by the hand an eye of the stonespeaker's companion. I wish to learn more of the stranger I've met, whose company I grew fond of. I wish to learn the culture of Dunland, and compare it to mine - maybe the stonespeaker's words are true and both her grandmother and my grandfather came from there. Whether true or not, it would at least be an interesting thing to learn.

Above all, I wish the world a happy Yule - peaceful, for the first time in long years. War is over, and so may be all our worries, if just for this day.