"I see you have returned! What of your quest, and what of your vow???" said the king.
"It is fulfilled! Even now a Silmaril is in my hand..."
"Show it to me..."

---

So replied Beren to the King's taunting question; and similarly I can answer those who ask about my world tour. "It is finished! Even now the memories are in my hand."

There was a twist, a majestic but tragic irony to the reply Beren gave to the king. Thingol had challenged Beren to venture through dangerous and savage lands to bring back a jewel he coveted. But as always with Tolkien in his Silmarillion, at great cost and consequences. Beren's hand indeed held the Silmaril...but it had been bitten off by the wold, Cacharoth; and when Beren held out his arm, there was no hand for the King to open. Beren could share his story, but not the jewel.

And so it shall be with me. I have traveled thousands of kilometers on dangerous and lonely roads to fetch the jewel of accomplishment that this trip represents. Even now that jewel is in my hand. Yet I cannot, or will not, share it with you.

This trip, its events mundane and dramatic; its roads lofty and lazy; its days monotonous and exciting; is truly the most valued of all my possessions, of which I have very few. On this site I shared some of my trip with you; in fact you have seen but little.

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In Tolkien's book Beren eventually claims his hand from the belly of the wolf and offers the Silmaril to the king.
"Now is my mission achieved," Beren says as he breathes his last, "and my doom full wrought."

So again it will be with me: someday I will reveal in full what this trip was all about..and I shall die soon after.