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Anthony & I were intrigued by the name of this album, the cover art, and the soundbytes we heard on the album’s site: In Elven Lands. Being a longtime fan of medieval choir music, especially the work of Anonymous 4 and the hymns of Hildegard von Bingen, I found myself positively itching to get my hands on In Elven Lands. And, I was not disappointed. In fact, I cried… digested… listened again, cried a bit less… and found myself speechless. I think I still do, to an extent. While I can listen to the album now without crying, I am prone to sudden tearfulness at the slightest provocation—as I often am when reading Tolkien’s own stories of Middle-earth.

Seldom have I come across an album, piece of music, or recording that so quickly rooted itself into my heart as this collection has. It often takes an album multiple visits for it to become familiar, and many more for it to become ingrained. This has only happened once before, to my recollection (with the work of SK Thoth).

I have also found that whenever a group of artists, or a singular artist, makes a claim to be “inspired” by Tolkien’s works in their musical endeavors, their claim doesn’t always mean for an engaging listen. There are times, especially when reviewing a CD, that I’ve had to listen ad nauseam before finding salient points within an album. There has only been a handful that eventually was added to my personal music library. When making the Tolkien-inspired claim, the songs are either mythological inspirations from Tolkien’s fiction—like Glass Hammer, Bo Hansson, Blind Guardian, etc.—or are Tolkien’s own work—his songs and poems—set to music—as with Lingalad’s Voici della Terra di Mezzo and Brocelïande’s The Starlit Jewel. Here, The Fellowship has achieved something truly on the plain with Tolkien’s own achievements. When most musical inspirations from Tolkien focus on The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship has concerned themselves with the plethora of mythology that came before.

On their site, as well as in the CD booklet, The Fellowship remind us that Tolkien himself claimed to have simply translated his works from already ancient manuscripts.

In a note to Anthony & I along with the copy of In Elven Lands, one of the key members of The Fellowship, Carvin Knowles, referred to the album as their “little forgery.” I would have to disagree: this is the genuine article. So many other ‘Tolkien inspired’ works reach for a certain authenticity that falls somewhat short. While I adore Lingalad’s Voici della Terra di Mezzo, I don’t get the sense that I am listening to a musical collection from Middle-earth, perhaps because Hobbits don’t speak Italian, or because there aren’t electronic synthesizers in the Shire. There are some moment’s in The Starlit Jewel, particularly with “Galadriel’s Lament” and “The Hobbit Walking Song,” that I do get this sense that I am peeking directly into Middle-earth and am truly listening to Galadriel and a smattering of hobbits.