Legolas and Gimli returned to the house to find the Hobbits already there, taking tea in the courtyard and eating the scones Sam had cooked earlier. Butter and jam was in good supply, and the afternoon was still, warm and sunny. As the two came in at the top gate, they heard Merry saying: 'That spring now - it's almost like an Ent-bath. If the water came over a ledge of some sort, instead of straight down the rock ...'

Gimli asked for an explanation, and was reminded of the Hobbits' visit to Wellinghall. He understood the idea quickly enough, but Legolas was much more interested, especially when Pippin described Treebeard standing under the falling water, and said that they had bathed in the same way and enjoyed it.

Gimli eyed the small cascade. Though the thought of standing under it held no great appeal, he still wondered what could be done, and how.

Early the next day, he started rummaging among the bits and pieces in the store rooms and in the narrow space behind the last part of the range of buildings under the city wall. Then he started making sketches on some of the paper thoughfully provided by Faramir's servamts, and Legolas watched in fascination as he went seriously about the task of making an Ent-bath. And at the end of a day and a half, he had done it, almost entirely with the odds and ends he had found about the place. By shaping and driving into cracks in the rock a couple of strong pieces of iron, he made a bracket to which was fixed a wooden arm with two joints that supported a broad wooden chute to do duty for the ledge Merry had spoken of. A length of rope attached to the end of the arm enabled it to be swung under the falling water to direct it clear of the stone basin, so that it fell to the ground in a smaller version of the cascade at Wellinghall. The next step was the provision of something to catch the water and direct the overflow back into the channel at the foot of the rock wall. This was no problem, as the wash-kitchen held a second large tub beside the bath; one that had clearly been used for laundry, as it smelled of strong soap. Once a small section had been cut out of the rim and fitted with a channel made up from a few lengths of wood, the Ent-bath was complete. It all worked well enough, but Gimli showed no inclination to use it himself for its intended purpose.

When the Hobbits arrived to see how he was getting on, they were greatly surprised to find the work finished.

'Legolas must have helped,' said Pippin.

Legolas and Gimli both spoke at once: 'I assure you I did not.'

'When a Dwarf works, he works!'

'Besides, I have no skill in these matters,' said Legolas, 'Though I may have learned a little by watching Gimli.'

He had indeed been intrigued to see Gimli at work, absorbed in a novel task, concentrating so intently that at times he did not hear when spoken to.

But now came the question: who should be the first to try the Ent-bath?

Frodo said it should be Merry or Pippin, since it was their idea. He tested the water with his hand, and thought it too cold for his liking, even in the summer heat of Gondor.

Sam then accused the two of having second thoughts, which proved enough to start them stripping. Quietly he fetched the clothes-horse from the kitchen, complete with towels, and in no time at all there was an outdoor bathroom set up in the courtyard. Legolas and Gimli sat at the table and watched, laughing at the splashing and antics of the Hobbits. Eventually Sam was persuaded to have a go as well, when Merry and Pippin threatened to throw him into the tub (which was quite large enough for two Hobbits) fully dressed.

'All very well for a hot day,' he said, 'But chilly enough at that. If you could fix it up with hot water, Master Gimli, it might be another matter.'

'I'm not about to set up as a maker of baths for Hobbits!' snorted the Dwarf.

'I shall stick to hot water in a proper tub!' said Frodo.

Afterwards Legolas took to using the Ent-bath quite regularly, morning or evening, but only when the lower gate was locked against all visitors, and Gimli alone beheld him shining like silver in the cool cascade, often to be drawn by his beauty into sharing the clean refreshing chill that made the warmth of their bed all the more delightful.

Later, when the whole city was in festival mood after the coming of Arwen Undomiel, another Elf discovered the pleasures of the Ent-bath.

Haldir came down to call on Legolas and Gimli, on one particularly hot afternoon. Gandalf and the Hobbits were there, sitting lazily in the courtyard on chairs brought out from the kitchen and living room, eating strawberries and cream, and drinking the cool spring water. It was not long before the visitor, having taken a seat and accepted a dish of fruit, noticed, as he had not done on his earlier visit, the odd contraption fixed to the rock wall beside the spring. Merry and Pippin lost no time in explaining it.

As soon as he had finished eating, Haldir went and dipped his hands in basin. Legolas and Gimli saw from the way he glanced suddenly round at the mountain that he had been surprised by the chill of the water and quickly understood the reason for it.

With an air of hesitation he turned to his hosts: 'Would you allow me to try this? It would be so refreshing. There is nothing like this, even in Lórien; and I find the city very hot, so unlike the forest.'

Legolas and Gimli agreed, wondering when he would like to come and take his bath, and were startled to realise that he wished to do so as soon as possible. He stretched up his hands to the water as it spouted from the rocky fern-edged fissure above his head, as if he longed to embrace the spring.

The group at the table looked at each other almost in consternation behind his back. Even Legolas was not prepared for this: bathing in company was one thing, but to find this great warrior apparently ready to bathe with an audience was another!

Haldir sensed the mood behind him and turned round.

'Your pardon, my friends! This fountain reminds me of something, so long ago ... '

Suddenly he turned back again, and seemed to address the water, saying almost fiercely: 'But I have not forgotten!'

The others had thought at first that he was simply eager to shed his formal clothes (he must have been with the King and the Elven leaders) and forget for a while the unfamiliar confines of the city of stone; but it seemed that there was more in his reaction to the water than that.

'We shall sit on the front terrace,' said Legolas firmly, 'and you may enjoy your Ent-bath.'

He stood up and the rest followed suit, taking up their plates and glasses. Then Legolas went into the house and brought out the clothes-horse, with some towels, and set it in the courtyard where he judged it would be out of reach of any splashes. Haldir thanked him with a low bow, and everyone removed to the terrace, the Hobbits murmuring in surprise at Haldir's longing for the water.

'Elves truly ARE strange folk,' said Gimli, 'and the more you meet, the stranger they are!'

Beyond this, no one wished to seem so ill-bred as to discuss their guest in his absence, so they sat and chatted idly for a while, until suddenly all fell silent at a sound from the courtyard: a sound, a voice, a song: a song so long unheard in Middle-earth that Gandalf alone of the company recognised it. Sam, sitting nearest to the end of the house, rose as if lifted from his seat by an unseen hand, and turned slowly toward the courtyard arch. Though he had heard in the past year more elvish song than he had ever dreamed of, this was utterly new, in melody, words and tone.

The rest glanced briefly at each other, as if to confirm that all had heard it, before they too were drawn towards the marvellous song. They all halted under the archway, even Gandalf unable to resist, and looked across the sun-warmed pavement to where Haldir stood and sang to the fountain.

All Elves have beautiful voices, but Haldir's was of a kind they had not heard before: a voice of power and ringing clarity, a sound that could hardly be believed to issue from a living throat. The stones echoed with its majestic purity, utterly unlike the sweetness of Legolas' song. The melody seemed to be made to rules unknown in Middle-earth, and the language was so ancient that even Legolas could not understand all of it.

And the sight before them was altogether as remarkable as the song. The tall and powerful Elf stood naked under the cascade, head thrown back so that the water fell upon his chest. His hands were uplifted to receive the pure and chilly spring from Mindolluin, and the spray scattered in a shower of light around him.

He stood in the tub that had been set to catch the water, a common wooden tub such as any household in the city might possess; but the plain staves and hoops were silvered over with water and sunlight, and shone to match the fair form of the Elf. His long hair, freed from its ceremonial braiding, hung down below his hips, sleek and wet, paler in colour than Legolas' moon-gold, yet not a bright silver like Celeborn's.

'Show-off', muttered Pippin under his breath. Merry, who had been first to take a liking to the Guardian of Lórien, glared at him.

'He doesn't know or care if we are here! He's singing for the water!'

'You are right, Master Merry,' said Gandalf very softly. 'He sings for the water and the rock, for the wind and the fire of the sun; for all the Powers that sustain the life of Middle-earth. And surely none have sung thus, east of the Sea, since the drowning of Beleriand.'

They gazed at Haldir in yet greater wonder, as the sound of his singing swelled and rang.

'It is a voice of mithril', whispered Gimli, unable to find any other words for the sound that filled the air.

Then they all stood as if spellbound, until the song ended, and had only begun to creep away when Haldir stepped backwards out of the tub, and another marvellous vision appeared before them.

He leaned forward briefly under the falling water, and lowered his head so that all his hair was swept forward, and the cascade fell on the back of his head and neck. Then he quickly straightened up and flung his hair back with a sharp flick, so that for a moment they beheld him as a warrior armoured in liquid sunlight, crested with silver, and adorned with rainbow gems of flying water.

Then the long bright mane fell down against his back, spraying droplets halfway across the court, and the vision was gone as he turned to take up a towel from the rail, which, happily for the watchers, stood to his right, so that they were able to retreat silently under the arch and resume their seats while his back was toward them.

After a while Legolas said to Gandalf: 'Then Haldir was born in Beleriand?'

Yes. His grandfather was one of the Noldor who defied the Valar and came back to Middle-earth. He took a Sinda wife, and their son also married a Grey-elven lady, one of Thingol's folk. His father, mother and grandmother were all lost in the Fall of Beleriand, and his grandfather returned to Aman when the Ban was lifted, but he and his brothers came East with Celeborn and Oropher (Legolas' grandfather)', he added, to remind the Hobbits and Gimli, 'and here he has remained.'

'I never heard my father speak of him', said Legolas.

'He may not have known him. Those who came East to seek peace away from the strife of the Noldor did not all travel in one company', said the Wizard, 'But now at last peace is better assured than at any time in long ages - and now he sings again.'

While they were still digesting this information, Haldir came to join them. He had left off his formal surcoat and had a towel spread over his broad shoulders to keep the damp hair off his tunic. Not his eyes alone, but his whole being, seemed to shine with a happy light.

'I cannot tell you what a joy that was to me,' he said, bowing to Legolas and Gimli. 'My deepest thanks to you for the use of your Ent-bath; and to you, my Hobbit friends, for the idea of making it.

'We heard your song -,' Pippin ventured.

'Ah, yes! It is so long since I could even think of such song! But things are changed now. You have changed them!'

And he gave a smile of such bright beauty that they all felt like singing.