“Then Aragorn laid his hand on Merry’s head, and passing his hand gently through the brown curls, he touched the eyelids, and called him by name. And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room, like the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke, and he said:
‘I am hungry. What is the time?”
@The_Picard_Maneuver except they literally mention bees.
“Then Aragorn laid his hand on Merry’s head, and passing his hand gently through the brown curls, he touched the eyelids, and called him by name. And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room, like the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke, and he said:
‘I am hungry. What is the time?”
And it’s not a one-off, either!
In The Hobbit, Tolkien goes on at some length about the bees in Beorn’s house.
yeah this isn’t a slam dunk. I want to hear the 6 hour argument against bees in middle earth