"The lembas had a virtue

without which they would long ago have lain down todie ... this waybread

of the Elves had a potency that increased as travelers relied on it alone

and did not mingle it with other foods. It fed the will, and it gave strength

to endure, and to master sinew and limb beyond the measure of mortal kind."

- "The Lord of the

Rings: The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton-Mifflin)

I cooked lembas bread, a cheeky

undertaking for a mortal.

I'm no Galadriel, the

elf matriarch who gave the magically nutritious and courage-enhancing

carb to hobbits and their companions as they journeyed to vanquish evil

in "The Fellowship of the Ring."

But there's near-magic

in a project that appeals to a 12-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and

their mom, who first encountered hobbits in the '70s. All three of

us had read the books and seen the movies. After waxing rapturous about

Peter Jackson's artistry and J.R.R. Tolkien's genius, I had

one question: What would Frodo eat?

One thing Tolkien makes clear

is that hobbits eat a lot, and often. So I turned to the Internet, sustainer

of those who lack Arwen's knowledge of matters hidden. The fan site

www.theonering.net provides several recipes, including those for the hobbits'

waybread and the seed cake popular at Bilbo and Frodo's home, Bag

End.

My son pronounced the lembas

"a lot like Honey Bunches of Oats cereal," high praise from

a young man of Middle America. I found it a cross between a pancake and

baklava. We agree it's good fortification for a journey, even if

the destination is math class rather than Moria.

For more enlightenment, I queried

a University of Texas at Austin linguistics specialist, Fred Hoyt, who

uses Tolkien's fictional languages in a course he teaches. I was

saddened to hear from him that lembas "would definitely not have

any real-world comparisons."

"The name is from 'Sindarin,'

one of Tolkien's invented languages, and means 'journey bread,'

so in that sense you might compare it to a PowerBar," says Hoyt.

"However, lembas had magic or spiritual properties that went beyond

plain food."

Hoyt says one of Tolkien's

letters suggests lembas may be inspired by the "viaticum" of

the Latin Mass, the Eucharist given to people in danger of dying or who

are embarking on a very dangerous journey.

Tolkien himself liked plain

English food, says Hoyt. We know he ate regularly for decades in an Oxford,

England, pub called the Eagle and Child, where he and literary friends

met to read and critique their manuscripts.

The pub, established in 1620,

is still in operation, and manager Steve Lowbridge told us by phone that

if Tolkien were to appear in the pub today he could order "steak

pie or a plate of fish-and-chips or a corn-fed chicken breast, with a

local ale, perhaps Hook Norton."

Closer to home and not so ancient,

but still beloved by several generations, is Houston's Hobbit Cafe.

It has been in business 32 years but had to expand onto a patio after

"The Lord of the Rings" movies brought hobbits to national attention

again.

"Business has quadrupled

in the past three years," says waitress Molly Mayer.

But it's the decor and

the names of the dishes - imagine ordering the Fatty Lumpkin Tuna

Melt - that provide the hobbit connection; there's no attempt

to offer authentic Middle-earth fare. For that, the Web site provides

fans' recipes.

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