In a number of episodes in Middle Earth the weather appears to behave    
   with an apparent agenda, willfully intervening on behalf of    
   (or in opposition to) a party to the conflict.    
      
   Usually weather is considered a powerful but mindless force of primal Nature.    
   However behind that there was perhaps something else at work. I can put it    
   no plainer than by saying that sometimes the weather was "meant" to behave    
   as conveniently (or awkwardly) for someone as it did.    
      
   By whom, and why, I'm not always sure. However, the party aided is not    
   necessarily the one responsible for the weather event, although this    
   occasionally seems true. I suppose only a Higher Order Being, a Maia at   
   the minimum can influence weather. Even Tom Bombadil, with all his    
   Earthly powers admitted, "I am no weather-master, nor is aught that goes    
   on two legs."   
      
   Anyway, here are some examples, where:   
   {name} = character(s) helped   
   >>name<< = character(s) hindered   
      
      
   * TURBULANT WIND - Trollshaws; a few days before Midsummer, Third Age 2941    
   >>Thorin & Co.<<   
      
     They decided in the end that they would have to camp where they   
   were. So far they had not camped before on this journey, and ... it   
   seemed a bad wet evening to begin, on. They moved to a clump of trees,   
   and though it was drier under them, the wind shook the rain off the   
   leaves, and the drip, drip, was most annoying.    
      
   [So far just standard bellyaching about rain. But then here follows    
   the kind of thing I'm talking about. What other agency could have been    
   at work that evening, and why?]   
      
     Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire    
   almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they could not    
   do it that night, not even Oin and Gloin, who were specially good at it.   
      
      
   * ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ALLOW MOONLIGHT - Rivendell; Midsummer eve, 2941   
   {Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<   
      
     The moon was shining in a broad silver crescent. [Elrond] held up the map    
   and the white light shone through it. "What is this?" he said.    
   "There are moon-letters here..."   
      
     "What are moon-letters?" asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved   
   maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked runes and letters    
   and cunning handwriting... [this all applies to me as well]   
      
     "Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond,   
   "not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon   
   shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must   
   be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were   
   written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as   
   your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a   
   midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago."   
      
     "What do they say?" asked Gandalf and Thorin together...   
      
     "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond,    
   "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine    
   upon the key-hole."   
      
   [All this makes for wondrously enchanted reading. However it wouldn't   
   have been all that feasible on a Midsummer evening of heavy rain or fog,   
   but "luckily", as news articles often say, "the weather co-operated."]   
      
      
   * EXTREME THUNDERSTORM - Misty Mountains; ~2 weeks after Midsummer, 2941    
   {goblins} >>Thorin & Co.<<   
       
   [The travelers take shelter in the entrance to a goblin cave.]   
      
      
   * A BREAK IN THE CLOUD COVER - Mt. Erebor; Durin's Day, 2941    
   {Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<     
      
     Soon [Bilbo] saw the orange ball of the sun sinking towards the level    
   of his eyes. He went to the opening and there pale and faint was    
   a thin new moon above the rim of Earth. At that very moment he heard    
   a sharp crack behind him. There on the grey stone in the grass was    
   an enormous thrush, nearly coal black, its pale yellow breast    
   freckled dark spots. Crack! It had caught a snail and was knocking    
   it on the stone. Crack! Crack!   
      
   ... The sun sank lower and lower, and their hopes fell. It sank   
   into a belt of reddened cloud and disappeared. The dwarves groaned, but   
   still Bilbo stood almost without moving. The little moon was dipping    
   to the horizon. Evening was coming on. Then suddenly when their hope was   
   lowest a red ray of the sun escaped like a finger through a rent in the   
   cloud. A gleam of light came straight through the opening into the bay   
   and fell on the smooth rock-face. The old thrush, who had been watching   
   from a high perch with beady eyes and head cocked on one side, gave a   
   sudden trill. There was a loud attack. A flake of rock split from the   
   wall and fell. A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the   
   ground. Quickly, trembling lest the chance should fade, the dwarves   
   rushed to the rock and pushed-in vain.   
      
     "The key! The key!" cried Bilbo. "Where is Thorin?"   
      
     Thorin hurried up.   
      
     "The key!" shouted Bilbo. "The key that went with the map! Try it now   
   while there is still time!"   
      
     Then Thorin stepped up and drew the key on its chain from round his   
   neck. He put it to the hole. It fitted and it turned! Snap! The gleam   
   went out, the sun sank, the moon was gone, and evening sprang into the sky.   
      
   [Isn't that totally awesome writing? From JRRT's masterly command of    
   the language I can see that scene vividly in my imagination alone without    
   any need for high-tech audio-visual gadgetry (or a screenwriter like    
   Ralph Bakshi or Guillermo del Toro to interpret it for me).]   
      
      
   * SUNSHINE - open field adjoining Bagshot Row; Party Day: Sept 22, 3001    
   {partygoing hobbits}    
      
     Then the weather clouded over. That was on Wednesday the eve of the Party.    
   Anxiety was intense. Then Thursday, September the 22nd, actually dawned.    
   The sun got up, the clouds vanished, flags were unfurled and the fun began.   
      
      
   * RAIN - Tom Bombadil's house; Sept 27, 3018    
   {Frodo & Co.}     
      
     As they looked out of the window there came falling gently as if it was    
   flowing down the rain out of the sky, the clear voice of Goldberry    
   singing up above them. They could hear few words, but it seemed plain    
   to them that the song was a rain-song, as sweet as showers on dry hills,    
   that told the tale of a river from the spring in the highlands to the Sea    
   far below. The hobbits listened with delight; and Frodo was glad    
   in his heart, and blessed the kindly weather, because it delayed them    
   from departing. The thought of going had been heavy upon him from    
   the moment he awoke; but he guessed now that they would not go further    
   that day...   
      
     "This is Goldberry's washing day," [Tom] said, 'and her autumn-cleaning.    
   Too wet for hobbit-folk - let them rest while they are able!    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)