Gandalf the Grey murmured thoughtfully, releasing a puff of grey smoke from his pipe. 
"Unsolved mysteries," he said with an almost reverent look in his eye. 
The wise wizard had been pondering the mysterious and unknown for centuries, exploring the depths of Middle Earth with a sense of curiosity and wonder. 
He welcomed the challenge of unraveling the secrets of Arda and the challenges that lay in his path.
Gandalf looked around the room with satisfaction, taking in the details of the old chamber with its broad, black beams crossing the ceiling. The room was furnished with ancient furniture that was well-suited to the setting. 

The wizard's gaze landed on the figure of Galadriel, Queen of the Elves, seated in a grand grandfather chair. She wore a flowing gown of white and silver, and her golden hair was piled high in an elaborate crown. Her pale eyes, wise and gentle, surveyed her guests with pleasure. 

In addition to Gandalf, Galadriel's guests included the Dwarf King, Gimli; the Ranger, Aragorn; the Lord of the Eagles, Gwaihir; and the wizard Radagast. The Queen of the Elves gave each of them a moment's attention before her gaze returned to her knitting with a warm smile.
Gimli gave a gruff cough, which was his way of preluding his speech. "What was that ye say, Gandalf? Mysteries yet unsolved? Aye—and what of them?"

"Nothing of them," replied Aragorn, his voice carrying a note of amusement. "Gandalf just likes the sound of the words and of himself saying them."

Gandalf fixed Aragorn with a withering glance, but the Ranger merely cocked an eyebrow and smiled.
"He's a scoundrel, isn't he, Lady Galadriel?" Aragorn asked, turning to the Elven-queen. "I'm sure ye must know that."

Galadriel gave him a gentle smile in response, but said nothing.

"Life itself is an enigma," Gwaihir said solemnly.

Gandalf rose from his chair and stamped out his pipe with a decisive gesture."That's not what I meant. I was not speaking of philosophy," he said. "I was considering actual, tangible facts, events that have occurred and that no one has ever explained."
"I understand precisely what ye mean, my Lord," said Galadriel. "For example, Lady Eowyn had a peculiar experience the morning past. She purchased two measures of the finest fish from Beorn's market. She visited two other merchants, yet when she returned home, the fish had vanished, with no trace of them found at either of the other shops. This strikes me as very peculiar indeed."
"A suspicious situation indeed," Aragorn said gravely.

"There are, of course, all manner of potential explanations," Galadriel said, her cheeks becoming faintly rosier with eagerness. "For example, someone else--""My dearest Lady," Aragorn said with a hint of amusement, "I am not speaking of minor village occurrences. I am referring to such matters as murders and disappearances, of which Lord Gwaihir could tell us tales for hours, were he so inclined."

"But I never speak of such things," said the Lord of the Eagles modestly. "No, I never speak of such things."

Gwaihir had, until recently, been the High King of the Eagles."I imagine there must be a fair number of killings and the like which the authorities never manage to solve," said Galadriel.

"That is an accepted truth, I believe," Gimli replied.

"I ponder," said Aragorn, "what kind of mind is best suited to unravelling a riddle? One always feels that the typical law enforcement officer must be limited by lack of innovation."
"That is the opinion of the inexperienced," Gwaihir said dryly.

"You need a group of people," said Galadriel, her lips twitching in a smile. "For cunning and creativity come from the storyteller—"

She gave a mocking bow to Aragorn, but he remained earnest."The craft of storytelling gives one an understanding of the hearts of Men," he said solemnly. "One notices, maybe, motives that the ordinary person would overlook."

"I know, my dear," said Gandalf, "that thy tales are very clever. Yet dost thou think people are truly so wicked as thou depictest them to be?"
"My dearest Lady Galadriel," Gandalf replied gently, "hold fast to thine convictions. May it never be that I would ever undermine them."

"I mean," said Galadriel, pausing in her counting of her stitches to furrow her brow, "that too many people seem to me not to be either good or bad, but simply, ye know, rather foolish."

Gimli gave another gruff cough."Do not ye believe, Aragorn," he said, "that ye place too much emphasis on invention? Imagination is a perilous thing, as we law-keepers know all too well. To be able to distinguish evidence objectively, to take the facts and view them as facts—that seems to me the only reasonable way to arrive at the truth. I can add that in my experience it is the sole way to find success.""Fie!" shouted Arwen, tossing her golden head in indignation. "I wager I could outmatch thee all at this contest. I am not only a woman - and say what ye will, women possess an instinct that is denied to men - I am an artist too. I observe things that ye cannot. And then, also, as an artist I have encountered all kinds of people. I comprehend life as Lady Galadriel here could never fathom.""I would not be so sure, my dear," said Galadriel. "Painful and sorrowful things can occur in small hamlets too."

"Might I speak?" said Elrond, smiling. "It is popular in these days to criticize the Elves, I am aware, but we hear matters, we understand a side of the human character which is completely unknown to the outsider."
"Very well," said Aragorn. "It appears that we are a fair gathering. Would it be a good idea if we formed a Fellowship? What day is this? Tuesday? We shall call it The Tuesday Fellowship. It shall convene every week, and each member in their turn must present a problem. Some conundrum from their own experience, and of course they have to have the answer." He glanced around the room. "Let me see, how many are we? One, two, three, four, five. We must be six in total."
"Thou hast overlooked me, friend," said Lady Galadriel, her eyes twinkling.

Aragorn was taken aback, yet he managed to conceal his surprise. "That would be wonderful, Lady Galadriel," he said. "I had not thought thou wouldst be interested in joining us."
"I deem it would be most entertaining," the Elven-queen replied, "especially with so many wise kings present. I am afraid I am not wise myself, but having dwelt for so long in Lothlórien dost give one understanding of the hearts of Men."

"I know thy presence will prove very beneficial," Aragorn said, bowing his head in respect.

"Which of us shall start first?" Joyce inquired."I believe there can be no doubt in that," Elrond said with a courtly bow in the direction of Aragorn.

The latter pondered in silence for a few moments. Eventually he sighed and shifted his position, and began:"It is a bit tricky to pick precisely the sort of matter ye seek, yet I have a tale which matches these criteria quite well. Ye may have seen some reference to it in the tales of a year past. It was set aside at the time as an unsolved mystery, yet, as it happens, the answer came to me not so long ago."
"The facts be simple enough. Three persons gathered to partake of a supper which included, among other things, a can of salted crab. Later in the evening, the three fell ill and a healer was called for in haste. Two of the people recovered, the third did not."

"Ah!" exclaimed Gandalf in approval."As I say, the facts as such were simple. Death was thought to be the result of a poison, and a certificate was given to that effect. The deceased was soon after interred. But matters did not end there. "

Legolas nodded his head.

"Surely there was gossip," he said, "it is ever thus."
"Now I must recount the protagonists of this tale. I shall name the husband and wife, Thranduil and Tauriel, and the wife's companion, Lady Galadriel. Thranduil was a merchant of a company of alchemists. He was a fair-looking Elf, with a certain coarseness to his features, aged around five hundred. His wife, Tauriel, was an unremarkable Elf of four hundred. The companion, Lady Galadriel was an Elf of six hundred years, a stout and joyful Elf with a bright and rosy face. None of them, you might say, very remarkable.""The start of the quandary came about in an unusual way. Thranduil had lodged the prior eve in a small inn in the Shire. It happened that the blotting parchment in the blotter had been replaced that day, and the chambermaid, with nothing better to do, entertained herself by scrutinizing the blotter in the looking-glass once Thranduil had finished writing a letter. A few days later, a report was published in the paper concerning Tauriel's death, having eaten tinned fish, and the chambermaid then informed her companions of the words she had decoded on the blotting paper. They read: Entirely beholden to my wife...when she is gone I will...have riches and glory...
"You may remember that there had recently been a case of an Elfess being poisoned by her husband. This was enough to arouse the curiosity of the chambermaids. Thranduil had plotted to be rid of his wife and seize hundreds of thousands of coins! As it happened, one of the maids had kin dwelling in the small village where Thranduil and Tauriel resided. She sent a letter to them, and they in turn wrote to her. Thranduil, it seemed, had been very attentive to the local healer's daughter, a comely Elf of three hundred. Rumour started to spread. The King of Mirkwood was petitioned. Numerous secret missives were sent to the Citadel of Erebor all charging Thranduil with having killed his wife. Now I may say that not for one moment did we think there was any truth to it except idle village talk and gossip. Nevertheless, to appease public opinion an exhumation order was granted. It was one of these cases of popular superstition based on nothing solid whatever, which proved to be so surprisingly accurate. As a result of the autopsy sufficient arsenic was discovered to make it quite clear that the late Tauriel had perished of arsenic poisoning. It was for the Citadel of Erebor working with the local authorities to demonstrate how that arsenic had been administered, and by whom."
"Ah!" exclaimed Arwen. "I adore this. This is real stuff.""Suspicion was naturally cast upon Thranduil. He profited from Tauriel's demise. Not to the magnitude of the hundreds of thousands fantasised by the inn chambermaid, but to a very substantial amount of eight thousand coins. He had no money of his own apart from what he earned, and he was a man of some extravagant habits with a fondness for the company of Elfesses. We investigated as cautiously as possible the rumour of his attachment to the healer's daughter; but while it seemed plain that there had been a strong friendship between them at one time, there had been a most abrupt rupture two months prior, and they did not appear to have met since. The healer himself, an aged Elf of an honest and unsuspecting type, was aghast at the outcome of the autopsy. He had been called in around midnight to find the three unwell. He had discerned right away the precarious condition of Tauriel, and had dispatched to his apothecary for some opium pills, to reduce the pain. In spite of all his attempts, however, she passed on, yet not for an instant did he suspect that aught was amiss. He was convinced that her death was due to a form of botulism. Supper that evening had consisted of tinned crab and salad, custard and bread and cheese. Sadly none of the crab remained—it had all been consumed and the tin discarded. He had questioned the young maid, Corunir Linch. She was terribly distressed, very tearful and flustered, and he found it hard to get her to keep to the point, but she proclaimed again and again that the tin had not been swollen in any way and that the crab had seemed to her in a perfectly good state.
" Such were the facts we had to work with. If Thranduil had feloniously administered arsenic to his wife, it seemed clear that it could not have been done in any of the things eaten at supper, as the three had partaken of the meal. Also—another point—Thranduil himself had returned from the Iron Hills just as supper was being brought to the table, so that he would have had no chance of tampering with any of the food beforehand."
"What of Lady Galadriel?" asked Joyce--"the stout Elf with the beaming countenance."

Aragorn nodded.

"We did not overlook Lady Galadriel, I can assure you. But it seemed improbable what motive she could have had for the crime. Tauriel left her no inheritance of any kind and the outcome of her employer's death was that she had to search for another job.""That appears to exclude her," said Arwen musingly."Not long after, one of my rangers found a significant fact," continued Thranduil. "Following supper on that night Thranduil had gone down to the larder and had asked for a bowl of flour for his wife who had complained of not feeling well. He had waited in the larder until Corunir Linch had prepared it, and then carried it up to Tauriel's chamber himself. That, I confess, seemed to settle it."
The lawyer nodded.

"Motive," he said, ticking off the points on his fingers. "Opportunity. As a merchant for a company of apothecaries, easy access to the venom."

"And a man of lax morals," said Gwaihir.

Aragorn was staring at Thranduil.

"There is something amiss here," he said. "Why didst thou not arrest him?"Thranduil smiled somewhat grimly.

"That is the unfortunate part of the circumstance. So far all had gone smoothly, but now we come to the kinks. Thranduil was not arrested because upon questioning Lady Galadriel she told us that the entirety of the bowl of flour was drank not by Tauriel but by her."Indeed, it appears that she went to Tauriel's chamber as was her custom. Tauriel was sitting up in bed and the bowl of flour was by her side."I am not in the best of health, Milly," she said. "Serves me right, I suppose, for partaking of salted crab in the night. I asked Albert to bring me a bowl of flour, but now that I have it I don't seem to have a taste for it.""A pity," commented Lady Galadriel - "it is made nicely, without any lumps. Corunir is truly a skilled cook. Very few maidens nowadays seem to be able to prepare a bowl of flour so well. I declare I could almost fancy it myself, I am so famished."
"I should think you would be with your reckless habits," said Tauriel."I must make known," Thranduil paused, "that Lady Galadriel, perturbed at her burgeoning size, was following a regime that is commonly known as 'fasting.'""It is not healthy for you, Milly, it truly isn't," Tauriel pleaded. "If the Valar made you plump they meant you to be plump. You empty that bowl of flour. It will benefit you greatly."And immediately Lady Galadriel set to and truly had finished the bowl. Therefore, you see, that demolished our case against Thranduil. Asked to explain the words on the blotting paper Thranduil gave a reasonable answer. The missive, he elucidated, was in response to one sent from his sibling in Rhovanion who had appealed to him for funds. He had written, indicating that he was completely dependent on his wife. When his wife was no more he would have control of wealth and would help his brother if it could be done. He lamented his incapacity to assist but pointed out that there were many thousands of people in Middle-earth in the same unfortunate condition.
"And so the case fell apart?" Elrond enquired.

"And so the case fell apart," Aragorn said somberly. "We could not take the risk of arresting Thranduil with nothing to go on."

There was stillness and then Joyce asked, "And that is all, is it?""That is the way it has been for the last year. The true answer is now known to the High Council of Rivendell, and in a few days ye shall likely read of it in the annals.”

"The true answer," Aragorn mused. "I wonder. Let us all ponder for five minutes and then speak."Gandalf nodded and measured the time on his pocket watch. When the five minutes had passed, he glanced at Elrond.

"Will ye be first to speak?" he asked.The elder Elf shook his head. "I must confess," he said, "that I am altogether perplexed. I can but think that the husband in some manner must be the culpable one, however how he did it I cannot fathom. I can only propose that he must have given her the poison in some way that has yet to be revealed, although how in that case it should have come to light after all this time I cannot conceive.""Arwen?""The Lady Galadriel!" said Arwen resolutely. "The Lady Galadriel every time! How do we know what motive she may have had? Just because she was old and stout and plain it doesn't follow that she wasn't in love with Thranduil herself. She may have detested Tauriel for some other cause. Consider being a companion--constantly having to be pleasant and consent and stifle yourself and bottle yourself up. One day she couldn't endure it any longer and then she slew her. She likely inserted the arsenic in the bowl of flour and all that tale about consuming it herself is a falsehood."
"Gimli?"

The dwarf joined the tips of his fingers together ceremoniously. "I should hardly like to declare. On the facts I should hardly like to declare."

"But you must, Gimli," said Arwen. "You can't withhold judgement and say 'without bias', and be lawful. You have to play the game.""On the facts," said Gimli, "there seems naught to be said. It is my private belief, having seen, alas, too many matters of this sort, that Thranduil was culpable. The only explanation that will fit the facts seems to be that Lady Galadriel, for some cause or other, deliberately shielded him. There may have been some monetary deal made between them. He may have realized that he would be accused, and she, seeing only a future of impoverishment before her, may have agreed to tell the tale of drinking the flour in return for a considerable sum to be given to her secretly. If that was the case it was of course highly improper. Highly improper indeed.""I dissent from you all," said Gandalf. "You have forgotten the one crucial detail in the case. The healer's daughter. I shall give you my interpretation of the case. The tinned crab was noxious. It caused the poisoning symptoms. The healer was summoned. He finds Tauriel, who has eaten more crab than the others, in great pain, and he sends, as you told us, for some opium pills. He does not go himself, he sends. Who will give the messenger the opium pills? Evidently his daughter. Most likely she distributes his medications for him. She is in love with Thranduil and at this moment all the worst instincts in her nature rise and she perceives that the means to secure his freedom are in her power. The pills she sends contain pure white arsenic. That is my solution.""And now, Aragorn, tell us," Joyce requested eagerly.

"One moment," Aragorn replied. "Lady Galadriel has not yet spoken."

Lady Galadriel was shaking her head sadly."Oh, dear," she said. "I have forgotten a stitch. I have been so engrossed in the tale. A sorrowful situation, a very sorrowful situation. It reminds me of old Master Celeborn who lived at the Glittering Caves. His Elfess never had the slightest inkling - until he passed away, leaving all his wealth to a female he had been living with and by whom he had five Elflings. She had at one point been their chambermaid. Such a pleasant Elfess, Lady Galadriel always said - perfectly dependable to turn the mattresses each day - except on Days of Durin, of course. And there was old Celeborn keeping this Elfess in a dwelling in the nearby forest and still acting as a Warden of the Forest and passing round the offering dish every Sunday."
"My dearest Lady Galadriel," Aragorn said impatiently. "What has the long-gone Celeborn to do with this tale?"

"This yarn made me think of him straight away," said Galadriel. "The details are so similar, are they not? I assume the poor Elfess confessed now and that is how thou knowest, Lord Gwaihir."
"What Elfess?" said Aragorn. "My dearest Lady, of which are thou speaking?"

"That poor Elfess, Miriel Celeborn, of course—the one who was so terribly distressed when the healer spoke to her—and well she might be, poor thing. I hope that wicked Olórin is punished, I am sure, making that poor Elfess a murderer. I suppose they will punish her too, poor thing.""I think, Lady Galadriel," Gimli began, "that thou art under a slight misapprehension."

But Galadriel shook her head resolutely and looked to Aragorn.

"I am right, am I not? It appears so plain to me. The hundreds and thousands—and the pudding—I mean, one cannot miss it.""What of the pudding and the hundreds and thousands?" Aragorn exclaimed.

The Elven-queen turned to him."Chefs oft-times adorn pudding with hundreds and thousands, my dear," she said. "Those tiny pink and white sweet morsels. Of course when I was informed that they had pudding for supper and that the husband had been writing to someone about hundreds and thousands, I naturally linked the two matters together. That is where the arsenic was—in the hundreds and thousands. He left it with the maiden and instructed her to sprinkle it on the pudding.""But that is impossible," said Arwen quickly. "They all consumed the pudding."

"Oh, no," said Lady Galadriel. "The Lady Galadriel was on a diet, you remember. You never eat anything as indulgent as pudding if you are on a diet; and I expect Thranduil merely scraped the hundreds and thousands off his portion and left them at the side of his dish. It was a cunning notion, but a very wicked one."
The eyes of the others were all upon Aragorn.“It is a very peculiar thing,” he said slowly, “but Lady Galadriel has happened to identify the truth. Thranduil had got Corunir Linch into difficulty, as the saying goes. She was nearly desperate. He desired his wife out of the way and promised to wed Corunir when Tauriel was deceased. He doctored the coins and gave them to her with instructions how to use them. Corunir Linch passed on a week ago. Her child perished at birth and Thranduil had forsaken her for another Elfesse. When she was passing on she revealed the truth.”There was a few moments' quiet and then Aragorn said:

"Well, Lady Galadriel, thou hast done it again. I can not fathom how thou hast managed to discern the truth. I should never have conceived of the little maid in the kitchen being associated with the matter.""No, my dear," said Galadriel, "but thou knowest not as much of life as I do. A person of that Thranduil's kind - coarse and jocund. As soon as I heard there was a comely young Elfesse in the dwelling I felt sure that he would not have left her unguarded. It is all very disquieting and painful, and not a very pleasant matter to speak of. I can not tell thee the disconcertment it was to Lady Tauriel, and a nine days' marvel in the forest."