I'm a fan of the works by Mary and Mal, and when they were writing 'Mary Goes to Mirkwood', there was some discussion regarding the 'squirrel girl'. One thing led to another, and I went from simply writing the Ballad of the Girl of the Squirrels for them to being drawn right into the story myself.

Knowing the story 'Mary Goes to Mirkwood' is probably helpful, but not entirely necessary.

The basis of these stories is that there are four elven lords and one messenger who, when they want to have some 'play time', go out into Middle-earth masked and perform as part of the musical group 'Birds of a Feather'. Farfetched, slightly, but fun. There are some songs in this story that I wrote, and some that are spoofs of other songs.