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''Bilbo's Last Song'' (at the Grey Havens) is a poem by
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
, written as a pendant to his fantasy ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
''. It was first published in a Dutch translation in 1973, subsequently appearing in English on posters in 1974 and as a picture-book in 1990. It was illustrated by
Pauline Baynes Pauline Diana Baynes (9 September 1922 – 1 August 2008) was an English illustrator, author, and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustrator ...
, and set to music by
Donald Swann Donald Ibrahim Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing Novelty song, comic songs with Michael Flanders. Early life Dona ...
and Stephen Oliver. The poem's copyright was owned by Tolkien's secretary, to whom he gave it in gratitude for her work for him.


Gift to Joy Hill

In 1968, aged seventy-six, Tolkien decided to retire from his house at 76 Sandfield Road, Headington,
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
to a bungalow at 19 Lakeside Road,
Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...
, near
Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
.Tolkien. J. R. R.: '' The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien''; Allen & Unwin, 1981; pp. 390–396 On 17 June, while preparing for his relocation, he fell downstairs and badly injured his leg.Scull, Christina and Hammond, Wayne G.: ''The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide'', 2nd edition; Harper Collins, 2017; Vol. 1, pp. 762–771 He needed surgery, a plaster cast, crutches and several weeks of recuperation in the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Bournemouth's Miramar Hotel before he was well enough to resume living independently. When he finally moved into his new home on 16 August, he found that unpacking his forty-eight crates of books and papers was too much for him. He sought the help of Margaret Joy Hill, a secretary whom his publisher,
Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...
, had assigned to deal with his fan mail, and whom he and his wife had come to regard almost as a second daughter.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 2, pp. 489–490 During ''circa'' 14–18 October, while Hill was helping Tolkien to set up his new office and library, she made a discovery. "As I picked up a pile of books in my arms and put them on the shelf", she recalled in 1990, "something dropped out from between two of them. It was an exercise book: just the cover with a single sheet between, and on the page, a poem. olkienasked what it was; I gave it to him, and he read it aloud. It was ''Bilbo's Last Song''. The fan mail that Hill brought from Allen & Unwin to Tolkien included many packages.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 1, p. 788 Hill and Tolkien used to enjoy guessing what kind of presents his devotees had sent to him. "One day", she remembered, "as he cut the string on a packet, he said 'If I find this is a gold bracelet studded with diamonds, it is to be yours.' Of course it wasn't, but the bracelet became a joke between us." On a later visit on ''circa'' 3 September 1970, Hill recollected, " olkiensaid: 'We've opened all the parcels and there was no gold bracelet for you. I've decided that ''Bilbo's Last Song'' is going to be your bracelet.'" Tolkien formalized his gift on 28 October 1971, sending Hill an annotated typescript of the poem and a covering letter: "Dear Joy, I have appended the following note to the copy of ''Bilbo's Last Song'' (at the Grey Havens) which I retain. A copy of this poem was presented to Miss M. Joy Hill on 3 September 1970, and also the ownership of the copyright of this poem, with the intention that she should have the right to publish it, or to dispose of the copyright, as she might wish to do, at any time after my death. This was a free gift as a token of gratitude for her work on my behalf. J. R. R. Tolkien."Scull and Hammond; Vol. 1, p. 795 Tolkien died on 2 September 1973, and Hill arranged for the poem to be published shortly afterwards.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 1, p. 815Scull and Hammond; Vol. 2, p. 158 When she herself died in 1991, the poem's copyright was bequeathed to the
Order of the Holy Paraclete The Order of The Holy Paraclete (OHP) is an Anglican religious congregation. The community began in 1915, when it was founded by Margaret Cope (1886–1961) at the Mother House of St Hilda's Priory, Sneaton Castle, Whitby. A new priory was con ...
, an Anglican educational foundation.


The text

The poem comprises three stanzas, each containing four rhyming couplets. It is a dramatic lyric that the
hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
Bilbo Baggins Bilbo Baggins (Westron: ''Bilba Labingi'') is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel ''The Hobbit'', a supporting character in ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the fictional narrator (along with Frodo Baggins) of m ...
is supposed to have composed as he contemplated his approaching deatha ''
nunc dimittis The Nunc dimittis (), also known as the Song of Simeon or the Canticle of Simeon, is a canticle taken from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 29 to 32. Its Latin name comes from its incipit, the opening words, of the Vulgate transl ...
'' that could have been, but was not, incorporated into the final chapter of ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
''. The context of Bilbo's making of the poem is that he, the hobbits Frodo and Sam and the elves
Elrond Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring ...
and
Galadriel Galadriel () is a character created by J. R. R. Tolkien in his Middle-earth writings. She appears in ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'', and ''Unfinished Tales''. She was a royal Elf (Middle-earth), Elf of both the N ...
have travelled to Mithlond, the Grey Havens, where they have been met by the elvish shipwright Círdan and the wizard
Gandalf Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is a Wizards (Middle-earth), wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" fr ...
. Bilbo, Frodo, Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf are preparing to board the elven ship that will carry them magically away from the mortal world of
Middle-earth Middle-earth is the Setting (narrative), setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Midgard, Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf'' ...
to the Undying Lands beyond the sunset. Bilbo's verses acknowledge the ending of his day and the dimming of his eyes, bid farewell to the friends whom he will leave behind and look forward to the Lonely Star's guiding him to "west of West", "where night is quiet and sleep is rest". Little is known about the poem's development. According to Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, it began as early as the 1920s or 1930s in a composition in
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
titled ''Vestr um haf''"West over sea".Scull and Hammond; Vol. 1, p. 118 As Scull and Hammond point out, the poem cannot have reached its final form until after Tolkien had conceived how ''The Lord of the Rings'' would conclude. A progress report on the writing of the book that Tolkien sent to his son Christopher on 29 November 1944 shows that the coda of his story had taken shape in his mind long before it was published in 1955: "The final scene will be the passage of Bilbo and Elrond and Galadriel through the woods of
the Shire The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...
on their way to the Grey Havens. Frodo will join them and pass over the Sea."Tolkien, J. R. R.: '' The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien''; Allen & Unwin, 1981; p. 104


Precursors and parallels

Bilbo's voyage to the Undying Lands is reminiscent of several other journeys in English literature. Scull and Hammond observe that ''Bilbo's Last Song'' is somewhat like
Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...
's ''Crossing the Bar'' (1889), a sixteen-line religious lyric (sharing some of Tolkien's poem's vocabulary) in which a sea voyage is a metaphor for a faithful death. Other precursors of Tolkien's poem are the legend of the carrying of the wounded King Arthur to the magical isle of Avalon and the quest of
Reepicheep Reepicheep the Mouse is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' by C. S. Lewis. He appears as a minor character in '' Prince Caspian'' and as a major character in '' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', and ...
to sail to the holy country of the divine lion
Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character in the Narnian series, Aslan appears in all seven chronicles. Aslan is depicted as a Talking animals in fiction, talking lion and is ...
in Tolkien's friend
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
's '' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''. Bilbo's
Otherworld In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his desc ...
journey has further parallels in writings of Tolkien's own. The figure of the mortal who sails from the quotidian world to a paradise beyond the sea is a motif that recurs in Tolkien's poems and stories throughout his creative life. Examples are
Roverandom ''Roverandom'' is a novella by J. R. R. Tolkien, originally told in 1925, about the adventures of a young dog, Rover. In the story, an irritable wizard turns Rover into a toy, and Rover goes to the Moon and under the sea in order to find the w ...
, Eriol in ''
The Book of Lost Tales ''The Book of Lost Tales'' is a collection of early stories by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, published as the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series ''The History of Middle-earth'', in which he presents and analyses ...
'',Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Book of Lost Tales ''The Book of Lost Tales'' is a collection of early stories by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, published as the first two volumes of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series ''The History of Middle-earth'', in which he presents and analyses ...
, Part One''; Allen & Unwin, 1983; ''passim''
Tuor in ''
Quenta Silmarillion ''The Silmarillion'' () is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher in 1977, assisted by G ...
'',Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Silmarillion ''The Silmarillion'' () is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher in 1977, assisted by G ...
''; Allen & Unwin, 1977; p. 245
Ar-Pharazôn in ''
Akallabêth ''The Silmarillion'' () is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher in 1977, assisted by G ...
'',Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Silmarillion ''The Silmarillion'' () is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher in 1977, assisted by G ...
''; p. 278
Ælfwine in '' The Lost Road'',Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Lost Road and Other Writings ''The Lost Road and Other Writings – Language and Legend before The Lord of the Rings'' is the fifth volume, published in 1987, of ''The History of Middle-earth'', a series of compilations of drafts and essays written by J. R. R. Tolkien in a ...
''; Unwin Hyman, 1987; p. 44
St Brendan in '' Imram'',Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
Sauron Defeated Sauron () is the title character and the main antagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', where he rules the land of Mordor. He has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth, using the power of the One Ring, which he ha ...
''; Harper Collins, 1992; pp. 296–299
Sam and Gimli in ''The Lord of the Rings''Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
'', 50th anniversary edition; Harper Collins, 2005; pp. 1097–1098
and the narrator of " The Sea-Bell" in '' The Adventures of Tom Bombadil''.Tolkien, J. R. R.: '' The Adventures of Tom Bombadil''; Allen & Unwin, 1962; pp. 57–60


Publication history

''Bilbo's Last Song'' first appeared at the end of 1973, translated into Dutch by Max Schuchart for a limited edition of two thousand numbered posters that the publisher Het Spectrum distributed as corporate New Year's gifts. In April 1974, Houghton Mifflin published the poem in the US as a poster decorated with a photograph of a river taken by Robert Strindberg. In September 1974, Allen & Unwin published the poem in the UK as a poster illustrated by
Pauline Baynes Pauline Diana Baynes (9 September 1922 – 1 August 2008) was an English illustrator, author, and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustrator ...
. Her painting depicts the hobbits Sam, Merry and Pippin looking down on the Grey Havens and watching Bilbo's ship sailing down the firth of Lune. In 1990, the poem was issued as a 32-page full colour hardcover picture-book illustrated with almost fifty of Baynes's paintingsthe largest body of work that she created for any Tolkien projectby Unwin Hyman in the UK and by Houghton Mifflin in the US.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 3, p. 1467Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''Bilbo's Last Song''; Unwin Hyman, 1990 A second hardcover edition was published in 2002 by Hutchinson in the UK and by Alfred A. Knopf in the US.Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''Bilbo's Last Song''; Hutchinson, 2002 A large-format paperback edition was published in both the UK and the US by Red Fox Picture Books in 2012.Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''Bilbo's Last Song''; Red Fox, 2012 The second and third editions of the poem omitted some of the illustrations published in the first. Translations of the poem have appeared in Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 3, p. 1543


Pauline Baynes's illustrations

The endpapers of Unwin Hyman's and
Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
's 1990 edition of ''Bilbo's Last Song'' show Bilbo, Elrond, Galadriel and Gildor riding with a company of elves through an autumnal landscape, watched by a variety of woodland creatures. The text of the poem is then presented in twelve full-colour two-page spreads, each dedicated to a single couplet. The couplets are printed on the verso pages, each with a unique illuminated first letter and with a unique painting of a reposing Bilbo beneath. The recto pages present roundels narrating Bilbo's journey from retirement in Rivendell to his arrival at "fields and mountains ever blest": Bilbo is seen at his desk, looking out across the ravine of the Bruinen, talking to Elrond, mounting his horse, riding through the Shire, crossing Woody End, arriving at the Far Downs, meeting Círdan and Gandalf, hugging Sam, greeting Merry and Pippin, setting sail and nearing the Undying Lands. Each roundel is framed by a unique pair of overarching trees, beneath, on and above which are a multitude of birds and beasts: a beaver, a fox, an otter, badgers, bats, frogs, hedgehogs, mice, rabbits, squirrels, stoats, toads, a blackbird, a crow, a dove, a gull, a magpie, a wader, a woodpecker, some owls and many others. At the foot of every page, both
verso ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ...
and recto, is a vignette that depicts a scene from the adventures of Bilbo that Tolkien had told in ''
The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...
''. Baynes's twenty-six ''Hobbit'' paintings illustrate many scenes not represented in Tolkien's own ''Hobbit'' art, including, for example, the dwarves' feast in Bag End and their meetings with Elrond and Thranduil, Bilbo's finding of the One Ring and his conversation with Gollum, Bilbo's and Gandalf's meeting with Beorn, Bilbo's fight with the spiders of Mirkwood and the Battle of Five Armies. Anonymous notes at the back of the book key Baynes's paintings to the passages in ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' which they illustrate. Hutchinson's and Knopf's 2002 edition of the poem is broadly similar to Unwin Hyman's and Houghton Mifflin's earlier version, allocating each of Tolkien's couplets its own two-page spread and including most of Baynes's 1990 artwork. However, it omits all but one of Baynes's pictures of Bilbo at rest, and it switches her arcing trees from recto pages to verso to frame Tolkien's couplets rather than her roundels. Red Fox's large paperback edition of 2012 restores the material and design that Hutchinson and Knopf reject, but omits the endpaper painting that decorates its predecessors.


Adaptations

The first composer to set ''Bilbo's Last Song'' to music was Tolkien's fan and friend
Donald Swann Donald Ibrahim Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing Novelty song, comic songs with Michael Flanders. Early life Dona ...
, who had earlier set six of Tolkien's other poems for their 1967 song-book ''
The Road Goes Ever On ''The Road Goes Ever On'' is a song cycle first published in 1967 as a book of sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by the entertainer Donald Swann, and the words are taken from poems in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth ...
''.Tolkien, J. R. R. and Swann, Donald: ''
The Road Goes Ever On ''The Road Goes Ever On'' is a song cycle first published in 1967 as a book of sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by the entertainer Donald Swann, and the words are taken from poems in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth ...
''; Allen & Unwin, 1968
Swann wrote about ''Bilbo's Last Song'' in his autobiography. "The lyric was handed to me at Tolkien's funeral by his dedicated secretary, Joy Hill, who is a close friend and neighbour of mine in Battersea. I was stirred up that day and went off and wrote a tune for it, to be sung as a duet, although I often perform it solo... The tune is based on a song from the
Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
... ndalso resembles a Cephallonian Greek melody."Scull and Hammond; Vol. 3, p. 1101 Swann's setting of the poemhis favourite among his Tolkien compositionswas added to ''The Road Goes Ever On'' for its second (1978) and third (2002) editions. The latter included a CD on which Swann performed his song with William Elvin and Clive McCrombie. The song was also recorded on Swann's album ''Alphabetaphon'' (1990) and John Amis's album ''Amiscellany'' (2002)Scull and Hammond; Vol. 3, p. 1274 In 1981, Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell used ''Bilbo's Last Song'' to conclude the dramatization of ''The Lord of the Rings'' that they wrote for
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
.Scull and Hammond; Vol. 2, pp. 17–18Smith, Ian D. (ed.): ''Microphones in Middle Earth''; 1992 The poem was set to music by Stephen Oliver, who had provided all the music for the series. The first stanza was chanted by
John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation com ...
as Bilbo, the second was omitted and the third was sung by the boy soprano Matthew Vine. An album of Oliver's music from the series included a version of the song in which Vine sang all three stanzas.''Stephen Oliver: Music from the BBC Radio Dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings''; BBC Records; LP REH 415 Oliver's version was recorded by the Dutch Tolkien Society band The Hobbitons for their 1996 CD ''J. R. R. Tolkien's Songs from Middle-earth''.
Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...
did not follow Sibley's and Bakewell's example when adapting ''The Lord of the Rings'' for the cinema. His 2003 movie '' The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' concludes not with ''Bilbo's Last Song'' but with '' Into the West'', a song similar in mood to Oliver's written by
Fran Walsh Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh (born 10 January 1959) is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer. The partner of filmmaker Peter Jackson, Walsh has contributed to all of their films since 1989: as co-writer since ''Meet the Feebles'', and a ...
,
Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...
and
Howard Shore Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, conductor and orchestrator noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and '' The Hobbit'' fi ...
, and performed by Lennox over the movie's closing credits.''The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition''; Warner Blu-ray A Howard Shore composition for choir and orchestra called ''Bilbo's Song'' accompanies part of the Fan Club Credits on home media releases of ''The Return of the King''s Extended Edition, but this has nothing to do with ''Bilbo's Last Song''; its text is a translation into Tolkien's invented
Sindarin Sindarin is one of Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien, the constructed languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda (Tolkien), Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoke ...
of his poem ''I Sit Beside the Fire and Think''.


Critical reception

Tom Shippey Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the ...
brackets ''Bilbo's Last Song'' with Tolkien's late, elegiac short story '' Smith of Wootton Major'' and with his valedictory address to the University of Oxford. Shippey, Tom: ''J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century''; Harper Collins, 2000; p. 304 " ilbo'swords could, ... entirely appropriately for myth, be removed from their 'Grey Havens' context and be heard as the words of a dying man: but one dying contented with his life and what he had achieved, and confident of the existence of a world and a fate beyond Middle-earth."
Brian Rosebury ''Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon'' is a 2003 book of literary criticism by Brian Rosebury about the English author and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien and his writings on his fictional world of Middle-earth, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. A s ...
judges the text of the poem to be banal and its couplets technically inept. Rosebury, Brian: '' Tolkien: A Critical Assessment''; St Martin's, 1992 He suggests that Tolkien would have been wiser to allow Bilbo's final poetic utterance to be the version of his song ''The Road Goes Ever On'' that he recites by the fireside in his room in Rivendell near the end of ''The Return of the King''.Tolkien, J. R. R.: ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
'', 50th anniversary edition; Harper Collins, 2005; p. 987


References


Primary


Secondary

{{Authority control 1960s poems 1968 poems British poems English poems Middle-earth books Middle-earth music Middle-earth poetry Poems published posthumously Poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien