Poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien

[Lindariel]

Thanks, Merry! You are very kind! One of these days, I will find the resources to purchase the Tolkien reference books I'm sadly lacking, most especially the rest of the History of Middle Earth series, and then, even MORE difficult, the TIME to read and absorb them! Then, I might count myself a true Tolkien scholar. Right now, I'm more of an analytically-minded enthusiast.

But enough of that! Would someone like to suggest another poem for discussion?

[Iolanthe]

This might help. Olórin fortold the coming of Elessar to Galadriel in Unfinished Tales: History of Galadriel and Celeborn and is one of two slightly different histories of the Elessar that Tolkien gives. In this Olórin (Mithrandir) has brought the Elessar with him out of the West:

And Galadriel said: 'Where now is the stone of Eärendil? And Enerdhil is gone who made it.' 'Who knows?' said Olórin. 'Surely,' said Galadriel, 'they have passed over the Sea, as almost all fair things beside. And must Middle-earth then fade and perish forever?' 'That is its fate,' said Olórin. 'Yet for a little while that might be amended, if the Elessar should return. For a little, until the Days of Men are come.' 'If - and yet how could that be,' said Galadriel. 'For surely the Valar are now removed and Middle-earth is far from their thought, and all who cling to it are under a shadow.'

'It is not so,' said Olórin. 'Their eyes are not dimmed nor their hearts hardened. In token of which look upon this!' And he held before her the Elessar, and she looked on it and wondered. And Olórin said: 'This I bring to you from Yavanna. Use it as you may, and for a while you shall make the land of your dwelling the fairest place in Middle-earth. But it is not for you to possess. You shall hand it on when the time comes. For before you grow weary, and at last forsake Middle-earth one shall come who is to receive it, and his name shall be that of the stone: Elessar he shall be called.'

One can guess that this was known to Arwen who had received the from her mother and that she had told Aragorn the tale.

[Philipa]

Out of all the extra reading done for the LoTR books The Unfinished Tales was one of two of the most enjoyable and informative to read. So much good information within those pages.

Where should we start with the poems?

[Lindariel]

Many thanks for that quote, Iolanthe! I used to own a copy of The Unfinished Tales, but it was in a carton of books (along with several other Tolkien-related texts and some art song collections I would really like to have back!) that disappeared during one of my moves long ago, and I just have never gotten around to replacing it.

So, Olorin foreshadows the arising of a male person (elf? man?) who shall take the name Elessar and bear the Elf-Stone, but he makes no direct association to the line of Elendil. Perhaps Galadriel realizes the significance of Olorin's words when her daughter Celebrian marries a son of Earendil, and then their daughter, who has inherited the Elessar, subsequently falls in love with the heir of Isildur who is also a more distant descendant of Earendil.

Given the existence of this story in The Unfinished Tales, I find this portion of the Encyclopedia of Arda's entry on the Elessar of Earendil puzzling:

This Elessar was saved from the Fall of Gondolin by Idril, who gave it to her son Eärendil, and with Eärendil it was carried across the Sea to the Blessed Realm. In the Third Age, another Elessar was seen - the Elfstone given by Galadriel to Aragorn - and some said that this was Eärendil's jewel, brought back to Middle-earth by Mithrandir. In truth, though, Aragorn's Elessar seems to have been a new stone, also made by Celebrimbor, with less power than the original jewel.

Perhaps it is the Encyclopedia of Arda's definition of which works constitute Tolkien's "canon" that causes them to cast doubt on the quote from the Unfinished Tales:

The question of canon (that is, which works to treat as authoritative) is a thorny one where Tolkien's work is concerned, especially as so much of his legendarium was published posthumously by his son Christopher. This presents a particular problem in compiling an encyclopedic work such as this site: it cannot be possible to be completely truthful to Tolkien's vision, because that vision never achieved a complete and unified whole during his lifetime.

Some scholars prefer to give later writings authority over earlier ones, and from a literary perspective this is probably the approach to be preferred, although it presents important problems of its own. This site is not intended as a literary discussion of Tolkien's work, though, but an attempt to explore his world as a self-consistent universe, so far as this is achievable. Thus, we treat The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion as canonical here. Names and places from Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth are also indexed on this site.

We don't intend to provide entries for subjects that appear only among the volumes of The History of Middle-earth. You'll find no entries for Tinwë Linto, Tevildo or Zigûr here - these characters belong to an earlier period of Tolkien's work that, though fascinating in itself, can't be easily integrated into his developed universe. This is not to say that an Encyclopedia of the Lost Tales, say, wouldn't be a fascinating undertaking in itself, but it isn't what this site's about.

A bit bizarre, don't you think? They don't consider The Unfinished Tales to be canon, yet they will index names and places -- and story-lines! -- on the site. Just . . . odd and confusing!

Also, unless there is also an extant quote about Celebrimbor having possibly created a second Elessar, I don't see why they would entertain this bit of speculation just to discount a story they consider "non-canon." Doubtless Celebrinbor and his smiths created many exquisite things, but unless the Professor mentioned this particular work, I don't see why EoA would speculate upon it. Perhaps there are more early Tolkien stories somewhere about an Elessar created by Celebrimbor?

[Merry]

This whole issue about what writings are authoritative or 'canon' has been an interesting one for me. I'm not sure Christopher has done the world a favor by making every marginal note and random scratch from the back of a grocery list available for speculation.

[Iolanthe]

To add confusion, both versions of the Elessar story are contained in The History of Galadriel and Celeborn with something like 'it is also said' linking them in Tolkien's orignal text (my book's at home ). In other words he was presenting two version of the story at one and the same time - as is often the case with real handed-down histories.

This does shed some light on the content of Earendil the Mariner but we seem to have wandered well away from discussing the poem .

[Iolanthe]

Does anyone want to talk about The Sea-Bell? I'm intrigued by Tolkien's conceit that it is connected to Frodo through a margin note: 'Frodo's Dreme', and may (or may not) describe Frodo's state of mind between March and October in his last three years on M-e. It's in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (published in 1962), but I can't remember when this poem was written. Was it written before LOTR, then Tolkien made a connection to Frodo afterwards as part of his tying his stories together?

Tolkien writes in his introduction:

It is the latest piece [of poetry in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil] and belongs to the Fourth Age; but it is included here, because a hand has scrawled at it's head 'Frodo's Dreme'. That is remarkable, and though the piece us most unlikely to have been written by Frodo himself, the title shows that it was associated with the dark and despairing dreams which visited him in March and October during his last three years.

It's certainly a dark and disturbing piece and it's interesting how Tolkien sets up the attribution only to deliberately knock it down ('unlikely to have been written by Frodo himself').

....At last there came light in my long night,
and I saw my hair hanging grey.
'Bent though I be, I must find the sea!
I have lost myself, and I know not the way,
but let me be gone!...'

Surely Tolkien must have intended us to read it and have a better understanding of what Frodo went through, beyond what he tells us in LOTR?

[Lindariel]

For those who don't have access to this poem, here is the text along with some commentary by J.E. A. Tyler:

The Sea-bell

by J.R.R. Tolkien

I walked by the sea, and there came to me,
as a star-beam on the wet sand,
a white shell like a sea-bell;
trembling it lay in my wet hand.
In my fingers shaken I heard waken
a ding within, by a harbour bar
a buoy swinging, a call ringing
over endless seas, faint now and far.

Then I saw a boat silently float
on the night-tide, empty and grey.
'It is later than late! Why do we wait?'
I leapt in and cried: 'Bear me away!'
It bore me away, wetted with spray,
wrapped in a mist, wound in a sleep,
to a forgotten strand in a strange land.
In the twilight beyond the deep
I heard a sea-bell swing in the swell,
dinging, dinging, and the breakers roar
on the hidden teeth of a perilous reef;
and at last I came to a long shore.
White it glimmered, and the sea shimmered
with star-mirrors in a silver net;
cliffs of stone pale as ruel-bone
in the moon-foam were gleaming wet.
Glittering sand slid through my hand,
dust of pearl and jewel-grist,
trumpets of opal, roses of coral,
flutes of green and amethyst.
But under cliff-eaves there were glooming caves,
weed-curtained, dark and grey;
a cold air stirred in my hair,
and the light waned, as I hurried away.

Down from a hill ran a green rill;
its water I drank to my heart's ease.
Up its fountain-stair to a country fair
of ever-eve I came, far from the seas,
climbing into meadows of fluttering shadows:
flowers lay there like fallen stars,
and on a blue pool, glassy and cool,
like floating moons the nenuphars.
Alders were sleeping, and willows weeping
by a slow river of rippling weeds;
gladdon-swords guarded the fords,
and green spears, and arrow-reeds.

There was echo of song all the evening long
down in the valley; many a thing
running to and fro: hares white as snow,
voles out of holes; moths on the wing
with lantern-eyes; in quiet surprise
brocks were staring out of dark doors.
I heard dancing there, music in the air,
feet going quick on the green floors.
But whenever I came it was ever the same:
the feet fled, and all was still;
never a greeting, only the fleeting
pipes, voices, horns on the hill.

Of river-leaves and the rush-sheaves
I made me a mantle of jewel-green,
a tall wand to hold, and a flag of gold;
my eyes shone like the star-sheen.
With flowers crowned I stood on a mound,
and shrill as a call at cock-crow
proudly I cried: 'Why do you hide?
Why do none speak, wherever I go?
Here now I stand, king of this land,
with gladdon-sword and reed-mace.

Answer my call! Come forth all!
Speak to me words! Show me a face!'

Black came a cloud as a night-shroud.
Like a dark mole groping I went,
to the ground falling, on my hands crawling
with eyes blind and my back bent.
I crept to a wood: silent it stood
in its dead leaves, bare were its boughs.
There must I sit, wandering in wit,
while owls snored in their hollow house.
For a year and a day there must I stay:
beetles were tapping in the rotten trees,
spiders were weaving, in the mould heaving
puffballs loomed about my knees.

At last there came light in my long night,
and I saw my hair hanging grey.
'Bent though I be, I must find the sea!
I have lost myself, and I know not the way,
but let me be gone!' Then I stumbled on;
like a hunting bat shadow was over me;
in my ears dinned a withering wind,
and with ragged briars I tried to cover me.
My hands were torn and my knees worn,
and years were heavy upon my back,
when the rain in my face took a salt taste,
and I smelled the smell of sea-wrack.

Birds came sailing, mewing, wailing;
I heard voices in cold caves,
seals barking, and rocks snarling,
and in spout-holes the gulping of waves.
Winter came fast; into a mist I passed,
to land's end my years I bore;
snow was in the air, ice in my hair,
darkness was lying on the last shore.

There still afloat waited the boat,
in the tide lifting, its prow tossing.
Weary I lay, as it bore me away,
the waves climbing, the seas crossing,
passing old hulls clustered with gulls
and great ships laden with light,
coming to haven, dark as a raven,
silent as snow, deep in the night.

Houses were shuttered, wind round them muttered,
roads were empty. I sat by a door,
and where drizzling rain poured down a drain
I cast away all that I bore:
in my clutching hand some grains of sand,
and a sea-shell silent and dead.
Never will my ear that bell hear,
never my feet that shore tread
Never again, as in sad lane,
in blind alley and in long street
ragged I walk. To myself I talk;
for still they speak not, men that I meet.

Notes on this poem (from The Tolkien Companion): "An odd and decidedly disturbing Shire-poem, No. 13 in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil collection. It has been closely associated with Frodo Baggins, having been at some point subtitled Frodo's Dreme [sic]--though its dating seems to make it unlikely to have been composed by him. Nonetheless the unknown verse-maker displayed surprising empathy with the Ring-bearer and the poem seems to provide an insight into the despairing dreams which visited Frodo during his last two years in the Shire...It is, of course, quite possible that 'The Sea-bell' was actually written by Frodo, and that the manuscript was later discovered by a member of the Fairbairn family (who maintained custody of the Red Book of Westmarch during the Fourth Age) and subsequently copied directly into the Red Book itself. In which case the meaning of the poem becomes suddenly and chillingly more clear. The narrator takes a strange journey over Sea, where he finds to his anger that everything seems beyond his reach; he is unacceptable in the Undying Lands, and all flee at his approach. Tarrying there nonetheless, he grows old and mad--and still no one speaks to him. In the end, he forsakes the West, having found no refuge, and returns to mortal lands. But he has become a ghost, and has no substance in the world of Men; and so he is doomed to wander forever, haunted and alone...." (J.E.A. Tyler)

If these are the dreams that tormented Frodo before his departure at the Grey Havens, imagine how much courage it must have taken for him to cast off his doubts and seek healing in the West. He has no guarantee his nightmares won't come true. It is also a haunting picture of the guilt he must have carried for having "failed" and claimed the Ring for himself at the Cracks of Doom. In his nightmare, his penalty for this "failure" is to be denied the healing Arwen hinted he would be able to find in the Undying Lands.

Very sad and disturbing.

[Iolanthe]

I think you're right Lindariel, Frodo had feelings of failure, and guilt about that failure which Tolkien didn't deal with specifically in the last chapters of LOTR. Perhaps this was his way of throwing some light on that particular torment. That Frodo felt he didn't deserve the grace of the Undying Lands because he couldn't throw away the Ring, and was a 'shadow of his former self', a ghost in the Shire. It shows that it was something Tolkien had reflected on long after he finished the book and felt he hadn't said enough about.

Does anyone know when The Sea Bell was written? I got the impression somewhere that Tolkien suggested that it was written by Frodo, but Tolkien himself had written the poem long before LOTR was conceived. I can't find where I read that now .

[Merry]

Sorry it has taken me so long to read the poem and join in the conversation. I've never seen that before! It's certainly a chilling poem. It's SAD to think of Frodo like that!

I think the style of the poem is a bit immature, certainly less successful than some of JRRT's other poetry. It is also very much like some of George MacDonald's fairy stuff, an author that Tolkien admired. So I'd guess that this was one of his early compositions, and that he attempted to graft it onto the Middle-earth stuff later, kind of like what he did with Bombadil.

It's interesting that Tolkien's early work is some of his bleakest, and he get's jollier as he grows older! (Some author points this out? Shippey? Garth?) It seems that most authors work the other way around. We would probably have to attribute this, at least in part, to the horrible experience of the First World War.

[Iolanthe]

It does feel like a very early poem. Mmmm. I must find that reference I was talking about - it's driving me nuts. But it's clear he revisited it when he was putting 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil' together and it struck him as saying enough about Frodo's state of mind for him to concoct a connection.

I can see what you mean about MacDonald. It's ages since I read him, but it does have the same feel. I think it was originally intended as a poem about what happens to mortals when they wander uninvited into fairyland.

[Philipa]

This may help your discussion.

From The Tolkien Library

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, originally published in Oxford Magazine in 1934.

[Iolanthe]

Thanks Philipa, good link to Beren's interesting site . I think that's just the actual poem 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil', though . The collection of 16 poems (including the Sea Bell) was published in 1962 with the Sea Bell being written sometime before then.

Interesting thoughts about all the collection here though. I'd love to read some more of Beren's ideas about this poem!

[Beren]

This poem was called "Looney" in The Oxford Magazine (Oxford, vol. 52, no. 9, January 18th, 1934), p. 340.
The revised version as we know it is "The Sea-Bell" in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

From the same year is the poem 'Firiel' in The Chronicle (Roehampton, Convent of Sacred Heart, Vol. IV), pp. 30-2. This is an early version of 'The Last Ship' in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Also published in 1934 is the poem 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil' in The Oxford Magazine, Vol. LII No. 13, February, pp. 464-5 (Oxford, Oxonian Press). This one kept the same name.

Maybe i should make some photocopies and sell them... hehe... they are so hard to find. Especially 'Firiel'... luckely i found myself a copy of The Chronicle!!

[Merry]

Looney. Hmm. Do you think this is meant to have the same meaning as 'loony'? Sort of odd or demented?

Having a philologist as an author presents some challenges!