Poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien

[Iolanthe]

Thanks for all the information, Beren ! I'd be interested to know about those revisions from 'The Looney' to 'The Sea-Bell'. Was it to bring it more into line with the 'Frodo's Dreme' idea, or a revision of style from an older surer hand when he knew it was going into the collection?

I'm supposing 'Looney' comes from the idea of lunar madness from which we get lunatic.

[Merry]

Did you see that Viggo has put a Tolkien stanza up recently at the Perceval Press website? I can't tell from which poem it came, though. Does anyone recognize it?

stanza

[Iolanthe]

Good to know he still reads Tolkien ! I can't place it - although the 8 line verse and that kind of metre is used by Tolkien a lot, including the Song of Beren and Luthien in LOTR, The Sea Bell, Perry-the-Winkle and others. I've looked at everything I can think of....

Frustrating .

[Merry]

Yes, I'm glad to see that he hasn't assigned that part of his life to the past. The only thing I could rule out was the Lay of Leithian, since it is composed of what I guess might be called rhyming couplets.

[Lindariel]

I can't place it either right off the top of my head, and now I'm very, VERY anxious to find the source!

[Iolanthe]

I googled it :

History of Middle-earth Volume 5, The Lost Road

The Song of Aelfwine on seeing the uprising of Eärendil:

Eressea! Eressea!

There elven-lights still gleaming lie
On grass more green than in gardens here,
On trees more tall that touch the sky
With swinging leaves of silver clear.
While world endures they will not die,
Nor fade nor fall their timeless year,
As morn unmeasured passes by
O'er mead and mount and shining mere.
When endless eve undimmed is near,
O'er harp and chant in hidden choir
A sudden voice up-soaring sheer
In the wood awakes the wandering fire.

With wandering fire the woodlands fill:
In glades for ever green it glows;
In a dell there dreaming niphredil
As star awakened gleaming grows,
And ever-murmuring musics spill,
For there the fount immortal flows:
Its water white leaps down the hill,
By silver stairs it singing goes
To the field of the unfading rose,
Where breathing on the glowing briar
The wind beyond the world's end blows
To living flame the wandering fire.

The wandering fire with quickening flame
Of living light illumines clear
That land unknown by mortal name
Beyond the shadow dark and drear
And waters wild no ship may tame.
No man may ever anchor near,
To haven none his hope may aim
Through starless night his way to steer.
Uncounted leagues it lies from here:
In wind on beaches blowing free
Neath cliffs of carven crystal sheer
The foam there flowers upon the Sea.

O Shore beyond the Shadowy Sea!
O Land where still the Edhil are!
O Haven where my heart would be!
The waves still beat upon thy bar,
The white birds wheel; there flowers the Tree!
Again I glimpse them long afar
When rising west of West I see
Beyond the world the wayward Star,
Than beacons bright in Gondobar
More fair and keen, more clear and high.
O Star that shadow may not mar,
Nor ever darkness doom to die.

J.R.R. Tolkien

He must be reading deeply into Tolkien!

[Merry]

Nice find, Iolanthe. He he--Viggo's a geek!

[Estel]

He he--Viggo's a geek!

I wonder what may come of this? Paintings perhaps?

The wind beyond the world's end blows
To living flame the wandering fire

The first thing that came to my mind when reading this was Eärendil, because "living flame" is used in Song of Eärendil. I know those lyrics rather well from constantly listening to The Tolkien Ensemble. I wasn't surprised to see that it was about him, just wondering if living flame is used a lot about the Silmarils, or just in the songs about Eärendil. That they might belong to a certain period of Tolkien's creation of ME. I just love the words, they have a place forever in my soul and mind.

[Iolanthe]

He he--Viggo's a geek!

I wonder what may come of this? Paintings perhaps?

Well, he could always post them here .

Your living flame question is very interesting. I bet Lindariel knows!

[marbretherese]

Your reference to 'living flame' put me in mind of this passage from LOTR:

Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade Andúril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. ‘Elendil!’ he cried. ‘I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dúnadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil’s son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!’

Gimli and Legolas looked at their companion inamazement, for they had not seen him in this mood before. He seemed to have grown in stature while Éomer had shrunk; and in his living face they caught a brief vision of the power and majesty of the kings of stone. For a moment it seemed to the eyes of Legolas that a white flame flickered on the brows of Aragorn like a shining crown.

LOTR, Book III Ch II

I've only now caught up with this thread, having just read 'The Sea-Bell', 'The Adventures of Tom Bombadil' etc in 'Tales of the Lost Realm'. When I first read 'The Sea-Bell' I too thought immediately of the First World War. You are right, both Shippey and Garth have something to say about this. Garth quotes Verlyn Flieger's A Question of Time:

. . . worst of all, both war and Faërie can change out of all recognition the wanderer's perception of the world to which he returns, so that never again can it be what it once was.

While in JRR Tolkien, Author of the Century Shippey points out:

Not only is the speaker exiled; his vision has gone too. In 'The Sea-Bell' one may see Tolkien turning his back on the very notion of the Great Escape, and on images which had been with him for close on fifty years.

Which makes me think that 'Frodo's Dreme' or not, this poem is all about Tolkien; and so is Frodo's remark that his Weathertop wound would never really heal.

[Merry]

Good connections, marbretherese.

[Estel]

Some of you already know that I can't keep from promoting The Tolkien Ensemble. I have the original four CDs with all the poems in LOTR set to music, but what I didn't know is that a box with the complete set, songs now rearranged in book order, was released a year ago! Haven't seen it before anywhere! Well, now is the time to promote it to other Tolkien lovers.
If you don't take my word for it here's an A+ review
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sound/sfw12606.html

Just a reminder that the reviewer got some things wrong, like soloists in certain songs. Probably confused now that songs are in proper book order, instead of as in original CD order. For example Christopher Lee didn't sing in the Ent and the Entwife, because he only participated in original CDs 3 and 4.
This seemingly lovely box is now accompanied by a 112 pages booklet, or rather book. With Queen Margrethe's drawings, photographed by Caspar Reiff from the originals in the Queen's home. Nice info in Danish here:
http://www.cdklassisk.dk/product_info.p ... ts_id/2387
This Danish webshop for classic and jazz CDs also sells the CD box worldwide. If you want to try it, click on the British flag, if linguistically challenged. They say they ship worldwide for 30DKK ($5), the CD box is just 299 DKK, about $50). Think I might try it myself, when I get pay.

Here is info in English on The Tolkien Ensemble:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tolkien_Ensemble

Found the CD box here on Amazon for $68 (but scroll down my post to find it cheaper on Amazon )
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Comple ... B000FBGA80
Beware, track listings not correct.
Look at this Swedish page instead if interested. http://www.cdon.com
Then search ("sök") for "lord of the rings", choosing "musik-titel" as search parameter in field below and you will get The Tolkien Ensemble CD box among other alternatives.
Click on red text "visa hela låtlistan" (show whole list of tracks) and you will see all songs of the new four CDs.
If you want to see what the box looks like you can click on red text "Större bilder. Framsida, Baksida" (Bigger pictures. Front, back)

Found another Amazon page, this is much cheaper, just $38, but only four left. Could be that this is an older import version. Track listings seem correct.
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-J-R-R- ... 925#disc_1

So why am I always promoting The Tolkien Ensemble? The reason is that I kept on skipping the poems reading and rereading LOTR, except for a few favourites, like Beren and Luthien , until I discovered The Tolkien Ensemble, in the year 2000, I think. Now Tolkien's poems are an integral part of my brain. Thanks to the music, because I, as a Swede, am used to getting classic and modern poetry of all sorts fed to me set to music, sung that is, not spoken or read silently. It helps digesting. (And Swedish is a melodic language, so you just can't help singing. Afraid that goes for foreign languages as well. If your mother tongue is Swedish, I mean. )

[Iolanthe]

Thank you Estel . The booklet with Queen Margrethe's illustrations is a great addition (though I don't suppose it's in Danish and English is it ?) and I love the Tolkien Ensemble's music which Estel has introduced me to. Their interpretation of the poems is really rich and varied.

[Estel]

Thank you Estel . The booklet with Queen Margrethe's illustrations is a great addition (though I don't suppose it's in Danish and English is it ?) and I love the Tolkien Ensemble's music which Estel has introduced me to. Their interpretation of the poems is really rich and varied.

The four original CDs had booklets in English, so this new booklet must surely be for an international audience as well. That A+ review I referred to in my last post says:

The packaging is impressive as well, with the CDs being housed in a fold-over display card fitting into the slipcase, accompanied by a beautifully printed plate-finish 110-page bilingual booklet describing the musicians and the selections and presenting excerpts of Tolkien's prose as lead-ins to the selections themselves, plus the lyrics.

I suppose bilingual refers to Danish and English, not Elvish and English.

[Merry]

You've convinced me, Estel: it's on the shopping list!