Bilbo's Last Song and Other Poetry

I can picture Sam perusing the red book that Frodo gave him sometime after returning home to Rosie and Elanor. I can see him looking through Bilbo and Frodo's memoirs about their adventures and reminiscing about his dear friends. I can hear him chuckle at the hobbit poetry that was included in it as well. Lastly I can imagine him finding a little gem before the pages go blank called Bilbo's Last Song. Perhaps scribbled by the old hobbit at the Grey Havens while final farewells were being exchanged.

It's a short little poem where Bilbo is saying goodbye to his friends and life in Middle-earth. And where he looks ahead to what lies ahead. I'll quote a couple of poignant stanzas:

"Day is ended, dim my eyes but long journey before my lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call. The ship's beside the stony wall....
Ship, my ship! I seek the West, and fields and mountains ever blest..." (Bilbo's Last Song)

In my zeal to read all things Middle-earth I bought Bilbo's Last Song hoping it would add significant detail to the mythology. While a decidedly short poem it is a perfect cap to Frodo and Bilbo's last journey. In fact I think it can be a comfort to all those who are in the last stages of their own journey on this earth. If nothing else this little book is handsomely illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Now back to the Middle-earth chronology.

It's also easy to picture Sam adding his own details to the red book. Most likely events in the lives of the Fellowship as well as his own poetry. In fact a few poems are attributed directly to Sam: The Stone Troll, Perry-the-Winkle, and Cat. The first two involve trolls as main characters. The last of the three is noted as being more likely general hobbit lore that Sam simply touched up. The Stone Troll is a humorous tale of a troll gnawing on a bone when a passerby realizes it's his "nuncle". Perry-the-Winkle tells of a lonely troll as evidenced by the first stanza:

"The Lonely Troll he sat on a stone and sang a mournful lay:
O Why, o why must I live on my own in the hills of Faraway?
My folk are gone beyond recall and take no thought of me;
alone I'm left, the last of all from Weathertop to the Sea' (p. 228, The Tolkien Reader).

But the lonely troll forms an unlikely friendship with Perry-the-Winkle of the Shire that is centered on food (what else!). Much of hobbit poetry is rather nonsensical but it also seems that there could be more beneath the surface. Perhaps Sam's whimsical tale of Perry-the-Winkle was also noting the dominion of Men. The Elves are departing, the Wizards are no more, perhaps trolls were beginning to fade from MIddle-earth and that was Sam's motivation for writing.

Middle-earth timeline: Third Age, 3021 through Fourth Age, 5
Today's reading comes from: Bilbo's Last Song and The Tolkien Reader, pages 226-231; 237