I have decided to insert a couple of poems here from The Tolkien Reader. These two poems are clearly influenced by Gondor. Since Merry and Pippin visited Rohan and Gondor often and spent their remaining years in Gondor I can picture the inclusion of these poems in the Red Book through them.
One poem is called The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon and it was about the Man in the Moon longing for more and taking a rather disappointing adventure to the earth. It was an easy read (some of Tolkien's poetry is not for me) but nothing really stood out to me.
Not so with the second. It is called The Last Ship. It is about a mortal woman who encounters a ship of Elves leaving Middle-earth so it must be dated early in the Fourth Age as the Elves faded and began to leave Middle-earth. Fíriel, the woman wanders to a river and hears music followed by the sight of a ship. She asked if they were going to some secret forest or uninhabited isle and the Elves answered:
"'Nay!' they answered. 'Far away on the last road faring,
leaving western havens grey, the seas of shadow daring,
we go back to Elvenhomme, where the White Tree is growing,
and the Star shines upon the foam on the last shore flowing'" (p. 249, The Tolkien Reader).
The Elves, in turn, declare their ship is not full and has room for one more. The ask Fíriel if she hears the call and invite her to board their ship. She responded:
"Fíriel looked from the river-bank, one step daring;
then deep in clay her feet sank, and she halted staring.
Slowly the elven-ship went by whispering through the water:
'I cannot come!' they heard her cry. 'I was born Earth's daughter!'" (p. 250, The Tolkien Reader).
One more look at the difference between Elves and Men. Erú gave each race a separate gift: to Elves immortality to walk in Middle-earth until the end; to Men the gift of death and freedom beyond the confines of Middle-earth.
Middle-earth timeline: Fourth Age, circa 1-60
Today's reading comes from: The Tolkien Reader, pages 221-224 and 248-251
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