The poetry of ‘The Lord of the Rings’

‘All that is gold does not glitter’:

Looking through this book last week I was struck afresh by the significance of its poetry. Its sixty two chapters are interspersed with more than seventy poems making the poetry an integral part of the narrative. And as the poems are invariably sung or recited by one or other of the characters, they add a dramatic as well as an emotional value to our experience of the book. For this reason Tolkien may be regarded as a notable innovator in the art of the novel. Pasternak's 'Dr. Zhivago' is another novel that contains poetry. But there the poems are all tucked away at the end of the book and have no direct relevance to the story.

The poems are in various styles depending on the context. Tolkien was an expert in Old English literature, one feature of which was the riddle. Here is Gollum bitterly recollecting one of his own riddles, all of which Bilbo had guessed correctly to gain possession of the Ring in the first instance.

"Alive without breath; As cold as death; Never thirsting, ever drinking; All in mail, never clinking.."

Modern verse

No doubt the reader will emulate Bilbo! Here, now, is a modernized excerpt of the Old English poem, 'The Battle of Maldon':

"Thought be the harder . Heart the keener, Mood the more . As our might lessens. Here our lord lies . Hewn to pieces, The good on the ground."

The Lord of the Rings

And here are the words of Eomer, heir of the aged Theoden who has led his men into battle against Sauron's forces and met with his death: "Mourn not overmuch! Mighty was the fallen, Meet was his ending. When his mound is raised, Women then shall weep. War now calls us!... Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:.."

Tolkien does not merely imitate the alliteratively stressed line and heroic tone of the Old English, he adapts these to create a style entirely his own. But a sweeter, sadder note is sounded in the quite different style of these lines:

"I sing of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew: Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew....O Lorien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day; The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away. O Lorien! Too long I have dwelt upon this hither shore And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor. But of the ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me, What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?"

Remnants

This is the song of Galadriel, last queen of the Eldar, the once dominant elven race of which only a remnant are left on Middle-Earth. They are confined to the forests and know they must soon pass over the Sea. The music bears echoes of the early Yeats of the Celtic twilight, viz:

"I will arise now and go, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in deep heart's core."

Here again, what we have is the imaginative recourse to a literary influence to convey an emotional state arising from the context. It acknowledges the transience of life in this world and the inevitability of departure, but admits of a Hamlet-like apprehension about "that undiscovered Country, from whose Bourn no Traveller returns."

More ancient even than the elves is Tom Bombadil. He is a larger than life character who recalls the Green Knight of the Middle-English poem 'Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight'. (Tolkien's scholarly edition of the latter is well-known.) He dwells in the Old Forest with his wife, Goldberry, the 'River-daughter', his love for whom he constantly celebrates in song:

"O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water! O reed by the living pool! Fair River-daughter! O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after! O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves' laughter!...

By that pool long ago I found the River-daughter, Fair young Goldberry sitting in the rushes, Sweet was her singing then, and her heart was beating!"

Is there an echo of AA Milne here? viz: "Where the water-lillies go To and fro Rocking in the ripples of the water, Lazy as a leaf lies the Lake King's daughter, And the faint winds shake her, Who will come and take her? I will I will! Keep still, keep still."

Deep experience

Perhaps, yet the experience goes so much deeper than the childlike rhythms suggest. For the hobbits, at this juncture, enjoy a much-needed respite giving them an insight into the personal tranquility that can still be enjoyed in a hostile world. In this instance it comes from maintaining a Wordsworth-like "natural piety and from, in the words of the Biblical proverb, "rejoicing in the wife of one's youth".

The most painful moment in the book is when Gandalf the Grey, the original leader of the journeyers, perishes in his efforts to protect the rest. His last words, as he is dragged down to mutual doom by the enemy, are, "Fly, you fools." Frodo's lament for him is noteworthy:

"A deadly sword, a healing hand, A back that bent beneath its load; A trumpet-voice, a burning brand, A weary pilgrim on the road. A lord of wisdom throned he sat, Swift in anger, quick to laugh; An old man in a battered hat Who leaned upon a thorny staff. He stood upon the bridge alone And Fire and Shadow both defied; His staff was broken on the stone, In Khazad-dum his wisdom died."

Beyond grief over Gandalf's disappearance, the song conveys something of the appreciation that true leadership evokes. Its beneficiaries recognise that its authority is coupled with solicitude, its power with self-sacrifice, its wisdom with self-control. And that it is ultimately a tragic role since true leadership does not shrink from its responsibility, even in the face of death.

Thrill of adventure

Perhaps the best known of the poems is 'A Walking Song', originally made up by Bilbo and now taken up by Frodo:

"Upon the hearth the fire is red, Beneath the roof there is a bed; But not yet weary are our feet, Still round the corner we may meet A sudden tree or standing stone That none have seen but we alone...Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate, And though we pass them by today, Tomorrow we may come this way And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun."

This may seem just a jaunty song about the thrill of adventure or the zest for the quest, but it is more than that. It suggests that to deserve "hearth and bed" or one's 'comfort zone', one should be prepared to venture beyond and "take the hidden paths towards sun and moon" even at personal cost and risk. This is confirmed by the last verse:

"Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadow to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. The world behind and home ahead, We'll wander back to home and bed."

The true sense of belonging is achieved not at the expense of the searching spirit but as a reward for satisfying it. And this is, after all, the spirit of the book as a whole.

The hobbits treasure their Shire home with its 'well-farmed, well-ordered countryside'. Yet they realise that its continued security and prosperity depend on their accomplishing the long and perilous mission of the Ring. Amidst all their trials and tribulations they experience the hitherto undreamed-of wonders of Middle-earth and recognise that, to quote Hamlet again, "there are more things in this world than (were) dreamt of in (their) philosophy".

Riddles

When they finally return to the Shire, they have acquired all the experience, exposure and authority they need to restore and to safeguard it. Finally another riddle, this time of Gandalf's making. It is about the suspicious-looking 'lone ranger' known as Strider:

"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king."

When Strider eventually reveals his true identity the hobbits understand the application of the riddle to him, particularly its first line - Tolkien's inversion of the usual proverb. And this is an apt allusion to the poetry of 'The Lord of the Rings' in general. For although the poems may appear somewhat insignificant among the abundant glitter of the prose narrative, their closer consideration does, indeed, affirm the truth of the saying - "all that is gold does not glitter."