Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens)

Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens) is a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien that was given by Tolkien as a gift to his secretary Joy Hill in 1968.

History[]

Bilbo Baggins sings the poem at the harbour of the Grey Havens^[1], as he is about to set sail on the sea following the Straight Road to the Undying Lands. Although it was never written into the last chapter of The Lord of the Rings, this places the reading of this poem by Bilbo at this point in the story.

Poem[]

In other versions[]

Vestr um Haf[]

The poem was originally written by Tolkien in the 1920s or 1930s as a composition in Old Norse entitled Vestr um haf ("West over sea"). This version had no connection to the legendarium.^[2]

Revisions and background[]

Tolkien eventually rewrote the poem to be about Bilbo between November of 1944, when he envisioned the ending of The Lord of the Rings, and October of 1968, when Joy Hill, Tolkien's secretary, rediscovered it in a pile of books while helping him set up his new office. On September 3rd of 1970, Tolkien gifted the poem and it copyright to her as a gift for her assistance as his secretary.^[2]

Notably, the original version of the poem presented to Joy Hill ends with the words "your mast", whereas in Pauline Baynes' illustrated poster, it instead ends with the words "my mast". This could be an error on Baynes' part.^{[citation needed]}

After Tolkien's death in 1973, the poem was first published by published by Houghton Mifflin as a poster in April of 1974. Allen & Unwin also published it as a poster in September of 1974 which was illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Around that time, Hill showed the poem to Donald Swann, who set it to music and included it in the second edition of The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle in 1978.^[2]

Houghton Mifflin republished the poem in 1990 as a 32-paged full color picture-book, which was re-illustrated by Baynes with almost fifty paintings.^[3] A second and third edition was published by Allen & Unwin and Dragonfly Books respectively in 1992.^[4] and a few others like Riverwood Publishing Inc^[5].^[2]

Upon Hill's death in 1991, the copyright was given to the Order of the Holy Paraclete. Baynes's illustrations for the poem were not included in the bequeathing to the Order, but were given to the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford upon her death in 2008.^[6]

Inspiration[]

The tone of the poem invokes Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1889 poem Crossing the Bar.^[2]

In adaptations[]

The song is included in the BBC's 1981 radio version of The Lord of the Rings, with the music performed by Stephen Oliver. John Le Mesurier, who plays Bilbo^[7] chants the first verse but not the second verse, and the third verse was sung by a boy in soprano.^[2]

In 1996 the song was recorded by the Dutch Tolkien Society band The Hobbitons, with permission from the Tolkien Estate, for their CD J.R.R. Tolkien's Songs from Middle-earth.^[8]

There is no reference to the song in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). The film's distributor, New Line Cinema, was probably not licensed to use the poem as necessitated by the applicable copyright laws. The movie's closing credits are accompanied by the original song "Into the West", sung by Annie Lennox, meant to have similar emotional resonance.

References[]

External links[]

• Bilbo's Last Song Text of the poem Bilbo's Last Song a link to text at tolkien.cro.net

Translations[]