Let's go ahead and begin.
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962) was a pleasing book to hold and look at, a good size for a book of poems and generously illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Many readers will know it as reprinted in Ballantine’s paperback
Tolkien Reader.
It’s by no means simply a pretty thing; there are frequent shadows of strangeness and melancholy sounds throughout the book. Here are some notes that by no means exhaust what may be gleaned from this book in the matter of lore and of late thoughts of Tolkien’s about his subcreation.
In the first of two poems about him, Tom Bombadil commands not only the various life-forms in his small realm (birds, badgers, the Willow-man), but the dead (the Barrow-wight, here again after his uncanny activity in
Fellowship).
The second poem portrays hobbit-wardens identifying themselves as the ones who prevent “bogies from the Barrows” from invading the Shire. Is it reading too much into the available evidence to suggest, rather, that it is Tom himself who does that,* and if so that here we have a clue about why the region or regions around the Shire, which must include good, fertile lands, seem to be uninhabited except for trolls? These lands may, in fact, be haunted, and this may be due to Tom not repressing them. With the downfall of Sauron soon after the time of this poem, the “bogies” may have lost their presence and power.
We get a glimpse of Tom and Farmer Maggot – whom we know Tom respects – discussing “tall Watchers by the ford, Shadows on the marches.”
The book concludes with “The Last Ship.” This must have been for years the last thing that Tolkien thought would represent his work about Middle-earth. (Yes, he hoped to see
The Silmarillion into print for a while, but eventually he had to have realized that he would not live to see that happen, and the book would be published, with his authorization, as whatever Christopher produced from his father’s manuscripts.)
Decades before, in the
Book of Lost Tales period of Tolkien’s invention, he’d had the idea of the history of the Elves who have “faded” from human awareness by our time. (I’m using the word “faded” because I think Tolkien used it – I’m sure he did eventually; but frankly I’m not much acquainted with Tolkien’s early writings. But I think this was part of his first purpose.) So it’s noteworthy that this last poem ends with, “their song has faded.”
In the event, Tolkien did publish notes on Quenya and Sindarin in
The Road Goes Ever On. But Firiel’s poem was probably the last
story of Middle-earth that he saw into print – last in the sense of appearing on the final pages of a book.
(I write “probably” because of two poems were published later, “The Dragon’s Visit,” a comic poem that is surely not a poem of Middle-earth, and the other, “Once Upon a Time,” which is only doubtfully so. Is there really any reason to think it is seriously meant as a poem from the Third Age about Tom
Bombadil – “Tom” is a character, but is it quite certain that this is Tom Bombadil? -- let alone about new creatures called lintips?
Tolkien and Fantasy: The Mystery of Lintips
My own take on “Once Upon a Time” might be that it is a poem about Tom Bombadil by a modern author -- his name was J. R. R. Tolkien -- and it’s not a translation from the Red Book. There’s nothing that says it was. But I mention these poems for the sake of completeness. If “Once Upon a Time” is to be read as a translation of something written millennia ago by Bilbo or some other hobbit, probably the lintips are to be taken as real creatures of Middle-earth no more than the mewlips are.)
To return to “The Last Ship” – though the original version dates to the 1930s, this poem makes a good conclusion to Tolkien’s Middle-earth storytelling. Once again, it possesses beauty, strangeness, pathos.
Fíriel’s feet sink into the mud; she is unable to come to the Elves’ boat. (“Fíriel” means “mortal woman.” She is “Earth’s daughter.”) An implication is that the Elves who called her would not have sunk into the waterside “clay.” In “The Ring Goes South,” in
The Fellowship of the Ring, as will be remembered, Legolas wears just light shoes (not boots) and when he walks on the snowdrifts, he leaves almost no imprint.
The Elves had beckoned to Fíriel, the mortal woman. There’s a suggestion here of the
Mary Rose theme. I refer to J. M. Barrie’s play, which deserves to be better known, and which got under Tolkien’s skin when he saw it performed (see the critical edition of
On Fairy-Stories for his remarks).
Note: According to the critical edition of
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil edited by Scull and Hammond, an error occurred when the book was originally published, whereby Nos. 12 and 11 became 11 and 12. The change was made so that the full-page cat picture would faxce “Cat.” Well and good, but the preface was not changed to reflect the change in numbering.
In other words, in fact it’s “Cat” that was a marginal addition to the Red Book, not “Fastitocalon.” It’s “Fastitocalon” that’s by Sam Gamgee, not “Cat.”
*It would be
like some ignorant, smug hobbits, who actually owe their peace of mind to Tom and the Rangers, to give themselves the credit. Tom is scornful of their boasts.
