Bilbo's farewell song

Bilbo's farewell song (English Bilbo's Last Song , Bilbo's last song ) is a poem by JRR Tolkien . In 1966 Tolkien gave this poem to his secretary Joy Hill. After Tolkien's death in 1973, Hill showed the poem to the composer Donald Swann , who liked it so much that he immediately converted it into music and in 1979 incorporated it into the second edition of the music cycle The Road Goes Ever On . The poem was illustrated by Pauline Baynes , Tolkien's favorite artist, and a color poster appeared in 1974. In 1990 the poem was finally published in book form, again with pictures by Baynes. The song is sung by Bilbo Baggins at the Gray Mounts as he sets off to the west. Chronologically, it can be added to the third and last part of the Lord of the Rings , The Return of the King .

Adaptations

Radio: The song is featured in the BBC Radio 4 radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (1981), with music by Stephen Oliver . The first verse is performed by John Le Mesurier , the second verse has been left out and the third is sung by a boy in soprano .

Film trilogy: The poem does not appear in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Peter Jackson . It is replaced at the end by the song Into the West by Annie Lennox .

content

Bilbo's last song is about his departure from Middle-earth. The day (or his life) will end soon, his eyes are already cloudy and one last journey is still ahead of him; the drive to the west. He wishes everyone goodbye, because he cannot resist the call of the sea. Far to the west of the west is a peaceful land where the night is quiet and sleep brings rest. Guided by a lonely star, he will reach the blessed land beyond the farthest port. He is ready to sail west and leave Middle-earth forever.

Possibly the song is an allusion to the English saying "go West", which is a paraphrase for dying.

literature

Bilbo's Last Song. Hutchinson, London 1990, ISBN 0-09-188488-8 .
JRR Tolkien, Pauline Baynes (Ill.): Bilbo's farewell song. Schreiber, Esslingen 1991, ISBN 3-480-14249-4 . (Hardcover, 32 pages, translated by Ebba-Margareta von Freymann )
JRR Tolkien: Bilbo's farewell song. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-608-95012-5 .


Fiction	Songs for the Philologists (1936) • The Hobbit (1937) • Blatt von Tüftler (1947) • The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945) • Bauer Giles von Ham (1949) • The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953) • The Lord of the Rings (1954/55) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Poems from the Red Book (1962) • Tree and Leaf (1964) • The Tolkien Reader (1966) • The Road Goes Ever On (1967) • Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
Posthumously published fiction	Santa's Letters (1976) • The Silmarillion (1977) • News from Middle-earth (1980) • Mr. Bliss (1982) • Bilbo's Farewell Song (1990) • The History of Middle-earth (12 volumes; 1983–1996) • The Lost Road and Other Writings (Volume 5, 1987) • Roverandom (1998) • The Children of Húrin (2007) • The History of The Hobbit (2007) • The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009) • King Arthur's Fall (2013) • The Story of Kullervo (2015) • Beren and Lúthien (2017) • The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
Academic works	A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925) • Some Contributions to Middle-English Lexicography (1925) • The Devil's Coach-Horses (1925) • Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad (1929) • The Name Nodens (1932) • Sigelwara Land Parts I and II, in Medium Aevum (1932–1934) • Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale (1934) • Beowulf: The Monsters and Their Critics (1936) • The Reeve's Tale: version prepared for recitation at the "summer diversions" (1939) • On Fairy-Stories (1939) • Sir Orfeo (1944) • Ofermod and Beorhtnoth's Death (1953) • Middle English "Losenger": Sketch of an etymological and semantic inquiry ( 1953) • Ancrene Wisse : The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (1962) • English and Welsh (1963) • Introduction to Tree and Leaf (1964) • Contributions to the Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer) (1966) • Tolkien on Tolkien (autobiographical) (1966)
Posthumous academic publications	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , Pearl and Sir Orfeo (translations into modern English, 1975) • Finn and Hengest (1982) • The Monsters and the Critics (1983) • Beowulf and the Critics (2002) • Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary (2014)