The adventures of Tom Bombadil

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Poems from the Red Book (English title: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book ) is a collection of poems published in 1962 JRR Tolkien . The book contains 16 poems, of which only twodealdirectly with Tom Bombadil , a character who becamefamousthrough her encounter with Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings . The remaining poems are a selection of animal verses and legendary poetry. Two of the poems also appear in Lord of the Rings . The poems are part of Tolkien's fantasy world and are considered canonical among Tolkienists.

background

The volume includes The Sea-Bell , subtitled Frodos Dreme , which was hailed by WH Auden as Tolkien's best poem ever. It is a metrically and rhythmically complex piece that tells the journey to a distant island on the other side of the sea. Based on the poetry of medieval dream visions, this poem is extremely melancholy with an ending that tells of alienation and disillusionment.

The book was originally illustrated by Pauline Baynes and later by Roger Garland. Like the first edition of The Companions from The Lord of the Rings , it presents itself to the reader as a separate translation of the Red Book of Westmark and contains background information about the fictional world of Middle-earth that cannot be found anywhere else: For example the name of the tower in Dol Amroth and the names of the seven rivers of Gondor . In addition, it provides a fictional "background" to the poems contained by presenting them as hobbit folklore and literature and naming their "authors" (some supposedly come from Samweis Gamgee ).

The book is also notable in that it uses the letter "K" instead of "C" to express the sound / k / in Tolkien's artificial language Sindarin , a spelling that Tolkien changed repeatedly in his writings.

content

1. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil: ( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ) is a short verse tale about Tom Bombadil. The first part of the adventure tells how Tom goes swimming. He sat by the little willow stream and watched the bees and butterflies, his long beard hanging in the water. This did not go unnoticed and the water nymph Goldberry, the water woman's daughter, teased him so that he jumped into the water to look for her. The old wicker man, known from the Lord of the Rings, also appears in this poem, because he tries to lock Tom in when he has left the water. But Tom has power over the creatures of the Old Forest, so neither the tree nor the badger family or the grave monster can harm him. But one day he finally caught Goldberry and brought her to his house, where she eventually married him.
2. Tom goes rowing: ( Bombadil Goes Boating ) reports on his trip to Mithe in the Shire, where he wants to visit his good friend Farmer Maggot, a hobbit. Tom gets on his boat and paddles down the willow winch, encountering some animals, a kingfisher, an otter and a swan, all trying to tease him. In Heuende, where the willow wind flows into the Brandywine, he meets some hobbits, but they do not want to take the ferry across to him. When he reaches Mithe, he meets Maggot, who takes him home with him, where they spend a happy evening. Tom disappeared before dawn and went home on foot unnoticed. The animals he had met the day before finally bring his boat back up the river, but they forget the oar blades.
3. Odyssey: ( Errantry ) is a short account of the journey of a seafarer who set out to find a bride who, however, does not want to know anything about him. Therefore he moves on to conquests and wars, steals a golden honeycomb and returns home. But since he is a real sailor, he is drawn back out to sea for new adventures.
4. Princess Ich-Mi: ( Princess Mee ) is a little elf who performs a dance at night as if floating over a calm lake, while she happens to see her reflection in the clear water below. She wonders why this other princess, who is so similar to her, is hanging upside down with her feet up. And she continues to dance and so does her reflection.
5. The Man in the Moon drank good beer: ( The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late ) is a rather curious poem in which the moon man comes down to earth to drink beer. In an inn (a pub) he meets a cat who plays the fiddle, a dog who likes to joke, and a dancing cow. They go through the whole night, so that in the morning the sun wonders why everyone is going to sleep now.
6. The Man in the Moon came way too early: ( The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon ) is about the Man in the Moon who longs for good food and colors, especially the red of the flesh or the wine. It is pulled from the sea by fishermen and brought into the place. But even for good pay, he only gets porridge in the end, because Christmas is still a long way off.
7. The Stone Troll : ( The Stone Troll ) tells of a human encounter with a troll. The man Tom comes to the troll, who is gnawing at an old bone, and asks him whether it was the leg of his uncle Tim. So they fight over the bone until the troll thinks he could rather gnaw at Tom and catch him. But he quickly slips behind him and gives him a kick. But Tom hadn't considered how hard such a stone troll is, so that his foot remains lame forever. The stone troll is contained in a similar form in the book The Lord of the Rings .
8. Luftikus: ( Perry-the-Winkle ) is also a troll poem. But this troll is very lonely and wants company. So he visits the small town of Delving. When he speaks to the old woman Bunce, she screams and flees. Even the animals in the stables go wild with fear, so that the troll eventually sits down at the gate and cries. There Perry finds him and he speaks to him. The troll is happy to finally have found a friend. He invites Perry over, gives him good food and teaches him to bake. Now the other residents are jealous and want to try the troll's food too. But he chases them away. Perry becomes a first-class baker and so fat that his vest bursts, but he never achieves the fine art of troll baking.
9. Die Muhlipps: ( The Mewlips ) seem to be moor dwellers , they live behind the swamps in cold, damp caves and count their gold there. They ambush lonely hikers and eat them.
10. Olifant: ( Oliphaunt ). This poem also appears in the Lord of the Rings. It tells of the appearance and character of the large elephants in Middle-earth, which the Haradrim used as pack animals and transport animals.
11. Fastitokalon: ( Fastitocalon ) tells of a huge sea monster that looks like an uninhabited island. But if you tie up to it and climb it, it suddenly goes under and the intruders drown. It is intended as a warning to seafarers not to land on strange shores.
12. Cat: ( Cat ) tells of a fat cat who no longer has to go hunting as a pet, but never forgets that at heart she is a lion.
13. Shadow Bride : ( Shadow-Bride ) is very short and is about a man who waits patiently like a stone until a beautiful woman comes to him and redeems him. From then on they walk together and only cast a single shadow once a year.
14. The Hoard : ( The Hoard ) is a poem that is about the power and attraction of gold and silver that these metals exert on the diverse beings of Middle-earth. It begins with the gods who scatter it abundantly over the earth. Then it tells of the elves who process it into elaborate jewelry, but the shadow comes over their realm and they pass. A dwarf collects all the gold and adds precious stones and jewels and guards it until he crumbles to dust himself when a young dragon enters his cave. Even the dragon, although he sits for a long time in this hoard, loses him in the end, because a person with his sharp sword knocks him down. And this becomes an old king, but his kingdom falls apart and is overrun by enemies. And now the gold of the Elves of yore lies in a dark shaft, forgotten, until they awaken again.
15. The shell sound: ( The Sea-Bell ) is written in the first person. The narrator hears the tempting sound of a clam bell and a boat appears on the bank, so that he mounts it without hesitation and lets himself be carried away to a distant shore. He occupies it and declares himself king, but there is no one there but him. He lingers and lonely until he finally leaves again. But when he returns, the houses are deserted and the streets deserted. He never longs for the sea again.
16. The Last Ship: ( The Last Ship ) goes in a similar direction, as it tells of Firiël, a mortal woman who happily walks down to the river bank in the morning. She lingers there until she suddenly hears a lovely chant. The fairy people from the Elbenland slowly sail past her on their last ship. She asks where they are going and the Elves answer that they are leaving Middle-earth forever and whether they would like to accompany them, because there is still a place on board. She thinks about it for a moment, but then says that she has to stay because she is an earthly maiden. All that remained of the elves is an insatiable longing when their song was over.

expenditure

There are different editions of this volume of poems. It was first published in 1962 by Allen & Unwin , and a second edition was published in 1963 by Houghton Mifflin . The German translation by Ebba-Margareta von Freymann was published by Klett-Cotta Verlag .

• JRR Tolkien: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil . Allen & Unwin, London 1962 ( ae-lib.org.ua ).
• JRR Tolkien: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Poems from the Red Book . Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-608-95009-5 .

See also

• European history and mythology in Tolkien's world , for more information on the character Tom Bombadil.

Web links

• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil at Ardapedia
• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil ( English ) Retrieved on October 7 of 2010.