In 1981, Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell used Bilbo's Last Song to conclude the dramatization of The Lord of the Rings that they wrote for BBC Radio 4. [19] [20] The poem was set to music by Stephen Oliver, who had provided all the music for the series. [19] [20] The first stanza was chanted by John Le Mesurier as Bilbo, the second was omitted and the third was sung by the boy soprano Matthew Vine. [21] An album of Oliver's music from the series included a version of the song in which Vine sang all three stanzas. [22] Oliver's version was recorded by the Dutch Tolkien Society band The Hobbitons for their 1996 CD J. R. R. Tolkien's Songs from Middle-earth. [T 2] The second edition of The Road Goes Ever On, published in 1978, added music for " Bilbo's Last Song." This song was also published separately. The final line of the verse is a variant on the phrase "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", which is used in fairy-stories like the Norwegian tale of that name for another world that is fantastically difficult to reach – in this case Aman, which can only be reached by the Straight Road. [1] Musical arrangements [ edit ] Classical music [ edit ] The Danish Tolkien Ensemble has set all the versions of "The Road Goes Ever On" to music. The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays · Beowulf and the Critics · Tolkien On Fairy-stories ·

This book is beautifully illustrated with gorgeous settings that show Bilbo on his way to Valinor. The illustrations begin with Bilbo at Rivendell. He talks with Elrond about making the last trip, and they make plans for travelling. Bilbo and the company of Elves pass through the Shire, where Frodo and Sam join them. They reach the harbor where Cirdan the shipwright is waiting to greet them. They say goodbye to Sam, Merry, and Pippin. The final illustration shows Bilbo reaching the shores of Valinor. The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury quotes Frodo's recollection to the other hobbits of Bilbo's thoughts on 'The Road': "He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'" Rosebury comments that the "homespun symbolism" here is plain enough, that "the Road stands for life, or rather for its possibilities, indeed probabilities, of adventure, commitment, and danger; for the fear of losing oneself, and the hope of homecoming". [2] He observes further that Middle-earth is distinctly "a world of roads", as seen in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both of which "begin and end at the door of Bag-End". [2] A Middle English Vocabulary · Sir Gawain and the Green Knight · Ancrene Wisse · The Old English Exodus I'm not going to start explaining how much he actually means to me because then we'll be still sitting here tomorrow. I can guarantee you that. This book toyed with my heartstrings and broke a few of them. Edmonds, Jeremy. "Collectors Guide – "Bilbo's Last Song" (US Poster)". Tolkien Collector's Guide . Retrieved 25 January 2020.Tolkien, J. R. R.: The Lord of the Rings, 50th anniversary edition; Harper Collins, 2005; pp. 1097–1098 It was originally a composition in Old Norse, entitled Vestr um haf ("West over sea"), written as early as 1920s. In 1968, after Joy Hill, Tolkien's secretary, rediscovered it in a pile of books, Tolkien gave it to her as a gift for her assistance in the setting up of his new office. The song was included in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (1981), with music by Stephen Oliver. The first verse is chanted by John Le Mesurier as Bilbo, the second omitted, and the third sung by a boy soprano. Bilbo's Last Song was given by Tolkien as a gift to his secretary Joy Hill in 1966. After Tolkien's death in 1973, Hill showed the poem to Donald Swann, who liked the poem so much that he set it to music and included it in the second edition of The Road Goes Ever On in 1978. [ citation needed] The poem was also illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and published as a poster in 1974. In 1990, the text was finally published in book form, re-illustrated by Baynes. [1] Its original publisher was Houghton Mifflin, then Allen & Unwin in 1992, and then by Dragonfly Books in 1992. [2] and a few others like Riverwood Publishing Inc. [3]

The second edition of The Road Goes Ever On, published in 1978, included the poem " Bilbo's Last Song". The third edition, published in 1993 and likely the last, comes with additional poetry and also a CD with recordings for the entire song cycle.

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2. Leonberger, Richard Garrett (2016). A Swann's Song in Middle-earth: An Exploration of Donald Swann's "The Road Goes Ever On" and theDevelopment of a System of Lyric Diction forTolkien's Constructed, Elvish Languages. Louisiana State University (PhD thesis). p.25.

Surrounding the text of the poem is lovely artwork of trees, flowers, and vines with little animals and birds. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821.

Bilbo's Otherworld journey has further parallels in writings of Tolkien's own. The figure of the mortal who sails from the quotidian world to a paradise beyond the sea is a motif that recurs in Tolkien's poems and stories throughout his creative life. Examples are Roverandom, [11] Eriol in The Book of Lost Tales, [T 5] Tuor in Quenta Silmarillion, [T 6] Ar-Pharazôn in Akallabêth, [T 7] Ælfwine in The Lost Road, [T 8] St Brendan in Imram, [T 4] Sam and Gimli in The Lord of the Rings [T 9] and the narrator of " The Sea-Bell" in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. [T 10] [12] Publication history [ edit ] Bilbo then says that his journey is “ Guided by the Lonely Star,” which in this case refers to Star of Eärendil, or the Evening Star. The star is actually a Silmaril, carried into the sky by Eärendil the Mariner, who wore the star on his brow to guide him. It is the brightest star in the sky, containing the light of the Two Trees that were ultimately used to make the Sun and Moon by the Valar. In the Second Age, the star guided Edain to Númenor. Sam and Frodo also used the light from the Elves “most beloved star” to pierce through the darkness at various stages of their journey (including Shelob’s lair). It’s a beautiful bit of symmetry, in which the end of the Third Age is marked by the Evening Star returning to its role of maritime guide. Harvey, Sir Paul: The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 4th edition; Oxford University Press, 1967; p. 53

Bilbo's Last Song (At the Grey Havens) is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is sung by Bilbo Baggins at the Grey Havens as he is about to leave Middle-earth. Chronologically this places it at the very end of The Return of the King, the last volume of The Lord of the Rings, although it was written later than the books and never included in them.

Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Thirded.). HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0261102750. The first composer to set Bilbo's Last Song to music was Tolkien's fan and friend Donald Swann, who had earlier set six of Tolkien's other poems for their 1967 song-book The Road Goes Ever On. [T 14] Swann wrote about Bilbo's Last Song in his autobiography. "The lyric was handed to me at Tolkien's funeral by his dedicated secretary, Joy Hill, who is a close friend and neighbour of mine in Battersea. I was stirred up that day and went off and wrote a tune for it, to be sung as a duet, although I often perform it solo... The tune is based on a song from the Isle of Man ... [and] also resembles a Cephallonian Greek melody." [17] Swann's setting of the poem–his favourite among his Tolkien compositions–was added to The Road Goes Ever On for its second (1978) and third (2002) editions. [17] The latter included a CD on which Swann performed his song with William Elvin and Clive McCrombie. [17] The song was also recorded on Swann's album Alphabetaphon (1990) and John Amis's album Amiscellany (2002) [18] a b c Jorgensen, Estelle R. (2006). "Myth, Song, and Music Education: The Case of Tolkien's the 'Lord of the Rings' and Swann's 'The Road Goes Ever On.' ". Journal of Aesthetic Education. University of Illinois Press. 40 (3): 1–21. JSTOR 4140177. Bilbo's voyage to the Undying Lands is reminiscent of several other journeys in English literature. Scull and Hammond observe that Bilbo's Last Song is somewhat like Tennyson's Crossing the Bar (1889), a sixteen-line religious lyric (sharing some of Tolkien's poem's vocabulary) in which a sea voyage is a metaphor for a faithful death. [7] Other precursors of Tolkien's poem are the legend of the carrying of the wounded King Arthur to the magical isle of Avalon [9] and the quest of Reepicheep to sail to the holy country of the divine lion Aslan in Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. [10] Our final trip to Middle-earth to finish with 'The Last Goodbye' sung by Billy Boyd". 20 October 2014 . Retrieved 26 December 2022.