The Poetry of the Fellowship {Guest Post}
September 21, 2012 Hullo, lovely readers of Shaylynn's equally lovely blog! I'm Victoria from Raindrops and Moonlight, where I blog when I'm not busy daydreaming or drowning in English essays. I'm a francophile, anglophile, bookaholic, and fangirl of various fandoms, including, of course, the immortal Tolkien. A wizard is never late, as Shaylynn reminded me, but I must not be a wizard, because I am LATE in getting this in to her. Thanks for your patience and for having me as a guest-poster in the first place, Shaylynn!
I first read The Lord of the Rings as an almost-nine-year old bouncing along in the back of a trailer on a trip to Italy. One of the things I remember most about that first reading - besides the way certain chapters made me crave mushrooms - is how much I loved the poetry. I didn't even realize the genius of it at the time; it was just the first poetry that had ever really gotten across to me.
Part of poetry is atmosphere, creating a feeling, catching the mood of an experience. Tolkien was a master of that, among other things, and to this day I can't quite figure how he did it. He didn't sacrifice content for atmosphere. All the poems tell a tale, especially since most of them seem to be based on the ballad form - not surprising, with an author as interested in history as Tolkien was.
The first poem I remember clearly was The Fall of Gil-Galad. I really don't know why that one stood out, and later I re-read all the poems in FOTR and decided that, stylistically speaking, it's one of the less beautiful and memorable pieces. I guess what really distinguishes it is the curiosity it raises as to what really happened to Gil-Galad:
A perfect example of Tolkien's poetical awesomeness is The Lay of Nimrodel, which tells the tale of the elf maiden Nimrodel and the man she loved, Amroth, and how they both disappeared. In true ballad fashion, most of Tolkien's poetry-tales have somewhat sad or ambiguous endings, and this is no exception. I loved the silvery colors and the way it flows, just like the Nimrodel river by which Legolas sings it, and I even once tried to put it to music. (In case you're wondering, I failed miserably. I'm not much of a composer.) I won't put down the whole thing here - it would make this post reeeaaaally long[er] - but here are some bits.
(I just love the descriptions here! They're very simple, but they create the perfect image.)
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