Bilbo's Last Song

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Harvey, Sir Paul: The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 4th edition; Oxford University Press, 1967; p. 53

The song " The Last Goodbye" by actor Billy Boyd, the end credits song for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, seems to be inspired by the version of this song found in The Hobbit. The songs have a similar theme of returning home. Though some of the lyrics have been changed, of particular note are the lyrics: Swank, Kris (2015). "The Irish Otherworld Voyage of Roverandom". Tolkien Studies. 12 (1): 31–57. doi: 10.1353/tks.2015.0011. ISSN 1547-3163. S2CID 170173591.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. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún · The Fall of Arthur · The Story of Kullervo · The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun The Road to Middle-earth · The Keys of Middle-earth · The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion ·

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets. The scholar Richard Leonberger states that Swann composed the nine settings over a period of 12 years. He began by setting seven poems from The Lord of the Rings to music in Ramallah, near Jerusalem, in 1965. These included A Elbereth Gilthoniel and O Orofarnë, Lassemista, Carnimírië; he replaced the latter with Namárië for the first edition as he felt it was too similar to Henry Purcell's " Dido's Lament". [9] 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. Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821. Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past. 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] He died (42) of AIDS-related complications in London.[2] In 2006, Oliver's archive of original scores and papers was presented to the British Library by his family. 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.