Friday, January 3, 2020

Tolkien's Birthday

So, today is J. R. R. Tolkien's hundred and twenty-eighth birthday.

A good time to dig out and reread a favorite from among his many works.  For me, this year it's THE DRAGON'S VISIT, a little gem that exists in two versions --both good, but I much prefer the earlier variant, the one which ends

     The moon shone through his green wings
        the night air beating,
     And he flew back over the dappled sea
        to a green dragon's meeting.

--John R.
--current reading THE PENGUIN HISTORICAL ATLAS OF ANCIENT EGYPT by Bill Manley (1996)

2 comments:

grodog said...

What more can you tell us about The Dragon's Gem, John? I'm not familiar with that piece.

Also: other than Volume 4 of HoME, has anyone compiled JRRT's poetry?

Allan.

John D. Rateliff said...

Dear G.

The easiest place to find the original (1937) version is in Doug Anderson's THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT, second edition pages 309-311. Doug immediately follows this with the revised ending of circa 1962 (ibid 312).

I still wish this poem had made it into THE ADVENTURES OF TOM BOMBADIL.

--John R.