Cari amici, ben ritrovati alla mini-rubrica dedicata a The Road Goes Ever On – a song cycle, la raccolta di canzoni legata all’universo di Arda.
Avendo concluso la sezione relativa ai brani, quest’oggi affrontiamo l’appendice di The Road Goes Ever On, redatta da Tolkien stesso e denominata Notes and Translations.…
I am off down the road
Where the fairy lanterns glowed
And the little pretty flittermice are flying:
A slender band of grey
It runs creepily away
And the hedges and the grasses are a-sighing.
The air is full of wings
And of blundering beetle-things
That warn you with their whirring and their humming.…
DA “LA STRADA PERDUTA” [3]
Monað modes lust mid mereflode
forð to feran, þæt ic feor heonan
ofer hean holmas, ofer hwæles eðel
elðeodigra eard gesece.
Nis me to hearpan hyge ne to hyringþege
ne to wife wyn ne to worulde hyht
ne ymb owiht elles nefne ymb yða gewealc.…
THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE
or
A Nursery Rhyme Undone and its Scandalous Secret Unlocked
They say there’s a little crooked inn
Behind an old grey hill,
Where they brew a beer so eery brown
The man in the moon himself comes down,
And sometimes drinks his fill.…
THE ROOT OF THE BOOT
[original version of the “Troll Song”]
A troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;
And long and long he had sat there lone
And seen no man nor mortal –
Ortal!…
“Ho! Tom Bombadil! Whither do you wander?”
Ho! Tom Bombadil! Whither do you wander?
Up, down, near or far? Here, there, or yonder?
By hill that stands, wood that grows, and by the water falling,
Here now we summon you! Can you hear us calling?…
First “germ” of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
(Said I)
‘Ho! Tom Bombadil
Whither are you going
With John Pompador
Down the River rowing?’
(Said he)
‘Through Long Congleby,
Stoke Canonicorum,
Past King’s Singleton
To Bumby Cocalorum –
To call Bill Willoughby
Whatever he be doing,
And ax Harry Larraby
What beer he is a-brewing.’…
“O wanderers in the land of trees”
O wanderers in the land of trees
despair not for there is no wood
[/]
think not of hearth that lies behind
but set your hearts on distant hills
beyond the rising of the sun.…
“Farewell! farewell, now hearth and hall!”
Farewell! farewell, now hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall.
The hunt is up! Across the land
The Shadow stretches forth its hand.…
“Bless the water O my feet and toes!” [Bath song #2]
Bless the water O my feet and toes!
Bless it O my ten fingers!
Bless the water, O Odo!
And praise the name of Marmaduke!
Alt. vers. (typescript):
Bless the water, O my feet and toes!…
