John Ronald Reuel Tolkien – Bilbo’s Last Song

Bilbo’s Last Song is a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien. It 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. 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, reillustrated by Baynes.

The poem is sung by Bilbo Baggins at the Grey Havens, as he is about to leave Middle-earth for ever. Chronologically this places it at the very end of The Return of the King, the last book of The Lord of the Rings, although it was written later than the books and never included in them.   źródło opisu: Hutchinson, 2002