"J.R.R. Tolkien - Tom Bombadil - Preface" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

PREFACE
The Red Book contains a large number of verses.
A few are included in the narrative of the Downfall
of the Lord of the Rings, or in the attached stories
and chronicles; many more are found on loose
leaves, while some are written carelessly in mar-
gins and blank spaces. Of the last sort most are
nonsense, now often unintelligible even when
legible, or half-remembered fragments. From
these marginalia are drawn Nos. 4, II, 13; though
a better example of their general character would
be the scribble, on the page recording Bilbo's
When winter first begins to bite'.
The wind so whirled a weathercock
He could not hold his tail up;
The frost so nipped a throstlecock
He could not snap a snail up.
'My case is hard' the throstle cried,
And 'All is vane' the cock replied;
And so they set their wail up.
The present selection is taken from the older
pieces, mainly concerned with legends and jests of
the Shire at the end of the Third Age, that appear
to have been made by Hobbits, especially by
Bilbo and his friends, or their immediate descendants. Their authorship is, however, seldom indi-
cated. Those outside the narratives are in various
hands, and were probably written down from
oral tradition.
In the Red Book it is said that No. 5 was made
by Bilbo, and No. 7 by Sam Gamgee. No. 8 is
marked SG, and the ascription may be accepted.
No. 12 is also marked SG, though at most Sam
can only have touched up an older piece of the
comic bestiary lore of which Hobbits appear to
have been fond. In The Lord of the Rings Sam
stated that No. 10 was traditional in the Shire.
No. 3 is an example of another kind which
seems to have amused Hobbits: a rhyme or story
which returns to its own beginning, and so may
be recited until the hearers revolt. Several specimens are found in the Red Book, but the others
are simple and crude. No. 3 is much the longest
and most elaborate. It was evidently made by
Bilbo. This is indicated by its obvious relationship
to the long poem recited by Bilbo, as his own
composition, in the house of Elrond. In origin a
'nonsense rhyme', it is in the Rivendell version
found transformed and applied, somewhat incongruously, to the High-elvish and Numenorean
legends of Earendil. Probably because Bilbo in-
vented its metrical devices and was proud of
them. They do not appear in other pieces in the