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A manuscript of this translation of The Lay of Felagund was brought from the library of Elrond in Imladris by King Elessar in FA 22. Copies were made of much Elven-lore in Imladris, to be studied and preserved in the North and South Kingdoms. A second translation of Finrod and Bëor survives as well, but only in smaller fragments. The beginning is rendered thus: In eastern lands there once a wood Unhorsed he wandered under trees As dusk and dawn both passed him by
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Author's Notes:
This monstrously long poem took almost 10 years to write! Several phrases, rhymes and lines are borrowed from various Tolkien poems—e.g. “grey the Norland waters [run]” (Bilbo’s Song of Eärendil) and “silver fire / of old that Men did call the Briar” (used several times in the Lay of Leithian), among many others. Of course the writerly reason is that sometimes I can’t resist how beautiful the imagery are, or that I’m not sufficiently inventive myself. And yet I think these lyric echoes are also true in a in-universe sense: in Medieval ballads can be found similar stock phrases or allusive echoes to older or contemporaneous poems. Therefore it’s nice to think of these echoes as evincing the poem’s literary lineage. |
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