Jim Hobbs
New Member
The thing that struck me during the discussion of the meter of the dream poem was that it can by sung fairly easily to a tune with a 7.6.7.6 D (also known as 76.76.D, etc.) hymn meter. And, as you repeated the lines, I did start singing along with the podcast.
There are many hymn tunes in this meter (hymnary.org lists 551 of them), some with the kind of triplets mentioned in the podcast. Perhaps one of the best-known hymn tunes in this meter is "St. Theodulph" (Melchior Teschner), which is often a setting for the hymn text "All Glory, Laud and Honor." Another is "Passion Chorale" (Hassler/Bach). The 1939 Westminister Hymnal has ten hymn tunes in 76.76.D and one in 76.76.
I am not suggesting that Tolkien had a hymn tune in mind, or that he even had a song in mind (although I don't consider that altogether unlikely). I bring this to your attention only to suggest that the dream poem fits into a reasonably substantial corpus of published material with a similar scheme.
There are many hymn tunes in this meter (hymnary.org lists 551 of them), some with the kind of triplets mentioned in the podcast. Perhaps one of the best-known hymn tunes in this meter is "St. Theodulph" (Melchior Teschner), which is often a setting for the hymn text "All Glory, Laud and Honor." Another is "Passion Chorale" (Hassler/Bach). The 1939 Westminister Hymnal has ten hymn tunes in 76.76.D and one in 76.76.
I am not suggesting that Tolkien had a hymn tune in mind, or that he even had a song in mind (although I don't consider that altogether unlikely). I bring this to your attention only to suggest that the dream poem fits into a reasonably substantial corpus of published material with a similar scheme.