On the first draft of the debate of Bilbo and the Elves:
The Lindir character is not named in this version, and rather is attributed to a group of unnamed elves. This removes the sense that Bilbo has established personal relationships with individuals.
In this version, a guess is actually given as to who wrote what part of the poem, and there is a stronger hobbitry element in that they guess that Bilbo didn’t write the poem.
Bilbo actually does attribute most of the poem to Tarkil, an early name for the Dúnedan.
Note: The name Tarkil is the Quenya word for one of Numenorean descent and is the source for the orcish word “tark”, meaning one of the men of Gondor, used later in the final book. This is also after the character of Trotter the hobbit has transformed into Strider the man.
This shows the poem was originally conceived as a collaboration of a hobbit and a man.
Since Arwen does not exist in the drafts at this point, Aragorn’s relationship to the Elves is very different from what it will become later. There is a closer parallel between Bilbo and Aragorn.
At this point, Bilbo and Aragorn are both exiles who spend time in Rivendell, but as outsiders. As the character evolves, Aragorn will grow closer to the Elves in both nature and relationships.
Note: Christopher often reminds us that Tolkien often doesn’t reject or leave behind earlier concepts, but rather keeps them while choosing to present them differently in the final text.
At this point, we can see that the unnamed elf is able to tell the difference between the work of a hobbit and a man, while in the final version, Lindir doesn’t suspect any difference.
As the poem evolves from a purely heroic tale to one of tragedy and transformation of mortals when interacting with the Elves, the authorship also shifts almost entirely to Bilbo.
The very late addition of Arwen inserts a personal motivation for Aragorn to distance himself from a poem that may offend Elrond, but this already existed before and was recontextualized.
Note: The metaphor of taste being used for the experience of languages sounds like something from Tolkien’s own academic life, as he writes in a similar way in more fictionally autobiographical works like “The Notion Club Papers”. Tolkien did compare languages to food and wine at times, much like this unnamed elf does with peas of different sizes. Tolkien may have removed this because he would have believed that Elves would not be deaf to the differences to languages, even if they did not understand the words.
This elf may be teasing Bilbo about the differences between mortal languages, anyway. The teasing tone here is similar to the tone in The Hobbit and between Gildor and Frodo.
Slipping off for some more quiet talk:
Though the idea of Bilbo going off alone with Frodo and the Ring may have been concerning earlier, but it seems as though the others may have witnessed Bilbo pass the test before.
Note: Sam will be sent after them very shortly by Gandalf, so he may want to be careful.
There is a comparison made here between the Elvish love of poetry and the hobbits’ love of food. Bilbo’s assertion that the Elves can sustain themselves on song alone may be partly true.
More clearly, the role that food plays in Hobbit culture is filled by tales and songs in Elvish culture, in that it is at the heart of their ways of interacting with one another.
However, Bilbo probably also means this literally, that Elves will choose songs over food.
Ironically, after having missed dinner and contrasting the Elves love for food with the Hobbit love of food, he chooses to go off for more talk, though of a Hobbit-kind, and not more food.
There may be parallel between the “good, solid food” in Bree, that Hobbits enjoy, and this kind of Hobbit-talk, and the difference with the high and lofty talk and food of the Elves.
There’s actually nothing to prevent them from carrying on this kind of talk in the Hall of Fire, as they’d already been talking of the Shire before Bilbo’s poem.
Frodo’s question about permission to leave shows his concerns about being polite to Elrond.
Bilbo has gotten used to Rivendell, but even he has shown that he has difficulty staying awake.
Frodo is still recovering and tired, and Bilbo may be helping to transition him from the feast. The experience of Elvish enchantment might even be a little too much stimulation for Frodo.
Bilbo is also putting the Hall of Fire into Hobbit terms, saying that this is for fun and not Frodo’s responsibility, and Bilbo is transmitting the rules and customs of Rivendell.
They leave very circumspectly, though there may be several sets of eyes on them as they go.
Sam is probably in the enchanted state that Frodo experienced it, as opposed to truly asleep.
Frodo’s tug of regret shows that Elvish poetry and song is hard to leave behind. The crossing of the threshold in Faerie is a significant event, here with the coincidence of the singer starting.
Even though this is in Sindarin, the shape, including the rhythm and rhyme scheme, is clear.
The song is written in a regular iambic tetrameter, and the rhyme scheme is A-A-B-A-B-C-C.
Note: This is the first time in the book that a full poem in a foreign language is presented. The version that occurs in the Shire was translated in their minds, mostly into the Common Speech. For the original readers, there would be no mechanism for translating this, and there wouldn’t even be a pronunciation guide until The Return of the King was published with the appendices.
Since have gotten another song about Elbereth that begins this way, it is reasonable to assume that this is the Elvish version of the song we have already heard Gildor’s folk singing.
While the language is foreign, the rhythm and shape are very familiar. It doesn’t sound that much different to Hobbit poetry, such as Bilbo’s own songs that Frodo sings.
This calls into question if Bilbo’s style is actually derived from the Elves rather than Hobbits. This makes it accessible to Hobbits, and by extension, the readers.
The fact that it is not translated the way that Gildor’s version was may be due to a difference of intention. It is being sold by Elves for Elves, and Frodo is also changed since then.
Since we hear the song as Frodo leaves the room, there is a sense that he is now hearing it as an outsider, looking in on the Elves, rather than a part of the company. This may make a difference.
When Gildor sang in the open air in the land of the Hobbits, Frodo and the hobbits were included in the ears who might hear the song, so the intention was different.
Though Gildor says that he was unaware of any hobbits nearby, he doesn’t have to know that Frodo was there specifically in order to be open to being overheard by the Shire generally.
When Frodo meets Gildor, that is his first High Elf encounter ever, but having heard Bilbo’s song, he is turned back into a mortal point of view. He is more aware of the otherness of Elves.
Note: We’re not made certain that Frodo did not understand the Elvish when it is sung this time. This could reflect Frodo’s choice to give the reader a chance to hear Elvish poetry in the original Sindarin. He might switch languages in order to highlight the differences in settings.
There are two sentences, complete with punctuation. The “A” before Elbereth’s name sounds like a direct invocation. This might be the equivalent of the English “O’”.
The capitalizations seem to follow English syntactic rules, at the beginning of sentences and for proper names, which we might not expect. That means that “Fanuilos” is also a proper name.
The repetition of the words in the final line sounds like a formulaic ending for a prayer or hymn.
The use of English conventions makes this look less alien, and invites us to engage with the poem, while still retaining its strangeness, such as in the unusual rhyme scheme.
However, this rhyme scheme is closer to Hobbit rhyming couplets than the Eärendil poem.
On the literal translation from the Elvish:
This English translation was provided by J.R.R. Tolkien to Donald Swann when he did his musical adaptation in the 1960’s.
This translation is not trying to be poetic or retain the rhythm or rhyme. It is only a literal translation of each word in the poem.
This is like Bible translations, in which some are literally translated from the original languages, and others are written interpreting the original text into meaningful modern English sentences.
In doing this, Tolkien is saying that the poetry is in the original Elvish version, not the translation.
There are many Elvish phonemes and morphemes in the poem that will become more familiar as we are exposed to more Sindarin language and their English translations.
Fanuilos is translated in Frodo’s head as “Snow White”, though it’s not translated here.
So, instead of providing a true translation with interpretation, this is a key for learning Elvish.
Elbereth and the stars are being compared to one another, though there is no active verb.
It’s in the second sentence that we get the action of the poem, which is the singing to Elbereth, as well as the condition of the singers, being separated from Elbereth by a great distance.
There is a sense of being trapped in a net in describing the trees of the Middle-lands, which also make it hard to see the light of Elbereth’s stars.
This poem is a companion piece to Bilbo’s song, in that his song was of a mortal in Elvish lands, while this gives us the perspective of the exiled Elves living in mortal lands.
There is also a contrast between the darkening trees of Middle-earth and the Two Trees of Valinor, which gave light to the lands.
In the awareness of the distance between the Elves and Elbereth, there is the element of faith in still continuing to sing to her.
