Songs for the Philologists is a collection of poems by E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien as well as traditional songs.[1] It is the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related book. Originally a collection of typescripts compiled by Gordon in 1921–1926 for the students of the University of Leeds, it was given by A. H. Smith of University College London, a former student at Leeds, to a group of students to be printed privately in 1935 or 1936, and printed in 1936 with the impressum "Printed by G. Tillotson, A. H. Smith, B. Pattison and other members of the English Department, University College, London."
Since Smith had not asked permission of either Gordon or Tolkien, the printed booklets were not distributed. Most copies were destroyed in a fire, and only a few, perhaps around 14, survived. The book is accordingly "extremely rare", according to the University of Leeds, which has a copy.[2]
5 "Bagmē Blōma" (Gothic: Flower of the Trees), to the tune of "Lazy Sheep" (by Mantle Childe, after an old French air). The poem displays Tolkien's love of trees, and of language.[4]
--- Reprinted, with a Modern English translation in The Road to Middle-Earth[3]
Þa ofer wídne gársecg wéow unwidre ceald,
Sum hagusteald on lagu féoll on nicera geweald.
He legde lást swa fýres gnást, he snúde on sunde fléah,
Oþþæt he métte meremenn déopan grunde néah.
When the cold blast was blowing across the broad ocean,
a young man fell overboard, into the power of nixies.
As fast as fire he made his way, he swam along so quickly –
until he met the mermen near the deep sea-bottom.
Oh 'twas in the broad Atlantic, mid the equinoctial gales
That a young fellow fell overboard among the sharks and whales
And down he went as a streak of light, so quickly down went he
Until he came to a mermaid at the bottom of the deep blue sea
8 "La Húru", to the tune of "O'Reilly".
9 "I Sat upon a Bench", to the tune of "The Carrion Crow".
10 "Natura Apis: Morali Ricardi Eremite", also to the tune of "O'Reilly".
11 "The Root of the Boot", to the tune of "The Fox Went Out".
--- Reprinted in Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit, and in revised form in The Return of the Shadow. Reprinted in The Tolkien Papers: Mankato Studies in English. Revised and printed in The Lord of the Rings and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil as 'The Stone Troll'. The manuscript is archived at the University of Leeds.[5] The song's irregular strophic metre[6] and rhyming scheme are those of the 15th century folk song "The fox went out on a winter's night"; Tolkien used the same scheme for the two "lays" (narrative poems) published in his Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.[7]
13 "Lit' and Lang'", to the tune of "Polly Put the Kettle On". In the Department of English at the University of Oxford where Tolkien worked, teaching was divided into two streams. "Lit'" meant "English Literature", i.e. the study of works from Shakespeare to modern times, whereas "Lang'" meant "English Language", meaning the philological study of Old English texts such as Beowulf, and Middle English, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien and Gordon were philologists and firmly in the "Lang'" camp, but they could see that it was dying out.
First verse of "Lit' and Lang'"
Once there were two little groups,
Called Lit' and Lang'.
Lit' was lazy till she died,
Of homophenes.
'I don't like philology',
Poor Lit' said. Psychotherapeutics failed,
And now she's dead.
The remaining songs
The remaining 17 songs were:
1 Grace. To be sung to the tune of "The King of France".
2 Fara Með Víkingum. [Icelandic: To go with the Vikings] By Egill Skallagrímsson. Tolkien and Gordon had started a "Viking Club" at the University of Leeds, where they and their students sang songs and drank beer.[8][2] The Leeds philologist Alaric Hall stated in 2015 that the tradition still continued in the department.[9]
Þat mælti mín móðir,
at mér skyldi kaupa
fley ok fagrar árar,
fara á brott með víkingum,
standa upp í stafni,
stýra dýrum knerri,
halda svá til hafnar
höggva mann ok annan.
Thus counselled my mother,
For me should they purchase
A galley and good oars
To go forth a-roving [lit. would be "with Vikings"].
So may I high-standing,
A noble barque steering,
Hold course for the haven,
Hew down many foemen.
5 Björt Mey Og Hrein. [Icelandic] Translation of a Polish folk song by Stefán Ólafsson
6 Rokkvísa. [Icelandic: Song about rocks]
7 Ólafur Liljurós. [Icelandic: a man's name]. The folk song tells of a man who meets an Elvish maiden.
First verse of "Ólafur Liljurós"
Icelandic
Translation
Ólafur reið með björgum fram
Villir hann
Stillir hann
Hitti'hann fyrir sér álfarann
Þar rauður logi brann
Blíðan lagði byrinn undan björgunum.
Ólafur rode with hills ahead
He was lost
He was calm
He found before him an elf's abode
There a red flame burnt
Gentle blew the breeze from the hills ahead.
8 Gaudeamus. [Latin: Let us rejoice]
9 Icelandic Song [Það liggur svo makalaust]. [Icelandic: It's so incomparable] To be sung to the tune of "O' Reilly". By Bjarni Þorsteinsson
10 Su Klukka Heljar. [Icelandic: That Bell of Hell] To be sung to the tune of "The Bells of Hell". By E. V. Gordon