Very cool! Three tunes 'stead of just one. Guess it's time for me to get off my butt and learn that MIDI-Text converter program so I can hear the three tunes.

Yes, I can read the dots, and I can (a little anyway) read ABC, but it'll be easier to compare and decide which I like by actually hearing them. And, yes, regardless of being able to read the dots and (a little anyway) read ABC, *learning* the tune is easier when I hear it. *G*

Dave and JD,

I would hesitate to claim that he "wrote songs". Up toward the top of this thread, Clinton Hammond described Prof T singing ("sining"???) Namarie and the recording by Swan. While I've never heard either, I *have* heard several other people agree with Clinton's assessment: that Prof T couldn't sing to save his life and didn't exactly have much taste in music.

However, it's very clear that THIS poem was intended as a song. In The Prancing Pony, Frodo is called on for a song. He stands on the table and sings it. When the locals call for it again (to learn it?), he gets to the climax (about the second or third to last verse) and is dancing slightly to the tune, when he falls off the table. His hand in his pocket slips into the ring and he vanishes in front of the entire barroom crowd.

After the four hobbits return from Gondor after the war, they stop in the Prancing Pony on their way from Rivendell to the Shire. The locals ask about where they've been and what has happened. Toward the end of the night, someone who WASN'T at the Pony the first night calls for a song ... and is quickly hushed by everyone else, who obviously do NOT care for a repeat of "the vanishing Mr. Baggins". *LOL*

Thanks again for the tunes! Now to go pick the one *I* like the best *G*

BB, NightWing