Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien

Subject: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 07:42 PM

Wondering if anyone sings songs from Tolkien? I like this one ... a song composed by Bilbo Baggins and sung by Frodo at the Prancing Pony at Bree at the start of the journey.

'Merry Inn' Song

There is an inn, a merry old inn
beneath an old grey hill,
And there they brew a beer so brown
That the Man in the Moon himself came down
one night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat
that plays a five-stringed fiddle;
And up and down he runs his bow,
Now squeaking high, now purring low,
now sawing in the middle.

The landlord keeps a little dog
that is mighty fond of jokes;
When there's good cheer among the guests,
He cocks an ear at all the jests
and laughs until he chokes.

They also keep a hornéd cow
as proud as any queen;
But music turns her head like ale,
And makes her wave her tufted tail
and dance upon the green.

And O! the rows of silver dishes
and the store of silver spoons!
For Sunday there's a special pair,
And these they polish up with care
on Saturday afternoons.

The Man in the Moon was drinking deep,
and the cat began to wail;
A dish and a spoon on the table danced,
The cow in the garden madly pranced,
and the little dog chased his tail.

The Man in the Moon took another mug,
and rolled beneath his chair;
And there he dozed and dreamed of ale,
Till in the sky the stars were pale,
and dawn was in the air.

Then the ostler said to his tipsy cat:
"The white horses of the Moon,
They neigh and champ their silver bits;
But their master's been and drowned his wits,
and the Sun'll be rising soon!"

So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,
a jig that would wake the dead:
He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,
While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:
"It's after three!" he said.

They rolled the Man slowly up the hill
and bundled him into the Moon,
While his horses galloped up in rear,
And the cow came capering like a deer,
and a dish ran up with the spoon.

Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle;
the dog began to roar,
The cow and the horses stood on their heads;
The guests all bounded from their beds
and danced upon the floor.

With a ping and a pang the fiddle-strings broke!
the cow jumped over the Moon,
And the little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the Saturday dish went off at a run
with the silver Sunday spoon.

The round Moon rolled behind the hill,
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her suprise
they all went back to bed.

===

But what was the tune?

===

From:

http://tolkien.cro.net/talesong/merryinn.html

===

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Aug 17 - 08:24 PM

Not exactly the same lyrics, but here's one rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX--cEl3BWw

And another:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kj0P5SdiaY

Not a good recording, but here's Ian Holm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL86nsyV5HM

One more, by Broceliande:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixnnAb0SLOo

There's no agreement on melodies. Neither Tolkien nor Frodo provided one.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: michaelr
Date: 02 Aug 17 - 01:49 AM

How much of that was Tolkien's invention? Surely the "cow jumped over the moon" preceded him?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: BobL
Date: 02 Aug 17 - 02:54 AM

Of course it did! Old nursery rhyme. Tolkien, however, devised the back story.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 02 Aug 17 - 06:04 PM

The tune that I am familiar with (and have been known to perform occasionally) came, I think, from Ken Langsbury. It's in a rollicking 6/8 and seems to me better than any of those linked to above, though that may be partly an instance of perceiving the version that one met first as the "right" version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: GUEST,Anne Lister sans cookie
Date: 02 Aug 17 - 06:11 PM

I did a version of this to the tune of the morris Princess Royal (slightly adapted).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Aug 17 - 05:48 AM

Donald Swann (Of 'Flanders and Swann) had an Argo 12 inch vinyl way back with Tales of Tom Bobadil on one side , and all the Elvish songs (In Elvish) on the other . Might be worth looking for

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 03 Aug 17 - 02:56 PM

michaelr

How much of that was Tolkien's invention? Surely the "cow jumped over the moon" preceded him?




That must have been Bilbo's bit then!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: Stewart
Date: 03 Aug 17 - 08:16 PM

In 1972 I sang "The Road Goes Ever On," a song cycle by Donald Swann - Words by J. R. R. Tolkien (from "The Lord of the Rings")

The words and the complete recording is here

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: CupOfTea
Date: 04 Aug 17 - 09:46 AM

I'e got that song cycle book from the 70s with the cover illustration adapted from the Ballentine paperback volumes of LOTR. With everything written out on multiple staves, I copied, trimmed and pasted up a version of "I sit Beside the Fire" so I could learn it, then realized it depresses me too much. It would be great to have some happier songs from Tolkien to sing.

A few years back, a friend gave me recordings (digital) of a radio show called "Celtic Sunday Brunch" that had done a pair of episodes about Tolkien- inspired music. He looked up some of the featured artists and got an album from one group. I've a vague recollection that one of the ones I liked was a chantey-sounding dwarvish drinking song by a group from a Scandanavian country.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Frodo's Drinking Song - Tolkien
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 18 Dec 17 - 09:47 AM

Professor - that is a mighty fine collection - well done!

Thank you for sharing.c

You are on the same campus as the delightful professor of fun philosophy Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (He profoundly impacted my life through the study of "between boredom and anxiety."

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

there is a typo on your home-page check the letter n in Chemestry Prof