The Shores of Faëry is a poem written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 8-9 July, 1915. It was first published in Carpenter's Biography, the earliest and unrevised version.[1] All revised versions included a short prose preface, written shortly after.[2]:262 The Old English title was Ielfalandes Strand (The Shores of Elfland).[2]:271
Prose preface
Eärendel the Wanderer who beat about the Oceans of the World in his white ship Wingelot sat long while his old age upon the Isle of Seabirds in the Northern Waters ere he set forth upon a last voyage.
He passed Taniquetil and even Valinor, and drew his bark over the bar at the margin of the world, and launched it on the Oceans of the Firmament. Of his ventures there no man has told, save that hunted by the orbed Moon he fled back to Valinor, and mounting the towers of Kôr upon the rocks of Eglamar he gazed back upon the Oceans of the World. To Eglamar he comes ever at plenilune when the Moon sails a-harrying beyond Taniquetil and Valinor.
Poem excerpt
East of the Moon, west of the Sun
there stands a lonely hill;
its feet are in the pale green sea,
its towers are white and still,
beyond Taniquetil
in Valinor.
See also
- Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast
- The Bidding of the Minstrel
- The Happy Mariners
- Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien
References
- ↑ Humphrey Carpenter (1977). J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, pp. 76-77
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, "V. The Tale of Eärendel"