Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens)

Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens) is a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien that was given by Tolkien as a gift to his secretary Joy Hill in 1968.
== History ==
Bilbo Baggins sings the poem at the harbour of the Grey Havenshttp://tolkien.cro.net/talesong/lastsong.html, as he is about to set sail on the sea following the Straight Road to the Undying Lands. Although it was never written into the last chapter of , this places the reading of this poem by Bilbo at this point in the story.
== Poem ==
Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.
Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.
Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!
== In other versions ==
=== Vestr um Haf ===
The poem was originally written by Tolkien in the 1920s or 1930s as a composition in Old Norse entitled Vestr um haf ("West over sea"). This version had no connection to the legendarium.: "Reader's Guide", pgs. 107-8, entry Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens))
=== Revisions and background ===
Tolkien eventually rewrote the poem to be about Bilbo between November of 1944, when he envisioned the ending of The Lord of the Rings, and October of 1968, when Joy Hill, Tolkien's secretary, rediscovered it in a pile of books while helping him set up his new office. On September 3rd of 1970, Tolkien gifted the poem and it copyright to her as a gift for her assistance as his secretary.
Notably, the original version of the poem presented to Joy Hill ends with the words "your mast", whereas in Pauline Baynes' illustrated poster, it instead ends with the words "my mast". This could be an error on Baynes' part.
After Tolkien's death in 1973, the poem was first published by published by Houghton Mifflin as a poster in April of 1974. Allen & Unwin also published it as a poster in September of 1974 which was illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Around that time, Hill showed the poem to Donald Swann, who set it to music and included it in the second edition of The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle in 1978.
Houghton Mifflin republished the poem in 1990 as a 32-paged full color picture-book, which was re-illustrated by Baynes with almost fifty paintings.http://greenbooks.theonering.net/turgon/files/100102_01.html A second and third edition was published by Allen & Unwin and Dragonfly Books respectively in 1992.http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/booksbytolkien/bilbolastsong/description.htm and a few others like Riverwood Publishing Inchttp://isbndb.com/book/bilbos_last_song_a09.
Upon Hill's death in 1991, the copyright was given to the Order of the Holy Paraclete. Baynes's illustrations for the poem were not included in the bequeathing to the Order, but were given to the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford upon her death in 2008.Wayne G. Hammond, Christina Scull, "Bilbo's Last Song and the Order of the Holy Paraclete (message 25132)"
==Inspiration==
The tone of the poem invokes Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1889 poem Crossing the Bar.
==In adaptations==
The song is included in the BBC's 1981 radio version of The Lord of the Rings, with the music performed by Stephen Oliver. John Le Mesurier, who plays Bilbohttp://www.sf-worlds.com/lotr/bbc-1981/ chants the first verse but not the second verse, and the third verse was sung by a boy in soprano.
In 1996 the song was recorded by the Dutch Tolkien Society band The Hobbitons, with permission from the Tolkien Estate, for their CD J.R.R. Tolkien's Songs from Middle-earth.Archive on 10-Dec-2002 of "The Hobbitons"
There is no reference to the song in Peter Jackson's (2003). The film's distributor, New Line Cinema, was probably not licensed to use the poem as necessitated by the applicable copyright laws. The movie's closing credits are accompanied by the original song "Into the West", sung by Annie Lennox, meant to have similar emotional resonance.
== References ==
== External links ==
*Bilbo's Last Song Text of the poem Bilbo's Last Song a link to text at tolkien.cro.net
== Translations ==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Bilbo se laaste liedjiee
Albanian 	Kënga e Fundit e Bilbos
Amharic 	ቢልቦ የመጨረሻው ዘፈን
Arabic 	أغنية بيلبو الأخيرة
Armenian 	Բիլբո-ի վերջին երգը
Azerbaijani 	Bilboın Son Şarkısı
Belarusian Cyrillic	Більба Апошняя песня
Bengali 	বিল্ব এর শেষ গান
Bosnian 	Bilbova posljednja pjesma
Bulgarian Cyrillic 	Последната песен на Билбо
Catalan 	Cançó darrera de Bilbo
Chinese 	比尔博的最后一首歌
Croatian 	Bilbova posljednja pjesma
Czech 	Poslední píseň Bilbo
Danish 	Bilbos sidste sang
Dutch 	Bilbo's Laatste Lied
Esperanto 	La lasta kanto de Bilbo
Estonian 	Bilbo viimane laul
Finnish 	Bilbon viimeinen laulu
French 	La dernière chanson de Bilbon
Frisian 	Bilbo's Lêst Liet
Galician 	Última Canción de Bilbo
Georgian 	ბილბოს უკანასკნელი სიმღერა
German 	Bilbos Abschiedslied
Greek 	Το τελευταίο τραγούδι του Μπίλμπο
Gujarati 	બિલ્બોની છેલ્લી ગીત
Hawaiian 	Ke Mele hope loa o Bilbo
Hebrew 	השיר האחרון של בילבו
Hindi 	बिलबो का अंतिम गीत
Hmong 	Bilbo tag los zaj kwv txhiaj
Hungarian 	Bilbo utolsó dala
Icelandic 	Síðasta söngur Bilbo
Indonesian 	Lagu terakhir Bilbo's
Irish Gaelic 	An t-amhrán Deireanach de Bilbo
Italian 	L'ultima canzone di Bilbo
Japanese 	ビルボの最後の歌
Javanese 	Lagu Terakhir Bilbo
Kannada 	ಬಿಲ್ಬೋನ ಕೊನೆಯ ಹಾಡು
Kazakh 	Билбоның соңғы әні (Cyrillic) Bïlbonıñ soñğı äni (Latin)
Korean 	빌보의 마지막 노래
Kyrgyz Cyrillic 	Билбао акыркы ыр
Latvian 	Bilbo pēdējā dziesma
Lithuanian 	Bilbo paskutinė daina
Macedonian Cyrillic	Последната песна на Билбо
Malaysian 	Lagu terakhir Bilbo's
Maltese 	Bilbo-aħħar kanzunetta
Mongolian Cyrillic 	Билбогийн сүүлчийн дуу
Nepalese 	बिबोबोको अन्तिम गीत
Norwegian 	Bilbos siste sang
Persian 	آخرین آهنگ بیلبو
Polish 	Ostatnia piosenka Bilbo
Portuguese 	Última canção de Bilbo
Punjabi 	ਬਿਲਬੋ ਦੇ ਆਖਰੀ ਗੀਤ
Romanian 	Ultima melodie a lui Bilbo
Russian 	Последняя песня Бильбо
Scottish Gaelic 	An t-òran mu dheireadh aig Bilbo
Serbian 	Билбоова последња песма (Cyrillic) Bilboova poslednja pesma (Latin)
Sindhi 	بلبو جو آخري گيت ?
Sinhalese 	බිල්බො ගේ අවසාන ගීතය
Slovak 	Bilboovej Posledný Pieseň
Slovenian 	Bilbojeva zadnja pesem
Somalian 	Bilbo gabaygii ugu dambeeyay
Spanish 	La última canción de Bilbo
Sundanese 	Bilbo urang Song Tukang
Swahili 	Wimbo wa mwisho wa Bilbo
Swedish 	Bilbos sista sång
Tajik Cyrillic 	Суруди охирини Билбо
Tamil 	பில்வோவின் கடைசி பாடல்
Telugu 	బిలబో స్ చివరి సాంగ్
Thai 	เพลงสุดท้ายของบิลโบ
Turkish 	Bilbo 'nun son şarkısı
Ukrainian Cyrillic 	Остання пісня Більбо
Urdu 	سروہی کی آخری گیت
Uzbek 	Билбо нинг сўнгги қўшиғи (Cyrillic) Bilbo ning so'nggi qo'shig'i (Latin)
Vietnamese 	Bilbo của bài hát cuối
Welsh 	Cân olaf Bilbo
Yiddish 	בילבאָ ס לעצט ליד
Category:Books
Category:Middle-earth source literature
Category:Poems by J.R.R. Tolkien
Category:Primary literature
nl:Bilbo’s Laatste Lied (in de Grijze Havens)
ru:Последняя песня Бильбо