I agree that this chapter is more a conclusion of Book I than the beginning of Book II. According to my calender, there were five months between tehg publishing of FotR and TT. That's not too long to wait (certainly not as long as the poor Robert Jordan fans wait on a cliffhanger).
Since the movie has been discussed, I thought there were some very interesting deviations from the book in this scene. Most importantly, everyone in the fellowship realizes that Frodo has to go on by himself, and Merry and Pippin even heroically offer themselves up as a distraction to allow Frodo to escape the Isengard Ureks. Well done, PJ.
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Originally Posted by davem
And that brings me to my final point - the funeral song. They didn’t actually sing that, did they?
Well, how could they? Make up a song, metre perfect, on the spur of the moment. I think what we have here is something added in to the tale afterwards. The truth’ has been mythologised. We know they must have simply expressed their grief at the time & only when the tale came to be written down was the song (possibly composed at a later date in Gondor, possibly by Bilbo or Frodo) ‘inserted’. Tolkien is not writing a novel set in Middle earth, he is writing a legend of that world. History has become legend, & its the legend that we’re given here.
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I think that it's entirely likely that they composed the song on the spot. First, the probably were using a melody that they were very familliar with, and both Aragorn and Legolas were accomplished and experienced songwriters (Leggy's more of an assumption, I guess - Aragorn and Bilbo regularly composed together). Second, think about contemporary rap music (I use the m-word with reservations). Rap was originally improvised by the performer like jazz solos, and only when it became pop music did it become so produced.
Another example is done by comedians, such as Wayne Brady, who improvise a song on the spot. Granted, sometimes it's lame, but sometimes it's spot on. And Aragorn and Legolas didn't have the added pressure of trying to be funny in front of an audience.
So, in short, I think that it's not at all unrealistic to believe that they made the funeral song up on the spot.
My $0.02