LotR -- Book 6 - Chapter 9 - The Grey Havens

[HerenIstarion]

Originally Posted by davem

It seems he was expecting the Elven Host - though we’re not told how he knew the time & place of the meeting

Elrond told him few chapters back:

For about this time of the year, when the leaves are gold before they fall, look for Bilbo in the woods of the Shire. I shall be with him.’

Truly, this is not exact instruction, not at all. But now I have something (three somethings, to be precise) to propose (all utterly 'unbacked up', of course):

1. May it be that Frodo was somewhat trained in Osanwe Kenta (remember Galadriel mentioning he began to 'see with a keen eye' in Mirror of Galadriel) by his Burden?

2. May it be that all parties involved just paid heed to significance of dates for Frodo and Bilbo and choose (once again) their birthday for a meeting date?

3. Or maybe the explanation is quite trivial, and some elven company wandering in Woody End made a detour to warn him beforehand.

As for the verse:

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

It is also interesting to compare with what Frodo sang in Book I, Three Is Company:

Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.

The day is much nearer than in version 1 - than it was removed to some unidentified future, now it is concrete - tomorrow here seems literaly tomorrow - and indeed, few days after Frodo leaves Middle Earth forever (read: dies for those who are left on Hither shore). Here, like in elven song, he refers to Past as to the Future - and life is limited to 'today', which slips inevitably into the Future ('tomorrow') and leaves life in the past.

Also in Book 1 Frodo seems himself unaware of hidden meaning of the song in Book I (all those 'Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight' etc), but now his singing is conscious.