'Music, Myth, and Literary Depth in the "Land ohne Musik"', Gregory Martin

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

Nice to have you on this thread, mark.

I was interested in what you had to say here:

We have a possibility of reading Gondorian humour in one poem, said by Tolkien to be from the Red Book: The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, the 'ancestor' of our nursery rhyme. The 'editor' of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the published 'collection' in which it appears, suggests that this poem and The Last Ship

must be derived ultimately from Gondor. They are evidently based on the traditions of Men, living in shore-lands and familiar with rivers running into the Sea.

In this first poem, the Man in the Moon comes down in 'the windy Bay of Bel'; there is the tolling of a bell in the Sea-ward Tower (Tirith Aear) or Dol Amroth; and he recovers at an inn in the city, after the greedy innkeeper has stripped him of his valuables.

It is reasonable to conclude that, while the poem was recorded by hobbits, it was of Gondorian origin. I'm sure that this was because the former found the humour in the poem to be similar to their own. We saw that Pippin got on very well with ordinary Gondorians.

...and the Hobbitons have a version of that song too-- one of my other favorites. Have you heard it? You must, you must. Great song.

So-- all right, I had missed (or long forgotten ) that that song was gondorian in origin. Fair enough...

"He twinkled his feet at the thought of the meat..." always makes my son laugh and giggle and repeat "he twinkled his feet... hee hee hee.". I laugh at the part that says "He tripped unaware on a slanting stair, and like a meteor ..."

[Faramir Jones]

Originally Posted by mark12_30

...and the Hobbitons have a version of that song too-- one of my other favorites. Have you heard it? You must, you must. Great song.

So-- all right, I had missed (or long forgotten ) that that song was gondorian in origin. Fair enough...

"He twinkled his feet at the thought of the meat..." always makes my son laugh and giggle and repeat "he twinkled his feet... hee hee hee.". I laugh at the part that says "He tripped unaware on a slanting stair, and like a meteor ..."

I must check that version of the song out...

My favourite bit is the punchline at the end:

For puddings of Yule with plums, poor fool,
He arrived so much too soon:
An unwary guest on a lunatic quest
From the Mountains of the Moon.

I personally think that there's a joke in Tolkien's use of 'lunatic' as an adjective. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as

Originally, affected with the kind of insanity that was supposed to have recurring periods dependent on the changes of the moon. In mod. use, synonymous with INSANE; current in popular and legal language, but not now employed technically by physicians.

It was derived from 'luna', the Latin for moon. I don't think it's a coincidence that Tolkien used a moon-derived word to describe a mad scheme of the Moon's most famous resident.