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With that introduction began an association which quickly developed into a warm friendship which would last for the remainder of Tolkien’s life. After their first meeting in late May 1965 it seems Tolkien was pleased, even flattered, to have his songs set to music by Swann, and for the most part approved of the music, but had had a different type of melody in mind for Galadriel’s lament, Namárië, and hummed a Gregorian chant, which Swann developed into the new melody. Almost a year later in the spring of 1966, Swann and the baritone, William Elvin, gave a perfor- mance of the songs in Tolkien’s rooms at Merton in celebration of the Tolkiens’ golden wedding anniversary. Later that year, whilst on a USA tour, Swann mentioned the songs to Austin Olney of Houghton Mifflin, who was enthusiastic about the prospect of publishing the works as a song cycle. Whilst Swann’s perspective was mostly musical and Olney’s commercial, Tolkien, whose involve- ment in this project was to extend well beyond the original composition of the poems, was pri- marily concerned with language. Language, its expression and development, had been a lifelong fascination for Tolkien both professionally as a philologist and as an author of fiction. The tales of Middle Earth, for which he is now famous, have their genesis in the family of Elvish languages that he began to construct in his teens and developed further in the 1930s, from which grew the history and sociolinguistics which in turn begat the legendarium into which he fitted the stories of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Swann had chosen two poems in Elvish and it quickly became apparent that these would need Tolkien’s assistance with pronunciation and metre, both to aid the composer and any performer. At various points throughout their correspondence Tolkien offers instruction for performance and also context for the language and its place in the The Lord of the Rings narrative. This, Tolkien refined and adapted into the essay which makes up the commentary for The Road Goes Ever On , the original manuscript for which is included here. The Manuscript 1. Tolkien’s original calligraphic manuscript for the poem, “Namárie” or Galadriel’s Lament, 13 lines and two lines of title in black and red calligraphy on one page. Used as the dustwrapper design for the front cover of The Road Goes Ever On . 2. Tolkien’s original calligraphic manuscript for the poem, “A Elbereth Gilthoniel”, five lines plus a two lines title in black and red calligraphy on one page. Used as the dustwrapper design for the rear cover of The Road Goes Ever On . 3. The original holograph manuscript for Tolkien’s Notes and Translations section: 13 pages on eight leaves of closely written autograph manuscript (approx 4000 words in total), plus two pages in facsimile providing a translation and commentary on the two Elvish poems. ‘Namárië’, which appears on p.394 of The Fellowship of the Ring , where it is sung by Galadriel to Frodo as he leaves Lothórien, is her wistful hope that he will reach the Undying Lands of the West, from which she was banished years ago. It is the longest piece that Tolkien wrote in Quenya, the language of the clans of High Elves, the Noldor and the Vanyar, who left Middle Earth for Eldarmar. It is symbolic of the high status of the Elves, the first born race of Middle Earth. By the Third Age, the time of the setting of The Lord of the Rings , Quenya had become an archaic language learned for academic purposes (Tolkien referred to it as Elf-latin). It is Galadriel’s native tongue. Tolkien’s commentary gives a literal translation into English and also some context to the song’s composition in the history of Middle Earth, “After the destruction of the Two Trees, and the flight from Valinor of the revolting Eldar [high elves], Varda lifted up her hands, in obedience to the decree of Manwe, and summoned up the dark shadows which engulfed the shores and the moun- tains and last of all the fana (figure) of Varda, with her hands turned eastward in rejection, stand- ing white upon Oilosse.” The importance of Galadriel’s part in this, “She was the last survivor
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