I forgot to mention the most important (to me) - and most expensive! - of my book purchases, as it wasn't in the stack waiting for a space on my shelf, but on my piano. It's The Road Goes Ever On, with Donald Swann's music to Tolkien's poems. There's even a CD included with this new edition, but I'm working my way through the book to get a first impression on my own before listening to it. Maybe I'll write a review of it then - I don't recall that anyone has done that yet, though it's been mentioned and I assume I'm not the only one here who has it.
From what I've tried so far (and no, I'm not a singer, though I have enjoyed accompanying them on the piano - my playing is definitely better than my singing!) I would say that they're not the kind of popular melodies Peter Jackson would have incorporated in the movies. They follow the classical art song tradition, similar to Schubert's songs, perhaps. More later...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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