LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 09 - At the Sign of the Prancing Pony

[HerenIstarion]

Some points (and again to go along with poems)

The Cow in the Moon poem is light hearted, but it adds up to foundations of old mythology which is guessed, but never fully seen at the roots of LoTR. There is direct references, which may have not been understood by hobbits themselves, but are there nevertheless

The stress falls on Man in the Moon and Sun as she:

The round Moon rolled behind the hill
as the Sun raised up her head.
She hardly believed her fiery eyes;
For though it was day, to her surprise
they all went back to bed!

cf:

The maiden whom the Valar chose from among the Maiar to guide the vessel of the Sun was named Arien, and he that steered the island of the Moon was Tilion

Such an undirect hint, inside an old folklore convinces me more then if Tolkien stated openly (say, in conversation between some characters) in 'reality' of the world I'm reading through.

I doubt, of course, that Arien really cared about bree drunkards going to bed in the morning, though . And yet, later on Legolas states:

I have not brought the Sun. She is walking in the blue fields of the South, and a little wreath of snow on this Redhorn hillock troubles her not at all

So Arien may care for doings down there, after all (logical chain - she does not care about this here hillock - so she may care about something else?) And such a lore is also expressed in 'lowly' hobbit lore - Sun cares for what goes below in general, and in Bree in particular.

I don't intend to tell you Man in the Moon really got drunk in the inn, but again - the principle does not contradict the whole 'truth' of the ME - Tilion is a maia, and there were historical precedents of maiar living among Children - Melian!

Again, what once was lore is now folklore. Or, again and again, hobbit poems are always more then they seem , even the most 'silly' ones

cheers