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

[davem]

Originally Posted by H-I

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

Its interesting that the poems always seem not just to be inspired by, but also to 'expand' the context in which they appear - Frodo's poem about woods failing in the Old Forest, Frodo's song here, Sam's Troll Song, Bilbo's song of Earendel at Rivendell, etc. They open up the mythological dimension - even if we don't realise it. This is why I think those readers who skip the poems miss a lot of the depth of the story.

Somehow songs are a means of transmitting old lore & keeping it alive & relevant. They keep the past alive in the present, linking past & present, almost in the way past & present are linked by experiences like Merry's in the last chapter.