Bilbo's Last Song!

I think it's all too appropriate to wrap up my look into the works of J.R.R. Tolkien than to offer up Bilbo's Last Song. Pauline Baynes was a British artist who famously illustrated both Tolkien's and his Inkling ally C.S. Lewis's Narnia works. Her work has a lightness and gentility which is well suited to these works of high imagination. She began to draw images of Middle-Earth in 1948 when she was contracted to illustrate Farmer Giles of Ham, one of Tolkien's adult fairy stories. Tolkien much admired her artwork and requested she work on his lighter works. At one point her work was deemed to light-hearted for the heavy themes of The Lord of the Rings. But circumstances gave her the chance for her to create three posters for Tolkien's works. 

The first two were maps made with the assistance of cartographers. The first was "A Map of Middle-Earth" which shows the land with key characters showcased in circles on the side and in top and bottom bands. The second was "There and Back Again - A Map of Bilbo's Journey through Eriador and Rhovanian".

BILBO'S LAST SONG

(At the Grey Havens)

Day is ended, dim my eyes

but journey long before me lies. 

Farewell friend! I hear the call. 

The ship's beside the stony wall.

Foam is white and waves are grey;

Beyond the sunset leads my way. 

Foam is salt, the wind is free;

I hear the rising of the Sea. 

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,

the wind is east, the moorings fret.

Shadows long before me lie,

beneath the ever-bending sky,

but islands lie behind the Sun

that I shall raise ere all is done;

lands there are to west of West,

where night is quiet and sleep is rest. 

Guided by the Lonely Star,

beyond the utmost harbour-bar,

I'll find the heavens fair and free,

and beaches of the Starlit Sea.

Ship, my ship! I seek the West, 

and fields and mountains ever blest.

Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.

I see the Star above my mast! 

- J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien passed away September 2nd, 1973. Baynes produced her final poster in 1974 and it serves wonderfully as a farewell to the man who created one of the magnificent works of fantasy of the 20th Century, and of all time perhaps. Pauline Baynes passed on in 2008, and if you'd like a look at other work by this remarkable talent, check out this link. 

Tomorrow it's a new month and the Dojo turns to new things. 

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