Songs for the Philologists

by J.R.R. Tolkien

Blurb

Songs for the Philologists is a collection of poems by E. V. Gordon and J. R. R. Tolkien as well as traditional songs. It is the rarest and most difficult to find Tolkien-related book. Originally a collection of typescripts compiled by Gordon in 1921–26 for the students of the University of Leeds, it was given by A. H. Smith of University College London, a former student at Leeds, to a group of students to be printed privately in 1935 or 1936, and printed in 1936 with the impressuum "Printed by G. Tillotson, A. H. Smith, B. Pattison and other members of the English Department, University College, London."
Since Smith had not asked permission of either Gordon or Tolkien, the printed booklets were not distributed. Most copies were destroyed in a fire, and only a few, perhaps around 14, survived.
Of the 30 songs in the collection, 13 were contributed by Tolkien:
From One to Five, to the tune of Three Wise Men of Gotham.
Syx Mynet, to the tune of I Love Sixpence.
Ruddoc Hana, to the tune of Who Killed Cock Robin'.
Ides Ælfscýne, to the tune of Daddy Neptune. Reprinted, together with a Modern English translation in The Road to Middle-earth.

First Published

1936

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