And Now, For the Rest of the Poem - Page 5
© Michael Martinez
But "Errantry" is so powerful, and "Lay of Leithian" so compelling, that they were destined for a greatness which, if the critics of the twentieth century had known of them in the 1930s, would have humbled the mightiest of opinions. One can only imagine the piffles and poffs which would have been uttered over useless attempts to fabricate a past which never was.
But the poetry proved to be greater than both Tolkien's despair and the critics' objections. "Errantry" forged paths Tolkien never dreamed he would follow, and inevitably "Lay of Leithian" followed behind it, for "Lay of Leithian" touched The Lord of the Rings, too. The Lord of the Rings offers glimpses of both stories, and draws them both into itself, enriching the world of Middle-earth and expanding its depth with details which pre-existed its own story. That never would have happened if Tolkien had not shared his tri-syllabic ingenuity with a few friends one evening many years before.
And now, as the legendary commentator Paul Harvey might say, you know the rest of the poem....
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