
Originally Posted by
Dwarendele
Does anyone know if the tale “The Last Prince” that is attributed to Barliman Butterbur in the quest The Search for Lalia is based on any poems or short tales that Tolkien wrote either in canon or versions in HoMe?
I have found:
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
nevermore to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand
over dead sea and withered land.
Though this doesn't seem to be the type of tale that would inspire a curious hobbit lass to run off on a dangerous quest seeking a prince.
Indeed it does not, particularly when this poem is spoken by a barrow-wight! Frodo heard this “incantation” as he lie in the barrow alongside his four companions with a sword lying across their chests. (See the chapter ‘Fog on the Barrow-downs’ in The Fellowship of the Ring.)
Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold. – J.R.R. Tolkien, ‘On Fairy-Stories’.